Rachel Goldberg-Polin publishes memoir on loss of her son Hersh, murdered in Hamas captivity

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of murdered U.S.-Israeli hostage Hersh, has written a memoir addressing her family’s pain and loss. Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House, confirmed on Thursday that her book, When We See You Again, is scheduled for publication on April 21.

Hersh was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023, taken into captivity in Gaza, and later murdered in 2024.

The Chicago-born Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband Jon, who reside in Jerusalem, became a globally recognizable face in the fight for releasing the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. She explained her motivation to write the memoir.

"I sat down to write my pain, and out poured loss, suffering, love, mourning, devotion, grief, adoration and fracturedness," Goldberg-Polin said. "This book recounts the first steps of a million-mile odyssey that will take the rest of my life to walk on shattered feet."

Random House described her story as "raw, unflinching, deeply moving prose."

"She describes grief from within the midst of suffering, giving voice to the broken as she pours her pain, love, and longing onto the page. It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love."

Goldberg-Polin continued to fight for the release of her son and the other hostages, even when officials expressed pessimism about the prospects of freeing the hostages.

In April 2024, TIME Magazine recognized Goldberg-Polin on the 100 Most Influential People list in 2024.

"I want to thank TIME for my inclusion on the TIME100 and for recognizing the significance and gravity of the hostage crisis," she said.

In September 2024, Israeli forces found the body of her son Hersh and other Israeli hostages in a tunnel in southern Hamas. The family subsequently approved the publication of a clip of their son Hersh before he was murdered.

“This must serve as an immediate wake-up call to the world to act today to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages before it is too late. No other family should go through what our family went through,” the Goldberg-Polin family said in an official statement.

“Continue on your journey, sweet boy! I hope it will be as good as the trips you dreamed of, because finally, my sweet boy, finally, finally you are free! I will always love you and miss you every day for the rest of my life,” Rachel said.

“But you are here. I know you’re here, I just have to teach myself to feel you in a new way. And Hersh - I need to ask you to do one last thing for us – now I need you to help us stay strong. And I need you to help us survive,” she added.