Hersh Goldberg-Polin loved soccer and music. He was curious, respectful and passionate about geography and travel, according to his mother. He was born in the Bay Area and moved to Israel when he was 8.
Some 15 years later, he became one of the most internationally recognized hostages among the 240 who were taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. For months, his parents made pleas to bring their son and the other hostages home.
But he was among the six hostages whose bodies were found in a tunnel in Gaza over the weekend. In a statement, President Biden said they were killed by Hamas.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” his family said in a statement. Family members declined to be interviewed for this article, asking for privacy.
On Sunday, tributes to Mr. Goldberg-Polin, who was 23 and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, poured in from many pockets of America. People who knew him expressed immense grief and recalled moments they shared. To many across the country, he had become a symbol of hope.
Andy Feig, a rabbi in Los Angeles, grew up with Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s father and later spent time with the family in California. He said Mr. Goldberg-Polin “exuded the best traits” of his parents: caring, fun-loving and kind.
“In Yiddish, you say ‘mensch,’” meaning a person with integrity,” Rabbi Feig said, adding, “Hersh was that kind of kid.”
Jeffrey Abrams, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles, recalled a fond memory of Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s family in 2010. Mr. Abrams was visiting Israel with his wife and three young sons, and after meeting Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s parents through a mutual friend, the family invited them to their apartment for a Sabbath dinner.
“Out of nowhere, this nice, lovely young family, with similarly aged kids, expressed one of the core Jewish values, which is to welcome the stranger,” Mr. Abrams said. He remembered Mr. Goldberg-Polin, then 9, as a “boy with big curly hair riding his tricycle with glee.”
Orly Lewis, chief executive of the Weinstein Jewish Community Center in Richmond, Va., which has a preschool Mr. Goldberg-Polin attended, also remembered him as a fun, open-minded child. Ms. Lewis said that she and others in the city’s tight-knit Jewish community had admired his parents’ advocacy in the past several months.
“There’s a saying in Hebrew: Who saves one life, it’s as if they saved the entire world,” she said. “I think the whole world was watching how much they tried to bring Hersh home, and the rest of the hostages.”
Mr. Goldberg-Polin was abducted while attending a music festival, and he lost a part of his arm while defending an emergency shelter from Hamas gunmen. In the 11 months since he was taken captive, his parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, became two of the most outspoken advocates for the hostages’ release. They have delivered speeches, met with elected officials and the Pope, and even addressed the Democratic National Convention in their hometown last month. At the convention, Ms. Goldberg and Mr. Polin each wore a piece of tape on which the number 320 was written, representing the number of days their son had been in captivity.
“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you,” Ms. Goldberg said at the convention. “Stay strong. Survive.”
For Yael Nidam Kirsht, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, the news felt personal. Her sister and brother-in-law were abducted from the kibbutz where they lived on Oct. 7. Her sister was released in November, but her brother-in-law was killed in captivity this year, she said.
Ms. Nidam Kirsht had continued to find meaning in something Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s mother often said: “Hope is mandatory.” Just last week, Ms. Nidam Kirsht joined dozens at a vigil honoring Mr. Goldberg-Polin in Berkeley, where he was born.
“I was really hoping that what happened to us wouldn’t happen to Hersh,” she said.
To many who didn’t know Mr. Goldberg-Polin or his family personally, the news still cut deep. Susan Gordon Newman, a 52-year-old marketing professional in Chicago, where Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s parents were born and raised, said that as a mother of two, she was “devastated” for the family.
“There was so much hope for almost a year and now there’s no hope,” she said.
Some Americans lamented the ongoing war and its overall impact. Christine Blevins, a 50-year-old property manager from Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood, said, “All of it is horrible and has gone on way too long. It has created further division in our country.”
There are still seven U.S. citizens in captivity by Hamas. Israeli authorities say more than 60 living hostages and the bodies of about 35 people believed to be dead remain in Gaza. The Israeli military on Sunday said that the six whose bodies were found this weekend were fatally shot at close range by Hamas.
Hamas initially did not directly address the accusations but said in a statement that responsibility for the deaths lay with Israel. Later, without providing evidence, the group said in another statement that the hostages were killed by the Israeli military’s bullets.
In the Chicago suburb of Skokie, where Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s family once lived, Alfred Aghapour, 70, who lived two doors down from the family and attended the same synagogue, said he had been praying for Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s release. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said.
Rabbi Leonard Matanky, head of Chicago’s Ida Crown Jewish Academy — where Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s parents both graduated from — has known the family for decades. Tragedy in the world often seems to be anonymous and far away, he said, but for the Ida Crown community, Mr. Goldberg-Polin’s capture was “very close.”
After Oct. 7, Rabbi Matanky said, the school displayed a photograph of Mr. Goldberg-Polin and a prayer for the safety of the hostages around the building. When students return this week, his photo will still be there.
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