Mother of m*rd*red hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin's pours out her heart

I beg of you hirs please do what you can to have your light shine down on me dada leby and orle help shower us with healing and resilience help us to rise again I know it will take a long time but please may God bless us that one day one fine day D leby orley and I will hear laughter and we'll turn around and see it's us and that we're okay okay sweet boy go now on your journey I hope it's as good as the trips you dreamed about because finally my sweet boy finally finally finally finally you're free and hsh was always self assured when we told 7-year-old hir that we were moving to Israel making Aliah we told him that his name HS could be challenging for Israelis maybe you want to become s which is the same meaning maybe you want take on a nickname we said to him and H looked up at us and said confidently I'm HS Israelis will deal with [Music] that if you're watching this now it's most likely because you've heard of the awful news of the passing of the murder of HS Goldberg Poland in Gaza it is a sad sad day it's a sad moment we share in the pain and the grief with the Goldberg Poland family just earlier today I was watching the levia and it was heartbreaking but to hear the words from Rachel Goldberg Poland to say Hersh you are now finally free that brings some sort of n a little bit of comfort knowing that he is no longer held with those monsters we wished and we doed and we prayed that he'd be home with his family alive unfortunately that's not how it turned out in this episode that we aired several months ago we spoke to HH gulberg Poland's mother Rachel and she spoke a lot about hsh and we're rearing it because we want the world to know who he was what he was all about and his legacy shall live on forever I implore you to leave a comment below on the internet there's many different people of many different opinions and I want to make sure the Goldberg Poland family can see the support that can see the people who loved hirh who love them and are there to support them so please leave a comment below for the Goldberg Poland family this is who HH Goldberg Poland was I wish it was under better circumstances um but but thank you for giving us your time I want to start out by by asking you if you can just you know share with us a little bit more about your family U I know you're born in the United States I guess you know take us from there and what events let L you to moving to Israel okay so um my husband and I were both born and raised in Chicago uh he grew up in a very traditional Orthodox family I grew up in a non-affiliated Jewish Family um but I ended up at the same high school that he was at the Orthodox Jewish high school in Chicago and um After High School I came to Israel for a year and then I went to brandise um my husband who we had gone to the same high school together we were friends we weren't boyfriend girlfriend we were just friends he came to Israel for a year for Yeshiva and then he went to Madison uh University of Wisconsin and we both ended up being in Israel um at the same time after we had each graduated and we ran into each other on the street and one thing led to another we started and we got married here but we were he was a student here I was also a student um you know I was actually learning Torah he was uh getting a second degree a business degree and uh we ended up getting married here but we weren't ready when I say we weren't ready I think I wasn't ready to make Aliah and spend the rest of my life here yet so we ended up moving to Berkeley California which was a big adventure um um yeah I say that's almost maybe even the opposite of Israel exactly well that was you know part of the adventure was you know we didn't have kids yet we didn't have a mortgage if we were going to do something wild and fun that was the time to do it and we both loved hiking and camping and John loved biking and um we needed a religious community but that was kind of more Progressive and liberal but observant and friends of ours said you know you'd really like Berkeley so we ended up Berkeley California and it was amazing the community was wonderful hirh was born there we say that's why he you know tended to be more hippie crunchy granola because it was sort of you know in the water when he was a baby and uh his sister liby was also born there in Berkeley and when hirs was almost four we moved to Richmond Virginia which was going from one uh kind of Jewish community on the Spectrum to the complete opposite Community another wonderful Community but very much more um traditional than we were um you know most of our good friends were wearing black hats and uh you know white shirts and black pants and um we had a great experience in in Richmond loved it uh and then when hirs the summer before he turned eight um we we moved and uh came to Israel and we also had another daughter when we were living in Richmond so hers is the oldest and only boy and then uh two girls who are now 20 and 18 and we've lived in Jerusalem and uh you know what motivated us to move was really this idea of we have an opportunity to live in a place where you can be Jewish and comfortable and let's get on the r it's something that you know in 2,000 years not everyone had the opportunity to do let's try it I imagine it's been uh it's been home it's been it's been a good place for you guys definitely and uh you know our kids have had a foot in each world I mean for us I think it's a bit it's always a bit hard if you come as an adult by a certain age you kind of miss that window where