US EditionHer kidnapped son was killed in a Gaza tunnel. A new memoir gives a searing account of her grief
The memoir traces 328 days of advocacy, grief and ritual after her son was killed by Hamas.
- Rachel Goldberg-Polin released her memoir "When We See You Again" on Tuesday, offering a visceral accounting of her grief following her son Hersh's death in August 2024.
- Hersh was among 251 people abducted by Hamas near the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, and held in Gaza for more than 300 days before being killed in August 2024.
- Separated into five parts, the book documents family life from the United States through Israel, where they moved in 2008, interspersing Goldberg-Polin's descriptions of pain and her background as a Jewish educator teaching mourning practices.
- Featured on 60 Minutes and Good Morning America, her story has reached thousands across the United States, with Goldberg-Polin stating "my why is not done" as she continues sharing her message.
- During 328 days of advocacy before Hersh's death, Goldberg-Polin met world leaders and addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; his name now appears on posters nationwide bearing Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl's words on having a "why" to live.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Slain Israeli Hostage's Mom Pens a Searing Account of Grief
When Hersh Goldberg-Polin was in the tunnels in Gaza, fellow hostages say he often quoted a line from Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl: "Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how.'" Through his long months in captivity, family and friends hoped that, like Frankl, he...
Associated Press News
Her kidnapped son was killed in a Gaza tunnel. A new memoir gives a searing account of her grief
Rachel Goldberg-Polin has written a book about her son, Hersh, who was kidnapped during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack and killed in a Gaza tunnel.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin doesn’t know if you can handle her pain
Four days before she would bury her only son, Rachel Goldberg-Polin stood at the edge of Israel, screaming toward the unforgiving territory where Hersh was being held hostage more than 50 feet underground. Her voice cracked as she called his name, her raw emotion shattering the facade of composure she had projected when speaking weeks earlier at the Democratic National Convention in her native Chicago about Hersh and the other Israeli hostages t…
In new book, Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts the before and after (and ever after) of her son’s life and death
On Oct. 10, 2023, Rachel Goldberg, an American Israeli woman from Chicago, told a roomful of reporters in Tel Aviv about her last communications —two text messages —from her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, that she had received three days prior. “The first one said, ‘I love you’ and immediately at 8:11 also it said, ‘I’m sorry,’” Goldberg said. “And so I knew immediately wherever he was, it was a terrible situation.” Hersh, she would soon learn, had …
The mother of the kidnapped man who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Rafah spoke about the book she wrote and a prophetic text her son wrote in his youth. • The interviewer, Anderson Cooper, apologized to her for publishing a video showing his kidnapping before the family knew about it.
Mother of Oct. 7 captive executed by Hamas details agonizing moments of ‘son’s last day
New York Post “When I screamed Hersh’s name, there was a cameraman in front of me who burst into tears,” Rachel told The Post. The idea was to be loud enough that Hersh, buried alive deep in the tunnels on the other side of the Gaza border, might hear. She didn’t know it would be his last day alive. The post Mother of Oct. 7 captive executed by Hamas details agonizing moments of ‘son’s last day appeared first on Olive Tree Ministries.
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