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Editor’s note: More memorials are set for Monday, Sept. 2. One is at 6 p.m. in San Francisco, exact location provided with RSVP. The other is at 7 p.m. at Heritage Park in Palo Alto.

“Hersh-y Pie.” 

That was an affectionate nickname for Hersh Goldberg-Polin when he was passed around as a baby at Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, delighting people with his smile.

The 23-year-old American Israeli, whose now-famous smile and warm brown eyes became recognized worldwide after he was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, was laid to rest Monday in Jerusalem.

His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, had worked tirelessly for 330 days to share his image and story and to call for the release of all the hostages. They gave a powerful, heartbreaking speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago less than two weeks ago. “Hersh, Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive,” his mother said on the stage Aug. 21, repeating what had become her mantra.

But early Sunday morning in Israel, they confirmed on social media that their oldest child and only son, Hersh, was one of six hostages whose bodies were recovered after terrorists executed them in a tunnel under the city of Rafah in Gaza.

More than 350 people gathered Sunday evening at Beth Israel, the Goldberg-Polin family’s former synagogue, for an hourlong memorial service for Hersh, shedding tears, hugging and praying. Memorial candles lined tables alongside banners, photos and posters of Goldberg-Polin. Sheets of paper were available for mourners to write notes of condolence to his family.

There were moments of utter silence and stillness between speakers, broken by crying, sniffling and the occasional babble of babies.

Goldberg-Polin, born at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, left the Bay Area as a child when his family relocated to Virginia and soon after made aliyah to Israel when he was 7, settling in Jerusalem. 

Over the years, his family, which includes his two younger sisters, kept in close contact with many Jewish families they had met in the East Bay, according to several speakers at the memorial. They shared memories of lively Shabbat dinners and coffee meetups with the Goldberg-Polin family during their own visits to Israel.

“When Hamas killed Hersh, they targeted so much of the light and the love and the peace of this community and this city, too,” Rabbi Yonatan Cohen of the Modern Orthodox synagogue said in his opening remarks, noting that Goldberg-Polin’s parents described him as a “child of light, love, and peace.” Cohen invited congregants to share memories of his light with the community.

Molly Greenberg recalled holding Hersh when he was a baby and she was just 8. “Before yesterday, my tears came like a faucet with a slow leak. I weep now like a dam burst open,” she told the mourners.

Rachel Heitler attended the memorial, hugging a friend and crying quietly. She told J. that she was one of several women at CBI who babysat Hersh when they were teenagers. 

“He was just a stunningly beautiful, happy baby, and we just loved holding him,” she said.

Naomi Stamper recalled Hersh and her grandson playing when they were both babies. She visited the family several times in the years after they left Berkeley, she said from the bimah.

“The last time we visited the Goldberg-Polins was the summer of 2023. We met for coffee,” Stamper told the packed sanctuary. “Hersh was not in town,” she recalled, because he was traveling from one music festival to another. “And then he was planning his big after-army trip, in which he would travel around the world.”

Goldberg-Polin was taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7 while attending the Nova music festival. He took refuge in a tiny bomb shelter nearby with his best friend Aner Shapira and more than two dozen other young people, most of whom were killed as terrorists shot bullets and fired grenades into the shelter. Shapira was able to throw out seven grenades until the eighth one exploded in his grasp, killing him. 

During the attack, Goldberg-Polin’s left arm was blown off and he reportedly managed to create a tourniquet before he was abducted. His family did not know whether he had survived until April when Hamas released a video of him alive, bringing hope to his family, friends and neighbors in Israel, old friends in the Bay Area and supporters worldwide.

Sophie Hahn, a Berkeley City Council member, was one of several local elected officials who attended the memorial service, as did Tessa Rudnick, mayor of El Cerrito, and Terry Taplin, who also serves on the Berkeley City Council.

Hahn told the mourners that even for people who had never met Hersh, he stood as a “bright and courageous light” for the entire Berkeley community. 

“We mourn with you. We see the pain, and we honor the memory of Hersh and of all the victims of this senseless slaughter,” Hahn said.

Aaron Katler was like an uncle to Goldberg-Polin, Cohen told those gathered. 

Katler grew up in Chicago, attending school with Jon and Rachel. He moved to the Bay Area shortly after the family arrived in the East Bay. For 330 days he, too, posted on social media about Goldberg-Polin, traveled twice to Israel to see Jon and Rachel, and plans to head there Wednesday to sit shiva with the family. He will bring them the handwritten notes from mourners at the Beth Israel memorial.

“We say, ‘May his memory be for a blessing,’” Katler, 53, said at the bimah. “My invitation for the community and to anybody that knew Hersh as a baby, as a quirky young adult, or just met him through a post online since Oct 7, to be more active … to make his memory for a blessing.”

After the memorial service, Katler told J., “This is not an end of Hersh’s story. This is a transition of his story to create the good that he would’ve in the world.”

Cohen offered a similar call to action.

“With his tragic murder, it is incumbent upon us to raise more Hershes, to pass his legacy to the children growing in our midst on all sides,” the rabbi said. “Refuse to accept the world as it is. Walk the path of Hersh.”

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