you're going to really feel 100% comfortable we were almost 40 when we got here but um oh anent totally ancient I know elderly and um but we um have been very happy and we felt very privileged and um I think that there's a real gift of giving your children the ability to you know speak and live in two languages and two cultures and that's been our uh I always say on here we have many different guests many many of which who live in who live in Israel and it always comes down to a lot I know I remember something uh RAB schlomo cat said he said that the the future of the Jewish people is in Israel that's just that's where it is so uh if you want to live part of the future of the Jewish people either going to come later you're going to come now so you made the decision I'm going now it seems like you uh you as well did that um if you could I guess tell us a little bit about about hirsh uh who he is sure so you just you know important I think to to lay the foundation you know I see you know you have a number on your on your shirt over there and that's not a brand 74 it's been it's been 74 days since you you had contact with your son right and um it's super important that everyone who's watching this doesn't just know the situation they know who your son is they know who you are right so I guess tell us tell us about hsh so hsh is a very curious respectful very smart um funny but funny sarcastic with like this dry sense of humor but it's not mean because usually sarcasm goes a little bit mean but hirh is not doesn't do that he's a very respectful person who's not mean um he is a voracious reader he started to read young and quick and became obsessed with reading and so he would sweep a category you know he got interested in Native Americans and we would go to the library and he would read 20 books in a row about Native Americans or he went through a civil war period um he uh went through an American president period where he would read about every single American president um and uh he also was very obsessed with um geography he had a wonderful teacher at um his Day School in Rich Virginia and she um fostered in him this love of geography so he um has had Wonder lust and been obsessed with the idea of traveling the world since he was in first grade and um he's been actually and every birthday or you know for his bar mitzvah he always asked for maps and atlases and globes and always had a subscription to National Geographic magazine um always knew trivia because of all of his reading you always wanted him on your team if there was any sort of trivia game being played um and he actually has a ticket for next week for December 27th for Goa India where he was going to start his trip around the world that he's been planning since he was six um that was going to take he he had told us it would be at least a year but probably two so we were aware that he was this since he was six yes yes and so this summer he actually did a quote unquote practice trip of nine weeks by himself in Europe he went to six different countries six different music festivals um he went alone in Switzerland he met a friend from Israel who was you know meeting him there and they went to that music festival together but otherwise he loved he's just a curious person he loves meeting new people finding out about them asking hard questions get good answers um or insisting on getting good answers you know pushing until people really would answer and he also he's wild about soccer he's a DieHard uh hapoel Jerusalem fan soccer fan um very active in their fan Group which um you know they do all these activities for coexistence with the Arab population here in Jerusalem and at risk kids uh youth in Jerusalem and um that's a little slice of who hsh is yeah you know the the way I I see things there are sort of two tragic situations here you know there's your personal matter um with the situation and the condition of your son and the second is sort of the national tragedy uh for Israel do you do you feel that and and how do you reconcile the parallel emotions of sort of having you know what took place at large with the entire the entire nation and and what's going on with you in your home with your personal situation well with this type of situation with thank go which thank god um not many people ever experience it's so all-encompassing and it's so excruciating that there's not a lot of room to digest the larger picture of what's happening um you know just getting up and pretending to be human you know just putting in these ear earbuds talking to you and trying to appear like a normal person when I'm actually in you know psychological emotional spiritual and even physical pain and it's not even pain it's like excruciating Agony is so it involves every molecule of strength that I have that I don't read the news I'm not really up toate on you know national news um I'm obviously aware that our country our people our nation is going through um a trauma and tragedy but we are experiencing a slow motion tragedy and Trauma that is so acute and [Music] and and so filled with angst and despair that I don't actually have bandwidth left to process what is happening you know on the larger National level right no I I to I totally hear that and I appreciate the vulnerability and the honesty with that you know that makes that makes a whole lot of sense we'll be right back to this episode of the podcast but first a word from our friends at project misora you know trip to Poland it's a lifechanging experience everyone will such as and many others so what you can do is you could join r pakon as he takes you through