Father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin rides through grief with Alyn hospital

There is so much sorrow around in these parts these days. And there is no end in sight, as more and more of our young – and older – men and women, not to mention thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children, pay the price of the violence all around us.

Many of us look on with alarm, if not mounting despair and a sense of hopelessness. But for the likes of Jon Polin, the events of October 7 and their grim aftermath cast the darkest shadow imaginable. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, the name Hersh Goldberg-Polin will ring an instant shrill clarion call.

Hersh was the 23-year-old son of Chicago-born and -bred Jon and his wife, Rachel Goldberg. He was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7 and held hostage for almost 11 months. On August 31 his body was recovered from a tunnel in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. It was later revealed that Hersh was on the short list to be released just days after he was executed, along with five others who had all been kept in the grimmest of conditions.

How one deals with such grief is simply unimaginable. It is not the natural order of things, when a parent buries his or her child. Of course there is nothing new about that lamentable state of affairs in a country that, since its inception 76 years ago, has lost so many young men and women on the battlefield and in terrorist attacks.

Riding with Wheels of Love

However, Polin is pulling out all the stops to turn his personal tragedy to the benefit of children, of all ages, creeds, and religions, who are in the care of the Alyn Hospital: Pediatric & Adolescent Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem.

That is happening as part of the Wheels of Love charity cycling event, the 24th edition of which is scheduled for November 10-14. This year’s ride is dedicated to the memory of Yakir Hexter, an IDF reservist with the Combat Engineering Corps who fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip on January 8. Hexter was a runner and cyclist who rode with Wheels of Love and also raised funds for the hospital through his participation in the Jerusalem Marathon.

In a statement he placed on the Wheels of Love page of the Alyn website, Polin wrote: “I’m obliterated and mourning, but my friend, who also lost his son tragically, has a life motto: ‘Ride through.’ So I will try.”

That emotional and physical support comes from Meir Charash, like Polin an American-born Israeli who likes to stay in shape. Charash actually goes a couple of hundred yards further than most and makes a living as a fitness trainer and is helping to ensure Polin is in the best shape possible to take on his 10th Alyn ride.

Sadly, cycling is not all the two have in common. Charash has more than an inkling of how Polin must be feeling now. He lost his own son, Ariel, also at the age of 23, to suicide.

“They are totally different circumstances, but Jon’s and my life interconnect through that,” notes Charash. “Ariel, after 10 years, in some ways heroic and in some ways tragic, ups and downs struggling with OCD-related anxiety and depression, ended his life in December almost eight years ago.”

Ariel, I learned, was a generous, giving soul who, after leaving the army and the combat medics course he was in, for emotional reasons, was determined to continue contributing. After shedding his uniform, he took on National Service and volunteered at the Jerusalem Shelter for Battered Women.

“In one of his last moments in life, he asked us to take money from his trust fund and to give it to four little kids, whose mothers were in the shelter,” says Charash. “We made sure the money got to them.”

For the last six years Charash has culled tens of thousands of shekels for the shelter. “Last year we raised NIS 60,000 on what I call his non-birthday. There is nothing to celebrate, but, in order to honor his wishes, to give meaning to the non-birthday, we run the yearly campaign.”

After riding in nine Wheels of Love events, Charash found himself unable to take such a lengthy furlough out of his work schedule, as a self-employed trainer and Thai masseur, but now finds himself back in the Alyn fold, putting his physical strength and training expertise to good use by helping to prepare Polin for the forthcoming five-dayer. “I never rode with Jon on the Alyn ride. I hadn’t done it for 10 years. I only started riding with him a year ago. His name was always out there as someone to meet. And then we met, and then this tragedy happened.”

The connection evolved over time as Charash did his best, drawing on his personal and professional experience, to keep Polin on track in more ways than one. The Charash mantra Polin referenced, in full, goes: “Embrace the loss. Ride through. Soak in the blessings.”

Polin’s loss is so fresh and so raw that it is hard to imagine anything that could possibly provide him, Rachel, their children, and the rest of the extended family with meaningful solace. Physical exercise, it appears, helps to soften the edges. As an avid rider myself, I find cycling a meditative activity which facilitates processing thoughts and feelings. I wondered whether Polin gains similar benefits, particularly in his current painful circumstances.

“Cycling has always been therapeutic for me, and it is certainly more true now,” he says. “My son was murdered six weeks ago, after having been held captive for 330 days. It was, needless to say, a very trying year.”

Now, Polin finds getting back into the saddle is alleviating some of the angst and pain, at least for a while. “Since Hersh was killed, I have been back on the bike, and I find it physically good for me, but more than that, it is spiritually and mentally therapeutic as well.”

