There were a lot of Jewish parents on the stage at the Democratic National Convention this Wednesday night. Dana Nessel, the first Jewish attorney general of the state of Michigan and a mother of twins, talked about Kamala Harris’s support for gay marriages like hers. Hebrew day school grad and Philadelphia Governor Josh Shapiro, a doting dad of four, gave an impassioned speech about freedom. There was Florida Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a mother of three who wore a yellow ribbon while warning against the dangerous anti-abortion legislation in her state and Project 2025, and Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a dad of two, who warned about the same with a gigantic prop and a Taylor Swift dad joke.
Yet the most moving parents of the night, and arguably the most powerful speech of the evening in general, came from two Jewish parents who aren’t politicians, and who weren’t there to share a political message, but a humanitarian one — a call to bring their only son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, home after over 10 months of being held hostage by Hamas. Hersh was last seen in a video shared by Hamas after Passover.
Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin took the stage to chants of “bring them home” after being introduced by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. The two observant Jews each wore a piece of tape with the number 320, representing the number of days that have passed since October 7, 2023, when Hersh and hundreds of others were taken into Gaza. Despite their constant media and public appearances, they seemed incredibly moved by the crowd’s fiery chants, which brought tears to both of their eyes and had Jon putting a comforting hand on his wife. And yet, despite their voices sometimes wavering with emotion, they still delivered a resonant and striking speech. Many in the crowd wept along to their words, and I’m sure many at home were struggling to hold back tears as well.
Rachel, mother of American hostage Hersh, told me after her speech at the DNC: “The reaction of the crowd was so overwhelming to me, that I started to weep. And John had to put his hand on my back and he said you’re ok you can do this”. pic.twitter.com/Q7hWZmoIwa
— נריה קראוס Neria Kraus (@NeriaKraus) August 22, 2024
“At this moment, 109 treasured human beings are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza,” Rachel, who made it to the Time100 list for her tireless fight to bring her son home, started the speech. “They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. They are from 23 different countries. The youngest hostage is a 1-year-old red-headed baby boy,” she said, referring to Kfir Bibas, “and the oldest is an 86-year-old mustachioed grandpa. Among the hostages are eight American citizens. One of those Americans is our only son. His name is Hersh. He’s 23 years old, and like Vice President Kamala Harris, Hersh was born in Oakland, California.”
Polin-Goldberg described her son as “a happy-go-lucky, laid back, good-humored, respectful and curious person.” She shared his love for soccer, music and traveling the world, described his bedroom as overflowing with maps and National Geographic magazines. The mother of two then went on to describe what happened to Hersh that dreadful day, when he and his best friend Aner Shapiro went to the Nova Music Festival to celebrate Hersh’s recent 23rd birthday. It’s a tale she had to piece together from multiple witnesses and pieces of footage. She talked about how Aner and Hersh hid in a shelter with other revelers, how Aner threw back seven grenades out of the shelter door before an eighth killed him, making him one of 367 victims that were killed at the music festival, and one of 1200 killed across the country, including 45 American citizens. Hersh survived the attack, but his left arm was blown off. And then, as Rachel recalled, “he was loaded onto a pickup truck and stolen from his life and me and Jon into Gaza. And that was 320 days ago. Since then, we live on another planet. Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring.”
Jon then spoke about how comforted he and Rachel are to be back in the place where they were born and raised, where their families still reside, Chicago. “This is a political convention,” he said, “but needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue.”
He said that he and Rachel have been heartened by the bipartisan support they received (the parents of hostage Omer Neutra spoke at the Republican National Convention back in July). He shared that they met with Biden and Harris on multiple occasions and that they’re “both working tirelessly for a hostage and ceasefire deal that will bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home, and will stop the despair in Gaza.”
He shared their gratitude for the president and vice president, and for the millions of people over the world who have shown them support. “You’ve kept us breathing in a world without air,” he said.
“There is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. In a competition of pain, there are no winners,” he continued, a line often uttered by the Polin-Golbergs. He talked about how, in Jewish text, there is a line, “kol adam olam u’mlo’oh,” meaning, “every person is an entire universe.”
“We must save all these universes,” he urged, claiming that “in an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region: a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza. The time is now.”