aitz birkenau where so many of us lost family members Aron will take you TOA luin to learn about R mayor Shapiro the founding of the DFI movement you will walk the streets of koca waro gar and luds and so many places our our our history is really rich in these places you'll also see Oscar Schindler's Factory where those on Schindler's List were sheltered from the Nazis imak shimo and were given the opportunity to survive you'll visit sar's first Bas yov and have a chance to dve by your caver so many girls for the first time were given the chance to receive a Jewish Education this trip is a once in a-lifetime chance to doin learn connect and most importantly Experience Project Mur handles everything top hotels fully kered meals all Insurance fees security and more just bring a sitter with you and be ready for an experience of a lifetime for more information to reserve your spot call Project missor today at 845 5701 1943 or email tours project.org once again that's 8455790004 or tours at project.org I want to mention if some of you have grandparents you want to bring people who maybe are hard of of walking project mour also offers the option of wheelchairs scooters so that should not be something that stops you um if this is something that interests you please make sure to reach out to project misora today now back to this episode if you could take us back personally to October 7th sure um to the events that unfolded for you and your family what happened sure so I'll start with um actually the evening of October 6th because um hirh wasn't even supposed to be home at all um on Friday he had gone up north on Wednesday the 4th and he was supposed to be up north from Wednesday the 4th until Sunday the 8th he was at a music festival up North but Friday midday the police came and told the people who were organizing that music festival that they didn't have the right permits to continue through the weekend so they closed up that music festival he was at up north and he called and he said I'm coming home so I'll be home tonight for Simas Torah and I'll go to sh with you guys and um and I'll go to Shabbat dinner because we were going to friends he said but then honor and I that's one of his uh two closest friends he said Anor and I are going to go out and do something fun you know after dinner go camping out somewhere so he came with us to sh with his big you know not so big but with a camping backpack with his sleeping bag and stuff in it and we all danced with the Torah at sh he danced with the [Music] Torah a lot of people were happy to see him CU as I said he had been away for nine weeks over the summer so people hadn't seen him and then we went to our friends for Shabbat dinner and we had a nice meal and at just around 11:00 he kissed me he kissed John and uh he hugged our Hostess goodbye and I remember thinking what a good boy um yeah and he said I'll see you tomorrow and he left and that was 74 days ago um in the morning of the 7th um at 7:30 in the morning John left for sh he's actually The Gabby at our SCH and as you know for simor you know it was going to start early because it was going to go long and I was thinking well I don't want to be there for 5 hours so I'm going to go a little bit later so I was having a cup of tea at our kitchen table and right around 8:00 the bomb Sirens started to go off here in Jerusalem so I ran to wake up my girls who are 20 and 18 and we went to get into our bomb shelter which is in our apartment and we waited the 10 minutes that you're supposed to wait and we didn't hear any explosions so we came out and I don't use my phone on chabis so it was off and it was in a drawer but I knew that hersan honor were out camping somewhere outside where bombs were falling so I thought you know for PES I'm turning on my phone I got to know where my son is and I turned on the phone around 8:20 and from 811 two messages immediately popped up from WhatsApp um to a group that John hirs and I have just the three of us and the first message said I love you and the second message said I'm sorry and so I immediately knew something horrible was happening um and I said to my older daughter we need to figure out where the boys are you know I tried to call him it didn't answer I sent him a text saying you know are you okay tell me you're okay I'm going to leave my phone on tell me you're okay um obviously those were never answered um and leby started to check what was happening sort of you know within a 2hour radius of us that could be where the boys were and she found right away the Nova music festival and you know as I said Hersh had just attended six music festivals he was wild about music festivals and anir was a very accomplished talented musician so it made a lot of sense that they would be there so I wrote to their third best friend who thank God was not in Israel or he would have been with them and I said are the boys at this music festival and the friend wrote back they're there so we knew right away that they were there and then it was really terrifying trying to find where are they um and what we ended up finding out is that when the massacre started taking place early Shabbat morning uh H and H and two other kids ran to a car to try to escape in a car and um Hamas had blocked the road and were shooting at all the cars coming toward them once the cars were very close they would shoot all the people in the car at Point Blank Range so there was a huge traffic situation because a bunch of people were dead in the cars in the front and then all of a sudden all these other cars trying to escape realized they were trapped so they ran