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More than 4 months in the past — on Oct. 7, 2023 — American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, hid along with his childhood good friend, Staff Sgt. Aner Shapira, 22, together with 29 different younger folks in a tiny roadside bomb shelter as Hamas terrorists stormed the Supernova music pageant in southern Israel.
At daybreak, rockets went off and armed terrorists descended upon the Negev desert from motorized paragliders.
They raped girls and massacred some 1,200 folks in Israel that day, together with 367 of the over 3,000 individuals who attended the pageant.
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Goldberg-Polin despatched his mom, Rachel Goldberg, two textual content messages that morning, his mom informed Fox News Digital. One stated, “I love you,” and the opposite stated, “I’m sorry.”
Goldberg informed Fox News Digital in a telephone interview lately, “He was simply beginning his life. We pray to God he will come house.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was injured and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Fox News Digital lately spoke to his mom, Rachel Goldberg, who stated, “We pray to God he’s going to come home.” (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
It’s her faith that is saved her going by means of the toughest of instances, she revealed in a generally emotional interview.
‘A different universe’
Goldberg and her husband live in Israel (they were both born and raised in Chicago). They have three children — their son Hersh was born in California. The family moved to Israel when he was nearly eight years old.
She’d seen her son in Jerusalem the night before the act of terrorism, at a Shabbat dinner after synagogue, Goldberg recounted.
“Around 11 p.m., he kissed me, and he kissed my husband, and he said, ‘Love you guys. See you tomorrow.’”
She discovered the grim particulars of what occurred to her son and his good friend from 4 survivors who have been trapped beneath lifeless our bodies in the identical bomb shelter as her son.
When the terrorists threw hand grenades into the shelter, Shapira heroically threw seven of them again out. But the eighth exploded in his fingers — killing him.
This picture created from undated bodycam video footage taken by a downed Hamas terrorist and launched by Israel Defense Forces reveals a Hamas terrorist strolling round a residential neighborhood at an undisclosed location in southern Israel. (Israel Defense Forces by way of AP)
More grenades have been tossed into the shelter and gunfire went off. Eighteen folks have been murdered in that rampage alone.
Terrorists wielding machine weapons then ordered Hersh Goldberg-Polin and two different wounded younger males right into a pickup truck outdoors.
“He was not screaming. He was obviously in shock.”
When Goldberg-Polin stood up, survivors reported seeing that his left arm had been blown off from the elbow down.
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Rachel Goldberg and her husband, Jon Polin, later noticed video footage from the pageant of their son moving into the truck.
Goldberg informed Fox News Digital, “He was not screaming. He was obviously in shock. You can see that his arm is blown off … He tied some sort of bandage, with a T-shirt or something around it. He gets himself onto the truck by himself, and when he turns to sit down you can see the stump where his arm used to be.”
Hersh Goldberg-Polin (left), pictured along with his dad and mom, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin. He has been held captive since Oct. 7, 2023. His dad and mom have been strongly advocating for his launch and the discharge of all of the hostages ever since. (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
The distraught mom added, “We have been living in a different universe since.”
The final cellphone sign from her son’s telephone was at 10:25 a.m. that Saturday, she stated.
‘Hope is mandatory’
Hersh Goldberg-Polin is one of over 240 individuals who have been kidnapped by Hamas; 45 of them have been taken from the music pageant.
It is believed that as of proper now, over 130 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza. The youngest is outwardly a one-year-old child.
Rachel Goldberg is fashionable Orthodox. She credit her faith and her relationship with God for serving to her persevere by means of the emotional pain, worry and uncertainty she is experiencing.
“God has faith in us, and gives us another chance to have another day to do meaning in our lives.”
“When you’re a believer, hope is mandatory,” she stated.
She recites the Modeh Ani prayer upon awakening to point out her gratitude to God, she informed Fox News Digital.
Goldberg with her son, Hersh. Ever since Oct. 7, she’s been studying a psalm every day that corresponds with the quantity of days her son has been held hostage by Hamas, she informed Fox News Digital. (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
“It’s a one-line prayer that just says, ‘Thank you for giving my life back to me, for returning my soul to me, and for having faith in me.’”
She added, “I love that idea that God has faith in us, and gives us another chance to have another day to [create] meaning in our lives.”
The devoted mother reads psalms all through the day, which she stated strengthens her.
“I think of Psalms as a self-help book, because you can pick whichever one speaks to you in that moment.”
“I think of Psalms as a self-help book, because you can pick whichever one speaks to you in that moment,” she stated.
