The emotional parents of US hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin brought the audience at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to tears in a moving speech Wednesday, urging their son to “stay strong” and “survive.”
Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to loud applause and chants of “Bring them home.”
The couple wore yellow ribbons and tape with the number 320 written over it signifying the number of days their son has been held hostage.
Hersh’s mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin collapsed in tears before beginning her speech.
“At this moment 109 treasured human beings are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. They are Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. They are from 23 different countries. The youngest hostage is a one-year-old red-headed baby boy … among the hostages are eight American citizens – one of those Americans is our only son,” the distressed mother said.
“Like Vice President Kamala Harris Hersh was born in Oakland California,” Goldberg-Polin said.
Rachel described her son as a “happy-go-lucky boy” obsessed with geography and music festivals.
The mother brought the arena to tears as she described the horrific Hamas October 7 attacks where her son had his left arm “blown off” before being loaded onto a pickup truck and being “stolen from his life.”
Goldberg-Polin described how since her son’s kidnapping she and her husband John have lived “on another planet.”
Audience members held up yellow “bring them home” bracelets as they listened to the distressed family’s plight.
“Needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue, it is a humanitarian issue,” Hersh’s father said, noting that families of the American hostages meet regularly in Washington as he commended Democrats and Republicans for their bipartisan support.
Polin said he was “deeply grateful” to the Biden-Harris administration for their work towards securing a hostage deal and a ceasefire to “end the despair in Gaza.”
“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,” John said.
“In the Jewish tradition we say that … every person is an entire universe, we must save all of these universes.”
Rachel then called out to her son directly in a heart-wrenching conclusion.
“Hersh, Hersh, if you can hear us we love you. Stay strong, survive.”