from the cars and tried to take cover and there are a bunch of roadside bomb shelters down south next to all the bus stops so the kids went running into all these bomb shelters which um Hirsch ended up in one with 28 other young people who first of all were at this music festival called the music festival for Unity and light so you can sort of picture the demographic of people who were attending and the bomb shelter John went a couple weeks ago to see it I I couldn't do that um it was 5T by 8 ft so you can picture 29 people 2 people yeah yeah mashed in this tiny windowless uh cement bomb shelter and Hamas came and started throwing in hand grenades which honor was standing in the doorway and managed to pick up and throw out seven of them but then three did end up getting by and right away detonating and causing Mass Carnage um as you can imagine and then they came to the door with an RPG which they fired in and then they just came with machine guns and were firing into this room um so most of those kids were dead right away a lot of them were injured and there were a few lucky ones that were trapped under the dead and dying bodies and they were lucky because they could protect tend to be dead um so we heard from those eyewitnesses that after a few minutes of a lot of dust and it was very hot in the room the smoke sort of went out and the dust settled and a couple of Hamas gunmen came in and they saw that there were three young men who were slumped against the wall who were wounded but clearly still alive and they ordered them to stand up and when they stood up one of them was hirs and we were told that his left arm from the elbow down had been blown off sometime during the lull uh he had tied a bandage of some sort or a tourniquet around his uh wound and um they were walked out to a Hamas pickup truck and it headed in the direction of Gaza and his last phone cell signal was detected at 10:25 in the morning from inside of Gaza and um subsequently a few days later um we were being interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN and at the end of the interview he said you guys I'm calling you which we thought was suspicious and weird cuz we had been interviewed a lot and no one ever said they were calling us afterwards right but he called and he said I have footage of hirh being kidnapped and he sent us footage that he had found while doing a documentary about the music f Festival um and he recognized from our description of what happened to him and at the same time that we were talking you know the media always puts pictures of the person they're talking about on the split screen so he was looking at pictures of hirh pre October 7th and he recognized him and so we got this footage where we see hirs walking calmly on his own two feet out of the bomb shelter he gets a himself up onto the truck with his non-dominant hand herh and I are both left-handed um and when he turns to sit down you see the stump of where his left arm was and he doesn't lose Consciousness and I'm sure he was Dazed traumatized and in shock he had just seen 18 people killed including his you know close friend um and uh that's the last that we've seen of him in uh these past 74 days as a mother I'm sure there was I'm not sure actually honestly I'm not sure of anything but you tell me you know you you see this video so you know you're okay your son is alive at that you know at that point but you see who's who's leading him and those are I wouldn't even call people it's just evil and then you see the condition that he's in the injury what are those emotions like well so it's interesting when when Anderson Cooper first sent that I didn't watch it because I didn't want to see that um John watched it a lot John actually got um hope and optimism out of it because he felt and continues to feel that first of all in this situation you have to grab on to anything that be can can be construed as positive um or hopeful or optimistic um and you know in this parallel universe that we currently live in we say things that normal people would never say you know the first thing when we heard that he had been kidnapped was oh thank God because he's not dead because the other kids who were in there were dead um so and then when we got the video and John watched it he said oh thank God it was Hamas you know these are sentences that normal people would never utter and we keep having those kind of things happen um I finally did watch the video because we were releasing it to the media and I was scared that it would come back to me you know in some sort of surprising way and I wanted to have seen it um I mean no parent should ever have to see such a video um and I think through all of this I've learned a lot about the human psyche how we're able to compartmentalize things in order to survive um so it's sickening to watch that video but I am able to when I have to so when I was at the UN last week um speaking in Geneva at a certain point I had to show the video to someone who I had met a diplomat and I and I have to kind of show them because they don't know who hirh is so you know and on that truck there are other young young men and I want them to know this is hirs and I have to say and that that thing that's the stump you know where his arm used to be so I kind of have to guide them through it and when I do that I'm compartmentalizing being is mother and you know feeling like when I watch that video and I see how robotic he seems how he seems you know just Dazed and Confused he's just had his arm blown off and his best friend blown up in front of him and he just walks and walks forward and and