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“Some of the psalms are saying, ‘Hallelujah, you’re amazing,’ and some of them are saying, ‘I’m at the bottom of a pit. Where are you? Why are you hiding your face from me? Help me, help me!’”
Psalm 23 reminds her that God is with her, she stated. “‘Even though I’m going through the shadow of scary things, I know that you’re with me,'” she stated. “It’s a really great tool for people who are in the midst of something really difficult.”
She additionally summarized Psalm 121 as, “I’m calling out to you from the depths.”
After Oct. 7, she stated she has been studying a psalm every day that corresponds with the quantity of days her son has been held hostage.
‘Don’t want two arms to journey’
Rachel Goldberg’s voice each lifted and broke as she spoke about her son to Fox News Digital.
She described his humor as “sarcastic without being mean,” and stated he all the time adhered to the commandment of being respectful towards his dad and mom.
He’s a voracious reader who loves music, taking part in soccer and tenting, she stated.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin (far proper) as a baby, along with his sisters. He was planning to journey for not less than one other yr when he was kidnapped, stated his mom. (Goldberg-Polin household)
Since the age of 15, he is been lively in Hapoel Jerusalem, a corporation that hosts youth coexistence actions, reminiscent of soccer video games that includes Jewish and Arab children taking part in collectively.
When he was in first grade, her son requested for his subscription to National Geographic Kids to be upgraded to the common National Geographic, she stated.
Always inquisitive about exploring completely different locations, he traveled to 6 European nations for 9 weeks by himself final summer time, attending music festivals and assembly folks from all around the world.
He was planning to journey for not less than one other yr when he was kidnapped, stated his mom.
Freeing the captives is an important mitzvah (commandment), in line with Jewish custom, stated Goldberg.
She stated she prays that he’ll “get the help that he needs, that he’ll get the new arm that he needs — and that he will take that trip around the world, because you don’t need two arms to travel,” she added.
Goldberg believes the hostage scenario in Gaza is a worldwide humanitarian disaster, she stated, and that releasing the captives is an important mitzvah (commandment), in line with Jewish custom.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin as a baby. “There’s a moment in everyone’s life where it’s time to stand up and be brave,” stated mom Rachel Goldberg. “In a crisis, that’s when really who you are comes out, and it’s when who you are will be remembered.” (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
She stated that even when it’s scary to become involved, “there’s a moment in everyone’s life where it’s time to stand up and be brave … In a crisis, that’s when really who you are comes out, and it’s when who you are will be remembered.”
She and her husband got here up with the thought of an academic initiative to advocate for the hostages in Gaza, and to lift consciousness about how freedom from captivity is a fundamental common human proper for each harmless particular person across the globe.
‘Everyone Counts’
Jewish instructional organizations, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, and Kol HaOt — in partnership with The Jewish Education Project — introduced this concept to life by launching the web site Everyone Counts on Jan. 14, 2024 — which marked 100 days of captivity for the hostages.
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The day after the positioning launched was Martin Luther King Jr. Day — and the Everyone Counts web site displayed his quotes noting staunch help for Israel, democracy, freedom and peace that individuals may publicize.
Photos of “The Abducted Hearts” exhibit in Ness Ziona, Israel, present life-size black iron silhouettes of the hostages with empty hearts lower out, illustrating the harrowing emotional results of their captivity.
Jon Polin, left, along with his son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who remains to be a captive of terrorists in Gaza. Freedom from captivity is a fundamental common human proper for each harmless particular person across the globe, Jon Polin and his spouse Rachel Goldberg consider. (Courtesy Goldberg-Polin household)
The Everyone Counts web site additionally hyperlinks to different websites reminiscent of Listen to Moms — which gives help for moms from 25 completely different nations who’ve been advocating for the discharge of the infants and kids kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.
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There are easy steps listed on the web site that individuals can comply with, reminiscent of taking one minute a day to contact their members of Congress, or sporting a yellow ribbon, an emblem of hope for freedom for the hostages.
The show of this image in public alerts to the households of hostages that their family members haven’t been forgotten.
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Every act of advocacy could be devoted to a specific hostage, the positioning additionally notes.
No’a Gorlin, COO at M², said, “Everyone Counts is about knowing the people, and knowing each person — it’s not just some story out there. This is very personal. These are people, these are individuals, these are lives. Each one is a story and a world in and of itself.”
For extra Lifestyle articles, go to www.foxnews.com/life-style.
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