The parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, along with those in attendance at Chicago’s United Center on Wednesday evening, provided the Democratic National Convention with one of its most memorable and cohesive moments.
Entering to chants of “Bring Them Home,” Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, both natives of the Chicago area, brought tears to the eyes of many in attendance with the gut-wrenching story of their son and their broader thoughts on the more than 100 hostages who have been captive held in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday night, Hersh’s parents said they didn’t know what to expect when they walked onto the stage, with Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza at times bitterly dividing Democrats and with a number of Palestinian supporters in seats at the arena.
The reception, with thunderous chants in support of the hostages, brought Goldberg-Polin to tears as she put her head in her hands before her speech got underway.
“It was completely overwhelming and unexpected. We had been preparing ourselves for a long time that we were going to get a very hard to negative response, and we were shocked,” said Goldberg-Polin. “I was really taken aback, and I wasn’t prepared for any of that. I wasn’t prepared for support and love and kindness. I was not prepared, and that’s why I became overwhelmed.”
Goldberg-Polin said she has received no news on her son since Hamas released a three-minute video of Hersh in April, which provided the first proof of life since his abduction.
“We’re always hopeful. No news is good news,” said Goldberg-Polin, using a frequent line recited by someone in the family’s circle. “You have to just hope that—because we don’t know—that it’s good news, but we don’t know.”
In Wednesday’s speech, Polin told those attending that “in a competition of pain, there are no winners.”
The message seemed pointedly crafted for the United Center audience amid the uncertainty of a potentially divided reaction to the speech.
But Goldberg-Polin told JNS that she used a similar line in an address at the United Nations early in the war.
“I do think that people get confused and think that this is an adversarial paradigm that you have. It’s like a team sport, and you have to choose a side, and you don’t have to choose a side,” she said. “When we’re trying to compete in who has the bigger tragic story, no one wins. And we’re here. This is where we are, and we have to go forward. And I think that that was something we really wanted to emphasize.”