I think in many ways 74 days ago you know my heart was blown out and I'm just walking forward just like he did because the only way I can save him is if I am in some way functioning um there are a lot of people who can't function right now which is a 100,000% understandable but while I can function it's the only way I can help save him and save them and so you know that's what I do that's what I try to do every day we get up and we say well we failed cuz he's still not home you know I ask all these quote unquote important people that we meet we've met with all these world leaders and uh different important figures in the world and I we always say what should we be doing that we're not doing and they often say you're doing every single thing right keep doing what you're doing you're doing every single thing right and I just today I came upstairs after someone very you know in a very high position in the American government I had a phone call with him and he said that to me you're doing every single thing right and I came up and the team was up here and I said you know why I know I'm not doing everything right because he's still not home so I'm obviously not doing everything right and we're not doing everything right and when I say we I mean we the whole world is not doing everything right because these hostages you know the composition of these people they're still from at this point the 100 plus people who are still held hostage are from 20 different nations they're Christian Jews Muslims Hindu Buddhists they range an age now the youngest has turned 11 months old to 84 years old like we are doing something wrong that the whole entire world is allowing this international human catastrophe to continue to happen yeah it's almost unbelievable that it's it's been this long and we're just you know days go by and they're still there well and you know honestly I don't even know if they are still there I mean I can tell you there's no way on Earth that they're all still alive because the conditions that we heard about from the hostages who were released are so severe that they are dying and we are letting them die we the world are letting them die hey guys we'll be right back to this episode but you know it's dream raffle season and I sat down with schm sacket the founder of the dream raffle this what he had to say I am joined by schm sacket from the dream raffle.com here we are again another year another apartment to give away the special lucky winner that's right and what makes it so special this year is that all of the money being raised in the dream raffle.com goes to help Israel during these challenging times for example we are helping Farmers rebuild around the Gaza area we're giving money for what's called kitot Kon the local civilian security teams lone soldiers search and rescue do you know that we the guys are still searching after what happen on October 7th there are still many missing people and the Israel dog unit is uh involved searching and we are helping them with funds from the dream raffle so it's really n this year it's a win-win situation you could win a million dooll apartment luxury apartment in hot and you win by supporting Israel during these very challenging time that's right so everyone should head to the dream raffle.com make sure you get your tickets use promo code MPP um you have to be in it you know because on March 11th when that drawing date comes you want the ability the possibility for your name to be called but I tell you there's something even better now right now we're offering two for one so if you buy one ticket get two buy three get six and so on and also we have a bonus raffle free of charge you're entered into a second raffle with a 10 $10,000 cash prize so how about that party $10,000 cash prize two for one and use the uh co uh coupon code MPP meaningful people podcast MPP and save $10 more offer the tickets the dream raffle.com so you mentioned you know hearing from other hostages did did you have the chance to speak to any of the released hostages did any of them see herh or or hear of hsh when they were there so none of the ones that um were released knew of hirsh um it's not so surprising because most people were held with the people they were kidnapped with and the people who were released were mostly women and children and babies from the kibuts so he was not taken with that population um there were three people released from from the um music festival two of them were siblings who were in a car who were both shot and then dragged out of their car so that also wasn't you know with h from the bomb shelter and uh roony who was uh working security at the music festival was kidnapped from the festival and hirs was in a bomb shelter a little bit away so it's not crazy that people hadn't heard of him seen him also his name is unusual you know a Yiddish name isn't they hadn't heard his name and of course his most distinguishing characteristic is he has one arm and they had not seen anyone with one arm you had mentioned that uh you're speaking with a lot of high ranking officials both in Israel and America um I believe you had you had the opportunity to meet with President Biden is there anything you can tell us about that exchange you had um President Biden has been the most sympathetic and empathetic figure uh who we've spoken to um in a position of power um you know President Biden knows about loss when he was a young man his uh wife and his daughter were and his two sons were in a terrible car accident and his wife and daughter were both killed um and just a few years ago one of those two sons was um died um of