Hi, it's Noam. Before we get into this episode, I want to tell you it's a little bit different.

What you're about to hear is a bonus episode recorded live two nights ago, April 27, 2026.

A conversation with the incredible Rachel Goldberg-Polin mother of Hirsch, Goldberg, Poland,

who millions around the world came to know after he was

captured by Hamas and brutally murdered after 328 days of unimaginable suffering.

Hirsch was among the most visible of the 251 hostages.

He was American and Israeli, the image of him, his arm blown off as he was

kidnapped by Hamas, became seared into people's minds. And alongside that image were his parents,

John and Rachel, doing everything possible to bring him home. For millions across the world, his face became the symbol of the struggle to get the

hostages home.

So I want to prepare you for it because it was a lot.

It was intense.

I try to be dispassionate when teaching history sometimes, but this was different. It was

emotional for me, for Rachel, and for the entire live audience of nearly 1,000 people at Temple

Judea in Miami. I got pretty choked up, which I tried hard not to do. As you'll hear me say more than once in the conversation,

Rachel is not just the mother of her own children, Hirsch, or Leon Leby. In many ways, she has

become a kind of mother to the people of Israel, to Jewish people across the globe, and also to the

broader world for anyone who has endured suffering. And frankly, that's all of us.

There's something about the way she speaks, the way she holds pain and hope at the same time

that just stays with you. I really encourage you to listen or watch all the way through,

sit with it, let it land. And after you do, go read her book, it will deepen what

you're about to hear in a really meaningful way. This episode was sponsored by the only people

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