In Israel, today is the first day of school. Parents pack their kids’ lunches with unbearable grief. They try to hide the tears in their eyes as they watch multiple funerals stream in their feeds. As families in America celebrate Labor Day weekend together, six Israeli families’ 331-days-old hopes and dreams and prayers have been shattered.
The bodies of six hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Almog Sarusi, 27 and Alex Lobanov, 33 — were recovered by the IDF on Saturday night. According to reports, as armed forces approached in Rafah, the Hamas militants holding the six hostages murdered them so Israeli forces wouldn’t be able to claim they had recovered them alive. The news about the identity of the bodies slowly trickled in throughout the early morning hours on Sunday.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” the Bring Hersh Home Instagram account shared on Sunday morning. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Hersh’s story is one many have been following closely all over the world due to the tireless efforts of his parents to bring their son, and all the hostages, home. We’ve cried and grieved and raged for months as his mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, spoke at the U.N., shared a tearful Mother’s Day message on social media, lay her head against the table with despair after thanking Hirsh for making her a mother, and spoke at the DNC this August where she became emotionally overwhelmed after hearing the large crowd chant “bring them home.”
Throughout it all, Rachel and Jon have always been wise, eloquent, insightful, compassionate. They shared their deep faith, their Jewish wisdom and their irrepressible love for their son, who kept going to synagogue with his father even if he didn’t feel as religious as his parents, just so he wouldn’t be alone, and who has been remembered so lovingly by everyone who knew him. Rachel has ended each of her speeches with a message with Hersh: “We love you, stay strong, survive.”
Over the past 11 months, Rachel became the symbol of the parents of hostages, and of their tireless fight. She, like so many other relatives, went everywhere she could go, spoke to everyone she could speak to. A dual American-Israeli citizen who grew up in Chicago and settled with her children in Jerusalem, there was something about her poise and mannerisms that captured so many hearts and souls and helped make her one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2023 . She helped us get to know Hersh, too, a young man who wanted to travel the world and who loved maps and music.
“I am devastated and outraged. Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre. He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world,” President Biden shared in a statement.
“I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. 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. I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will,” the president continued.
“With a broken heart and profound grief we are saying a premature goodbye to our dear and beloved son or brother, Hersh z”l,” reads the familiar black and white death announcement that all families share in the paper and bulletin boards in Israel, calling Hersh “a child of light, love and peace.”
And while he was perhaps the most talked about in the media, there are five more people just as unique and beloved as Hersh whose lives have tragically come to an end. As Jon Goldberg-Polin shared in Chicago the other week, we Jews believe “kol adam olam u’mlo’oh,” meaning, “every person is an entire universe.”
Alex Lobanov managed the bar at the Nova party. He was in touch with his wife Michal that day, who was home, six months pregnant and watching over their oldest son Tom. He seemed calm at first, then panicked while hearing gunshots. He told her he was going to run to safety, into the forest of Be’eri. There he helped rescue fellow festival goers, but was ultimately captured by Hamas militants. Michal, a police officer, gave birth to their son, named Kai, at Ichilov Hospital in March. She took pictures of Kai for Alex everyday, hoping she could show them to him upon his return.
“The love of my life, we swore that only death would do us apart, so how could it have done us apart?” she said at his funeral today. “How can I speak about you in past tense? It’s true that God takes the best… I want to focus on you, your love of men, your love of life and freedom, the freedom taken from you on October 7.”
Eden Yerushalmi worked as a hostess, bartender and server in Tel Aviv, a memorable and boisterous person that everyone loved. She was working as a bartender at the Nova party, and once the attack began, hid with two friends in her car, who were both killed. In a last phone call to the police, she asked the operator, “You’ll find me, yes?”
“A dominant character with unending joy of life” is how her family described her. “When she comes back I will kiss her feet and I’ll speak less, just hug her and feel her and ask for he to sit next to me and not move,” her sister had said.
“Yesterday I celebrated my birthday, and everyone wished for me to have you in my arms again. I got you back, but not how I wanted,” her mother said at her funeral. “You”ll always be my sandwich [the Hebrew expression for middle] child, I will forever know that you’re with me… I’m sorry, Eden. I’m sorry.”
Carmel Gat was the only one of the six hostages who was not captured at the Nova party. She had been visiting her mother at Kibbutz Beeri on October 7. Her mother, Kinneret, was killed in front of her that day. Her sister-in-law, Yarden, was captured but released in the first round of hostage negotiations, after which she was reunited with the daughter who she handed over to her husband so they could run to safety when they attempted to escape Hamas. Carmel was an occupational therapist, a yoga instructor and a caretaker. She loved children, and helped take care of the hostages near her in captivity, giving yoga lessons, walking them through meditation and mindfulness exercises. Her cousin, Gil Dickmann, said she was always a nurturing person, even when they were young.
“Her body is back in Israel, along with five hostages that were alive and were murdered,” Dickmann shared in a video on his Instagram page, revealing that both Hersh and Eden’s names, along with Carmel’s, were on a list for a deal on July 2, adding that those who refused to sign that ceasefire agreement “gave them their death sentence.” He urged his fellow Israelis to take to the streets and to “stop everything, stop this country,” a country that he says has become one that sacrifices lives, and whose government is completely “indifferent to death.”
“Go out to the streets now, and bring a deal,” he urged his fellow Israelis.
Ori Danino helped rescue Maya and Itay Regev, two siblings who went to the Nova party together. He had already made it back to safety with his friend, Tomer, when he let him off and turned his car back around, deciding to help save more lives.
“Thank you for who you were for me. You are my hero. I’m forever sorry that I couldn’t properly thank you and hug you the way I imagined hugging you. I thought our stories would have a different ending,” Maya Regev wrote on her Instagram.
Danino came from a Haredi family, and his grandfather, a rabbi, spoke at his funeral, urging those that he saved to do good deeds in his honor. “You always told me to smile, because life is beautiful,” his brother said at his funeral. “You always took care of me, made sure I was protected and happy… your smile was the best thing that happened to me. Today it is a nightmare — I see it everywhere and I can’t stop crying. Your smile was your calling card. And do you remember that in fifth grade, when you were in basic training and they didn’t like me at my new school, you drove three hours just to give me a big hug,” he recounted.
“You were my protector, my light in my darkest moments and you always chose to put yourself last and chose to rescue others even when you were already out.”
Almog Sarusi, an engineering student, was born in Raanana. He went to the Nova party with his girlfriend of five years, Shahar Gindi, 25. When Shahar was shot, Almog stayed behind to tend to her wound, which is how he was captured by Hamas. Shahar did not survive.
He had worked as a lighting engineer and a soundman, and many songs have been dedicated to him at concerts of musicians that he worked for since October.
At his funeral, his mother said, “You were sacrificed at the altar of destroying Hamas, the Philadelphi Corridor, Rafah. You and hundreds. I wish we will be the last. We need a deal to free the hostages. Almog, go back to the arms of your love and your friends. We love you so much. You will forever be etched in our hearts.”
“You join the love of your life in heaven,” his sister said. “You are now the hero of an entire country, and there can’t be more heroes like you.”
May Carmel, Hersh, Omer, Almog, Eden and Ori’s memories make this world more full of light, peace and love. May all their memories be for a blessing, and for a revolution. May the rage and the grief at their loss bring safety and peace and an end to needless death.
