As news that Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin had been killed in the Gaza Strip, over 300 days of hoping-against-hope was replaced on Sunday with a torrent of anger and heartbreak throughout Richmond, the state and the nation.
Hours after the Israeli army said it had located his body in Gaza along with the remains of five other hostages, the Goldberg-Polin family issued a statement early Sunday.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, became perhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage.
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They met with President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and others and addressed the United Nations. On Aug. 21, they addressed a hushed hall at the Democratic National Convention, where the crowd chanted: “Bring them home.”
Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 during the Nova music festival for peace in southern Israel. He lost part of his left arm during the bloodbath.
Biden spoke with his parents, and offered his condolences for the death of their son at the hands of Hamas.
“I am devastated and outraged. Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on Oct. 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre,” Biden said in a statement issued from the White House.
“I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel,” he added.
“They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable. They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions. I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express.”
He vowed that Hamas “will pay for these crimes.”
The news hit close to home here in Richmond.
“(Hersh) lived right over there, two blocks to the left,” said Rabbi Dovid Asher, standing by the entrance of Keneseth Beth Israel synagogue on Patterson Avenue.
“I got the news right before I went to sleep last night, and I couldn’t sleep the whole night,” the rabbi said.
Asher said his phone began ringing in the early hours of Sunday morning with phone calls from community members sending their condolences for the 23-year-old world traveler.
“The community is quite devastated with the loss of this young man who prayed here, worshipped here, developed friendships here. And the family, this was their last stop before they moved to the Holy Land, and we feel very strongly that they’re part of this community and we’re horrified at the murder in Gaza that took place over the last few days with Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages,” Asher said.
“We hope to come together and just grieve in person, hold each other and to kind of pour our hearts into being supportive of Hersh’s mother and father, Rachel and Jon, and we’re hoping to just process the horrific history that keeps repeating itself, with Jews being attacked because of who they are in their faith,” he added.
Asher said Gov. Glenn Youngkin called, sending “condolences to the congregation, and the community, and support from Jews, non-Jews, allies. It’s been robust and it’s been heartening. It’s just re-traumatizing and very difficult at this point.”
“We have prayers going back thousands of years, Psalms written by King David to help deal with these kinds of tragedy, the poetry, the depth of those prose, the divine word, is certainly something that we turn to when we’re kind of grasping at straws to make sense of what’s going on. So we’ll do that together ... people who have the strength to come out and to grieve together. Hopefully, they’ll come out tomorrow night,” Asher said on Sunday.
The rabbi said the synagogue will be open to the community at 8 p.m. Monday.
“It’s unfortunate that history repeats itself. My grandmother lost her parents in the Holocaust, and her sister was murdered also as a teenager and a young person. My grandfather lost most of his family. And 40 years of my life, certainly I’ve experienced antisemitism, but I’m nothing of this level of caliber of violence, so it’s gut-wrenching ... we will persevere, and we will come together and strengthen each other,” Asher said.
Orly Lewis, CEO of the Weinstein JCC, said everyone was praying for the best, but it was not to be.
“We were all looking for the release and a celebration,” Lewis said. “We were all very close friends with the family, and the community is mourning for the loss of a child that grew up here in Richmond years ago and was part of our community.”
“I’m sure this is not the news we all were expecting to hear. Of course, the Goldberg-Polin family was only here a short time, but they made a profound impact in our community. They were involved in every organization, every synagogue, every group, and everybody sort of considered them their best friends, because they were just the kind of people that people connected to,” she added.
“Rachel was a very gifted teacher, she taught in our JCC Jewish adult education program, and she’s still loved and remembered by her students here, and Hersh went to our preschool and our day school. Very fun, sweet, sweet, fun child. And right now, we’re trying to find ways to deal with it personally, as well as a community. How do we pull together and face this horrible news?”
Josh Goldberg and Daniel Staffenberg, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Federation, respectively, said the organization was “outraged and devastated by the IDF’s discovery yesterday of six brutally murdered hostages in Gaza. We mourn their losses and are heartbroken by the news that Richmond’s native son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was among those bodies recovered.”
Youngkin said he will order flags to be flown at half staff in Goldberg-Polin’s memory.
“Suzanne and I are angered and heartbroken by the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a senseless murder at the hands of terrorists. Today, Virginians, Americans and the world join the Goldberg-Polin family and the Keneseth Beth Israel synagogue in prayer,” Youngkin said.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said: “I am heartbroken for the Goldberg-Polin family.”
He added, “Hersh’s abduction while peacefully enjoying a music festival and subsequent murder is further evidence of Hamas’ violence and depravity, which have caused pain and suffering across the region for far too long.”
A Hamas-issued video in April showing Goldberg-Polin clearly speaking under duress sparked new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.
His body was found in a tunnel under the city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
The announcement is certain to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring home remaining hostages. The Israeli leader has said military pressure is needed to win their release as cease-fire efforts falter.
Before Israel’s announcement, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still held in Gaza and about one-third of them were dead.