cancer so he's familiar with loss and in fact on the the first time that we spoke to him which was um already a long time ago on October 12th we were having a call with him and while we were on the call on the zoom there were only 12 12 of us on the call one of the women who was on the call was already sitting shiva for her daughter who had been found the day before but she was on the call because her other daughter was her younger daughter was still missing and while we were on the call she got the knock on the door that they found her other daughter also dead and she came back to this zoom and she unmuted herself we were all muted when someone was speaking she unmuted herself and she was screaming you know in agony and she said they just told me they found my other daughter so now within you know 24 hours she lost both her children and President Biden put his head in his hands and started to sob you know and it was a real human moment um and we were all crying all of us with her um but the whole admin rtion and Congress uh has been incredibly supportive to us and not just supportive emotionally which is important but we know that they're doing everything they can do and there's a bunch they can't tell us you know of course when we meet you know last week there was a meeting with all the families that still have loved ones there who are American and you know sometimes in those meetings people will say well what are you doing and who are you talking to and what's the plan and John and I always look at each other and we think they're not going to tell us that and we understand you know that they can't say well we're secretly talking to so and so at 2:13 tomorrow morning um right so there's a lot that we don't know but we we are aware that they are desperately trying to get the remaining eight Americans and and really all the people who are there and President Biden always says that you know this is not to him just an American issue he really feels this is a humanitarian issue and that he needs to really help get everybody home yeah you know it really doesn't matter really what anyone's politics are you know um when it comes to this hearing the way that President Biden reacted it what it does is it it makes him very human and that's what he is yeah right me or anyone else like in my position as just being a spectator on the sidelines here here um obviously we're we're praying we're doing everything we can president is President and that's a job and there's there's uh there's policies that almost represent that person that you may agree with or disagree with but a story like you just told it cuts through all of that right he is a father of children he is a husband to a spouse and I thank you for telling us that CU that it breaks down so many barriers it's not about Democrat Republican it's not about which side anybody's on this is about good versus evil well we've had that's what it is true and we've had you know there are a couple things the first thing is we've met with over 20 senators and what was really nice was at one point in the same room was a very conservative Republican and a very liberal Democrat and they said this is an American issue we don't care what anyone's politics are nobody in America wants to see Americans held hostage and they all got together and you know signed you know what we were working on U bipartisan you know support to get all the hostages out and that is very um hopeful and you know when I spoke last week in Geneva I spoke about how we're living in a world that is so um bifurcated so divided we love to say them and us we love it you know we love to divide the world um and it's become so dangerous and so hateful by doing that and uh I think that we really have to redefine how we walk through the world um I don't think it's healthy for anybody and and I think it categorizes people in a way that's a false sense of divisiveness you know um I think that we should be re defining the world as those who are willing and those who are not and I think all over the world there are people who are willing who are scared but are willing to say I'm willing to compromise even though I'm scared even though I don't trust you even though I'm suspicious even though I'm in pain even though I'm in trauma and there are people who are not willing and want to keep the hate CU group hate is fun it's easy right we all know it I mean I even back to you know when you're in kindergarten and you're first learning you know if you like the Yankees you have to hate the Mets you know or whatever it is like we just yeah we're used to dividing the world into things that we love and things that we hate but I think we've gotten to the point in the world where it's not serving us very well to be divided that way we'll be right back to this episode but first a word from my friends at pesak with bordo I'm so happy to be joining them for pesak this year and I hope to see you there I actually have been with them a couple of years this year I'm I'll be there I guess moderating some panels and doing some meaningful stuff I hope so hope to see you there there's a great lineup of people morai Shapiro rabie Jonathan RTI Daniel KES shamad Dar uh Ruan Epstein plus many others so it is a jam-packed uh pesak of talent they have such an amazing program set up and I think you'll really enjoy it so if you are in that para of going away pesak make sure you go pesak with bordeau make sure to head to pesak withth boo.com you can email them at pesak withth bordo gmail.com or give them a phone call your old school at 347 699 6120 find out how we could be spending PES off together