126: Wartime Diaries - Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin

Israel Story

Judaism, Palestine, Jewish, Stories, Religion & Spirituality, Israel

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many of you have probably heard, or read about, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, the parents of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped from the Nova Party. In many ways they’ve emerged as the face of the hostage families - they’ve met with Biden and the Pope, they were on the cover of Time Magazine, Rachel has spoken at the UN and at the ‘March for Israel’ Rally in Washington D.C. And in all those places, as well as in countless other interviews, speeches and meetings, they’ve told the heartbreaking tale of the two text messages Hersh sent on the morning of October 7th, one saying “I love you” and the other “I’m sorry.” He wrote those messages from within a shelter, where he was hiding with 28 other partygoers. Eighteen of them were killed, and Hersh - whose left arm was blown off - was badly wounded. Shortly thereafter, Hersh and three others from the shelter were loaded onto Hamas pickup trucks and taken into Gaza. It has now been 55 days.

The end song is Tefilat Haderech ("The Traveler's Prayer") by Shai Tsabari.

Stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, and by signing up for our newsletter at israelstory.org/newsletter/. For more, head to our site or The Times of Israel.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber eats.
0:11.0	So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's.
0:15.0	Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply.
0:20.0	Check the Uber app. I go out on the porch on Friday nights and I scream the brahada him with my hands up in the air and you know and then I come in and we have this big horrible picture that somebody gave us of him with his name spelled wrong and it's behind our front door and I kiss his head and I smell his hair on the picture because I know what that smell is of his hair, you know, and I just wait and crave for that time when I can smell his hair. You know, it's they just
0:58.8	brought his bag back on Friday. They found his bag seven weeks later that he had taken to the music
1:06.3	festival and I unpacked it yesterday and I was taking out and I normally were
1:10.5	always like, Hirsch you need to my God, what is that smell?
1:15.6	And I was taking out his clothes and I was finding the armpits and inhaling it like, you know,
1:22.0	like it was like the most wonderful thing I could ever smell, you know, but John...
1:29.2	I... This morning I went for the first time, stay 51, I went to the above ground bomb shelter where
1:35.9	Hersh came under attack, lost his arm and was then taken captive, and as I was there I was thinking it's so close it's like a couple of
1:47.6	kilometers from here a mile and a half let's just go right now like my friend has a four by four let's just go right now. Like my friend has a 4 by 4. Let's just go cut across the fields and go get him.
1:55.7	We thought better of that. But it's absolutely crossed my mind. I mean, he is so close.
2:04.0	Hey listeners, it's Mishi.
2:07.0	So as you know during these incredibly difficult days,
2:10.0	we're trying to bring you voices we're hearing among and around us.
2:15.0	These aren't stories, they're just quick conversations, or postcards really,
2:20.0	that try to capture slivers of life right now.
2:25.0	Many of you have probably heard or read about Rachel Goldberg and John Polon,
2:32.0	the parents of 23-year-old Hirsch Goldberg Poland, who was
2:35.9	kidnapped from the Nova Party. In many ways, they've emerged as the face of the
2:41.3	hostage families. They've met with Biden and the Pope. They were on the cover of Time
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Israel Story, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Israel Story and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.