Grief and Remembrance: A Mother’s Journey and National Vigilance

The mother of Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was discovered dead in Gaza nearly 11 months after being taken from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, shared with NBC News that her grief “doesn’t get better.” Rachel Goldberg-Polin expressed hope that grief might change over time, stating, “I’m hopeful that it will get different.” However, she acknowledged that time can intensify the longing for a lost loved one.

“It might get different,” she said. “I’m hopeful that it will get different.” But the “reality of what happens is that time makes you more hungry or more thirsty for your person.”

Hersh was among the six hostages held by Hamas, whose bodies were found in a tunnel beneath Rafah in southern Gaza in September 2024. Born in the United States, he moved to Israel with his family at the age of seven.

Goldberg-Polin feared her grief might worsen, noting, “that yearning, that longing, that craving is forever.” She recounted a moment with her daughter, saying, “I was just crumpled on the floor and I was crying, and my daughter said to me that she came across me and she said, ‘What happened?’ I just looked up and I said, ‘I haven’t seen my son in three years.’”

Meanwhile, Israelis abroad have been advised to exercise heightened caution. Israel’s National Security Council has issued a warning to Israelis living overseas to heighten vigilance due to an increased risk of attempted attacks on Israelis and Jews abroad. The advisory, released on the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks, urges the public to avoid sharing travel plans on social media and refrain from posting content that reveals service in the security forces. Travelers are advised to steer clear of Jordan, Qatar, Somaliland, and Egypt and minimize speaking Hebrew in crowded places.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflected on her son, Hersh, stating that the extraordinary aspect about him was his ordinary nature. Despite the tendency to mythologize young people tragically lost, she described Hersh as “the perfect match,” filled with both beauty and flaws.

“I think what’s extraordinary about Hersh is that he is totally ordinary,” Goldberg-Polin said, adding that he was “filled with beauty and filled with flaws.”

In Israel, the nation observed the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks with a nationwide moment of silence at 6:29 a.m. local time. This marked the exact moment the assault by Hamas began in 2023. President Isaac Herzog and first lady Michal Herzog lit a memorial candle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to commence the day’s commemorative events.