Rachel Goldberg-Polin the mother of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin who was abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and has been held hostage in Gaza ever since, is among Time Magazine's 100 influential people of 2024.
Goldberg-Polin and American Israeli, was described by the magazine as " one of the most visible advocates for the hostages and their families."
Her life turned upside down on in the early morning hours of October 7 when she received two messages from her son, a native of California, who was at the Nova Music Festival in Re'im, near the Israeli border with Gaza. "I love you," was one message and "I'm sorry," was the second and last.
A video later appeared showing Hirsh and other captives, being loaded on to a truck by the Hamas terrorists, his had shot off from bellow the elbow. He has not been seen or heard from since and the family has no knowledge of his condition.
Witnesses of the massacre told the family that Hirsh was among a group sheltering from the rocket fire launched in Gaza as the massacre was taking place. Hamas terrorists lodged grenades into the shelter and Hirsh, threw then back to save lives. At some point he was injured and lost part of his arm. According to a witness, he fixed an arterial tourniquet on himself using his shirt, but was ultimately led away by the terrorists with five other people.
"Bring them home now. This has been the Israeli public’s rallying cry since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and took 240 more hostage into Gaza. For Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the call is personal: her 23-year-old son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, is counted among the people still being held captive," Time wrote. " She has met with dozens of world leaders, including President Biden. (Her son, like Goldberg-Polin and her husband, is a dual American-Israeli citizen.) She has addressed the U.N. in New York City and Geneva. She has even had an audience with the Pope," the magazine said.
"Every day that passes without news extends the seemingly interminable limbo that hers and so many other Israeli families now find themselves in. But Goldberg-Polin hasn’t given up. “Hope is mandatory,” she said in a recent interview. “I believe it, and I have to believe it, that he will come back to us.”