Rachel Goldberg-Polin on Losing a Son in Gaza

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Ever since October 7th, 2023, we've tried very hard on this show. to reflect the politics, the cruelties, and the complexities of the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And our guests have included a range of prominent Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans. They've been witnesses, politicians, journalists, and scholars. Our guest today, Rachel Goldberg Polan, was born in Chicago. She emigrated to Israel with her young family in 2008 and created a fulfilling life of observance, community, and above all, tight-knit family. Prominence was the last thing on her mind.

I am the Jewish Jane Doe, she'll tell you. But when her eldest child, her son Hirsch, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th, Rachel Goldberg Poland became the emblematic parent, the most effective spokesman of all the many Israeli relatives whose sons or daughters, parents or grandparents disappeared into the tunnels of the Gaza Strip. Hirsch, who was 23, had been at the Nova music festival, and in the initial assault most of his left arm was blown off by a Hamas grenade. Throughout Hirsch's long captivity, Rachel argued to anyone who would listen that Israel's priority should be to bring the hostages home, first and foremost.

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