‘Bring them home!’: DNC gives strong standing ovation to parents of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin
‘There is a surplus of agony’ in the Middle East, his father said. ‘In a competition of pain, there are no winners’
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, speak on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention Aug. 21 in Chicago. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
By Jodi Rudoren, Jacob KornbluhAugust 21, 2024
CHICAGO — It was one of the most powerful and poignant moments yet at the Democratic National Convention. As tens of thousands at the United Center chanted, “Bring them home, bring them home,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son Hersh is among the 109 hostages being held in Gaza, dropped her head onto the podium. When she lifted it after a few seconds, there were tears on her cheeks.
Much of the audience remained standing and in rapt silence as she and her husband, Jon Polin, Chicago natives who are the most prominent representatives of Israel’s hostage families, spoke in clear, measured tones for nearly nine minutes, and were then rewarded with sustained applause for their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza that frees the hostages.
“This is a political convention, but needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue,” Jon Polin said. “It’s a humanitarian issue.”
He noted that the couple and the families of the other seven American citizens still in Hamas captivity have met regularly with Democratic and Republican politicians, and said that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are “working tirelessly for a hostage and ceasefire deal that will bring our precious children, brothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home and will stop the despair in Gaza.”
“There is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East,” he added. “In a competition of pain, there are no winners.”
The couple’s appearance was, by far, the most significant discussion from the convention’s main stage of the war that has roiled the Democratic Party for months. 
In contrast to the Republican convention, only a handful of the scores of speakers here in Chicago have even mentioned the war. Shortly before the Goldberg-Polins ascended the stage, Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota and a Muslim who has been critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war, included a scant few sentences about it in his remarks, which were intended to reassure the party’s far left flank about Harris and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“When they say we need a ceasefire,” Ellison said, “and to bring hostages home, they’re listening, friends, they agree with us.
“Let me assure you, Kamala and Tim hear you,” he continued. “They care. And everyone is included in their circle of compassion. They believe that everybody counts and everybody matters.”
That was not enough for the Uncommitted movement, which has 30 delegates — including Ellison’s son — here representing the 700,000 voters who cast protest ballots over Gaza in Democratic primaries this spring. The group said in a statement that it supported the Goldberg-Polins’ speaking slot, but wanted to see one alongside it for a Palestinian American politician. When word came late Wednesday that would not happen, the dissident delegates started a sit-in outside the United Center.
“DNC left us with no choice,” said Abbas Alawieh, co-founder of the movement and delegate from Michigan. “They could have told us, ‘Hey, you’re allowed to say this, you’re not allowed to say this. They didn’t say that. They just said no. So we have no choice but to sit here.”
The left-wing Jewish advocacy group Bend the Arc tweeted in support of the sit-in, saying: “Our base expects to see both Palestinian Americans and Jewish Americans represent their families on the main stage.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who was the first DNC speaker to mention the hostages’ plight, on Monday night, also tweeted her support.
“Just as we must honor the humanity of hostages, so too must we center the humanity of 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment,” she said. “To deny that story is to participate in the dehumanization. The DNC must change course and affirm our shared humanity.”
The Goldberg-Polins’ story
Taking the stage shortly before prime time television coverage began on the East Coast, the Goldberg-Polins were introduced by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who said: “Rachel and Jon want what every parents wants: To hold their child close, to love on them, keep them safe.”
The couple wore on their beige-and-white shirts their signature swaths of masking tape showing the number of days that the hostages have been in captivity: 320. Rachel noted that Hersh was born in Oakland, California — like Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
The rest of the story they told was familiar to many Jewish Americans, as they have shared it in similar words in countless media interviews and synagogue briefings since Oct. 7, and on major stages including the pro-Israel rally in Washington and the United Nations in Geneva last fall.
How Hersh loved soccer and music and geography. That he and his best friend Aner Shapira went to the Nova music festival to celebrate peace, love, unity and Hersh’s birthday. How they huddled with 27 other festival-goers in a 5-foot by 8-foot roadside bomb shelter, how Shapira, a soldier, threw back seven Hamas grenades and was killed by the eighth. How Hersh’s left forearm, “his dominant arm,” she said, “was blown off before he was loaded onto a pickup truck, before he was stolen from his life and me and Jon into Gaza.”
“Since then we live on another planet,” Rachel continued. “Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring.”
What have the hostage families been doing at the DNC?
The couple is among at least six families of Israeli hostages, including the Neutras, who have been attending events around the DNC in Chicago this week. They went to a lunch Tuesday hosted by the Orthodox group Agudath Israel, and the New York delegation’s breakfast on Wednesday morning, where Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand acknowledged them and asked for a moment of silence.
At a lunch Wednesday hosted by the Democratic Majority for Israel, Orna Neutra said the family has had “amazing access” to the Biden-Harris administration. “We feel like we’re part of a team, but we’re not there yet, and our son is still there,” she said, “and we need to make sure that everyone is doing everything that they can to secure the release of the eight American hostages.”
Ruby Chen, whose son, Itay, was among the 1,200 people in Israel killed on Oct. 7 and whose remains are being held by Hamas, appeared at the New York delegates’ breakfast on Tuesday morning. There, according to Jewish Insider, he posed for a picture with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and was praised by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who asked for “a hope and a prayer” that negotiations underway with Secretary of State Antony Blinken would “bring home those hostages alive, and the bodies of those who unfortunately passed away.”
“Ruby,” Schumer said, “we are with you guys. Let’s have a round of applause for this man’s strength and courage and everything that he has done.” Chen told the Forward that “the hostages need to stay bipartisan and we need to get this to the finish line.” He said Ocasio-Cortez agreed to sit down and meet with him and relatives of the American hostages.
Israel and the war at the DNC
After months in which the Israel-Hamas war has roiled the Democratic Party, it has been largely absent from the convention. Turnout for pro-Palestinian protests was far smaller than predicted, though there have been a handful of arrests, outside the convention on Monday and the Israeli consulate on Tuesday, and one protester managed to unfurl a “Stop Arming Israel” banner during Biden’s speech Monday night; he was quickly removed from the hall.
Ocasio-Cortez, the leader of the so-called Squad that had been the harshest critics of Israel in Congress, was the unlikely first person to mention the hostages from the stage, saying that Vice President Kamala Harris would secure a ceasefire and bring them home. Biden himself said something similar later on Monday night. But none of the main stage speeches have included proclamations of Israel’s right to defend itself, condemnations of Hamas, or celebrations of the U.S.-Israel alliance, mainstays of prior such gatherings.
On Wednesday night, the Goldberg-Polins steered clear, too, of such hot-buttons, carefully pairing their calls for the hostages’ release with ones to end the suffering in Gaza.
Rachel spoke, as she often does, of the diversity of the hostages: “They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists,” she said. “They are from 23 different countries. The youngest is a 1-year-old, redheaded baby boy. And the oldest is an 86-year-old, mustachioed grandpa.”
Jon thanked supporters around the country and the world, saying “you kept us breathing in a world without air.” He ended by quoting a Hebrew text that translates to “every person is an entire universe.”
“We must save all these universes,” he said. “In an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring hope to the entire region: a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza. The time is now,”
Then Rachel spoke, as she often does, directly to her only son, the eldest of the couple’s three children. “Hersh, Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you,” she said. “Stay strong.”
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