at Bordeaux I also want to mention very important cause that has come to my attention and that is sherion the noon neighborhood over looks the Temple Mount haras and it connects East and West Jerusalem um what this organization sherion does they maintain a flourishing and living Jewish presence in the vicinity of hostile Arab Villages jabal mbar from which acts of aggression are all too regular um to this day they have not experienced one loss or damage thank God due to unexplainable Miracles a big Thanks goes to all the people who have supported Shion it's it's a group of people who make sure that that this area is protected that Jewish people are able to live there and Thrive and be protected they need things such as uh means of communication pull proof fast lighting security cameras also maintain the safety of the residents so please go ahead hit the link in the description in the show notes to this episode and support this amazing cause shower cion now back to this episode and I think that you know as religious Jews what we've been seeing since October 7th is is really it's it's really incredible it's it's the unity of the Jewish people doesn't matter if they were a yamaka what typea whether it's a hat or no hat none of none of that matters anymore you you see people who previously probably could have be in the same room where now hugging and singing together and dancing together see getting with IDF soldiers to take care of them soldiers getting with Kim those barriers are breaking down do you feel does your family feel that happening in the Jewish world and what does that do for you as as a family um we definitely are feeling support from places we didn't think we'd feel support and that's been really special and helpful um someone sent us the night before Kaneka started someone sent us a picture of a Yeshiva here inim where they they were setting up kanuk and each kanuk had a name of one of the hostages on it which was huge because obviously the kibuts that were affected were not religious kibuts Sim and the kids who were at the music festival obviously were not keeping Shabbat if they were at this music festival but all of the sudden the K world was open to understanding a is right these are our brothers and we know I mean the rambam says the greatest Mitzvah that you can perform is uh you know releasing captives and and to helping set free captives is the most important Mitzvah and you know everyone does their part even if your part is doing and saying to H him for her Ben perana every day that is helping him and you know I dve in every morning I've doed every morning for years this isn't a like okay now it's post October 7th and I'm like I'm I am used to doing every day um but it means a lot to me that I know that people who are not like me are doing for for us and for all the hostages and and for hirs um and what's been very helpful and I've mentioned this before you know I say toim all day um I'm calling out to Hashem all day and um I think of tah hilum as a self-help book you know you pick the one that speaks to you at that moment and this for sure is a period where the ones that are you know praising Hashem are a little challenging for me the easier ones are you know the ones that David am was saying when he felt like where are you you know where have you gone um I'll um but I'm trying to use my faith and my uh relationship with God to get through this very this most dark of times that anyone can imagine I watched yesterday an interview on 60 Minutes with one of the released hostages yardin Roman um and she told Leslie stall in a in the 60-minute interview that while she was in captivity she overheard her name being spoken about on the radio uh her captives were were listening to it um from that report she was able to figure out that her her husband and her daughter their names were mentioned so they were likely to to be alive gave her some you know guess some hope um I can't say for sure that this is going to find its way onto a device in in Gaza anywhere but but if it does if you could send a message to your son her uh what would it be right now well throughout the day from the get-go I've had this Mantra that I've been saying to him I say I love you stay strong survive I love you stay strong survive and uh we're coming coming just stay strong we're coming um you know I hope and pray all day long that I have the S of hugging him and being at his wedding and holding his children and uh I hope I have the of having a long life and having him bury me and having my girls bury me and not not the other way around man and uh he should know that he has a flight coming up so he really he's got to get over here I mean come on heck I know cuz I think it was a cheap ticket and I don't think we can get a refund oh man that's that's awful so first you got a flight the catch yala let's go um really thank you so much for for joining in US everyone who's listening to this will continue to have hersh's names on their lips and to Davin and uh hopefully by the time this airs H will be home amen next time you can meet him you can interview him but keep keep ding for hsh Ben Peril I'm like straight out of the shle Perl yeah and uh I appreciate and I mean come on her it's so cute it's such a good name um yeah I keep saying you know he always complained about his name cuz HH Goldberg Poland it's like three last names but now he should be so happy can you imagine what if his name was like David Cohen then I mean it would be very difficult to find him now yeah definitely makes it a lot easier right uh thank you so much thank you for joining us thanks a lot