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Editor’s note: Congregation Beth Israel, the Berkeley congregation where the Goldberg-Polin family belonged during their years in the Bay Area, will hold a memorial service at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1. Beth Israel is located at 1630 Bancroft Way.

(JTA) — The family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old American Israeli who was taken hostage from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, has announced his death.

“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” the family said in a statement posted to the Bring Hersh Home Instagram account on Sunday morning in Israel. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”

The announcement came several hours after the Israeli army announced that it had retrieved bodies of those who might have been hostages from Gaza. Since then, the names have been released of all six killed in captivity. In addition to Goldberg-Polin, they are Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lubnov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 25.

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Goldberg-Polin became a prominent face of the hostage crisis through the advocacy of his parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin. He spent his early years in Berkeley, where his family belonged to Congregation Beth Israel, a Modern Orthodox shul. The family made aliyah when Hersh was 7 and settled in Jerusalem.

Rachel Goldberg in particular became synonymous with the anguish of Israeli mothers as she posted daily messages on social media, flew around the world to meet with anyone who would listen and inspired a ritual that has taken off among some Jews: to wear a piece of tape marking the number of days since Oct. 7. Sunday marks day 331.

Over the months, she spoke at the United Nations, met with the president and had an audience with the pope. In August, she and her husband addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, holding the convention center in rapt silence and gaining the attention of 20 million TV viewers as they called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and she buckled in pain as she addressed Hersh directly.

“Hersh, Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you,” she said. “Stay strong. Survive.” She repeated that mantra last week at the border of Gaza, where the Goldberg-Polins and other families addressed their loved ones by loudspeaker.

Goldberg-Polin survived Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 by taking refuge in a bomb shelter with other young people, most of whom died that day despite the heroic effort of his friend Aner Shapira to repel grenades thrown at them. Goldberg-Polin’s arm was blown off below the elbow. In late April, he was seen alive in a hostage video released by Hamas in which he acknowledged the upcoming holiday of Passover and told his family that he knew about what they were doing to try to bring him home.

In the Bay Area, vigils have been held on highway overpasses for months to rally for the hostages and keep their plight in the public eye. Just last weekend, more than 100 people gathered on an overpass in Berkeley to draw attention specifically to Goldberg-Polin. They waved Israeli and American flags, danced, held up signs and ate chocolate-chip cookies because they were Goldberg-Polin’s favorite dessert.

President Joe Biden acknowledged his death in a statement. “I am devastated and outraged,” he said. Biden revealed that Goldberg-Polin and the other five hostages had been found in a tunnel below the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Praising Goldberg-Polin’s parents as “relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages,” Biden said, “I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express. I know all Americans tonight will have them in their prayers, just as Jill and I will. I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death.”

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