Getting out on his mountain bike and trundling along the back roads and pathways of the autumnal rural environs of his hometown of Jerusalem, says Polin, has done him a world of good. “I have, for various reasons, only done one therapy session so far. I will do more. But, in the meantime, my real therapy has been my bike riding. I am really grateful that I have it as an outlet.”

Part of that has been done in the company of Charash, who provided Polin with five training slots, gratis, and managed a couple of regular rides with him.

Polin is not only gaining some sorely needed relief, he is also putting his athletic endeavor to very good supportive use by helping the Alyn Hospital to maintain its curative and rehabilitative efforts by bringing in monetary rewards through Wheels of Love. He features high up in the fundraising rankings.

“I’m just shy of $50,000,” he chuckles. “It’s really gratifying to do that. Alyn is an organization I know well. I know the work that they do, and I’m really thrilled to turn my tragic situation, and some degree of becoming known, into a good cause.”

Over the past year or so, Polin and Goldberg have, regrettably, become public figures. In an international media campaign to gain Hersh’s release and that of all the remaining Israeli and other hostages in Gaza, the couple traveled to the United States several times, met with President Joe Biden, and addressed the Democratic Party convention. They also spoke at the UN headquarters in New York, and the UN facility in Geneva, met with Pope Francis, Elon Musk, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 25 US senators, seven governors, and many celebrities and influencers. All of that, ultimately, proved to be of no avail, as political shenanigans thwarted diplomatic approaches to achieve a hostage-prisoner swap deal.

Notwithstanding his trials and personal tragedy, Polin remains an optimist. “I think there are a lot of generous people in the world, and I feel there are people who feel they want to do something for me and for my family.”

That sunny take is backed by the overwhelming response Polin received to his online announcement about Wheels of Love. “By putting up just one Facebook post a month ago, that I’m going to get back on the bike and ride for Alyn, it has turned into just shy of $50,000 for the hospital.” In precise uplifting numerals, at the time of writing Polin had attracted a hugely impressive donation haul of $49,035. “I know some of the people giving time. And some donations have come from people I don’t know, or haven’t been in touch with for years or decades. But I think people are looking for something good to do, and Alyn is something that fits that bill. I am very happy that it’s working out this way.”

HAVING DONE just one of the five days, twice, including one last day in which all the riders ended up at the hospital and received a medal from one of the young patients, I can vouch for the emotive element of Wheels of Love. “It’s always a really emotional experience, and really gives the riders a feel for what they are raising money for,” Polin observes.

As a veteran participant, he has been able to witness the fruits of his cycling labors and of the dedication of the hospital staff. “One of the things I particularly love, over my years of doing the ride, is seeing Alyn patients, kids, who go from not being able to get on a bike to maybe sitting on the back of a tandem bike, to then doing the ride themselves. I know people who were patients at Alyn, and then used the motivation of trying to do the ride, with somebody else, on the back of a tandem bike, as motivation for their therapy. Then, they were able to do the ride on their own. I know of several such cases, and it is really amazing, and inspiring.”

Those images will, no doubt, help to keep Polin and his counterparts pedaling up some of the stiffer ascents they encounter across the five days. “I ride and, every year, I see kids riding on the back of tandem bikes, and I wonder which of those kids, in one, two, or five years will be able to ride on their own. And it happens. It is always super gratifying to be involved in all this.”

Polin is clearly doing his utmost to look on the bright side of life, to spread goodwill and harness his unwanted celebrity for the benefit of the children and youth who receive the best possible attention and care from the devoted professionals and auxiliary members of staff.

Ironically, Alyn takes no heed of a child’s ethnic or religious backdrop. That includes Gazans, some of whom were ferried from the Erez crossing, at the interface between Gaza and Israel, to Israeli hospitals for treatment, by the likes of Canadian-born peace activist Vivian Silver, who was murdered on October 7.

Healthcare is one of the great levelers, and no one at Alyn checks a patient’s ID, nationality, or religious allegiance before they are admitted. It is an approach that Polin wholeheartedly supports. “They said that is more tangible in hospitals than pretty much anywhere in Israel. It is so true of Alyn. The staff cuts across all sectors of Israeli society, as do the patients. It all just works well. Without getting political here, Alyn may be a microcosm of what is possible in this region if we were to allow that to happen.”

Through his efforts on behalf of his son and the other Israeli hostages, Polin may have accrued a prominent media profile. But he says all of that will be of little consequence when he mounts his two-wheeler on November 10. “I know many of the riders, and I think it will be an opportunity for me to just kind of slip into some level of normalcy, not necessarily anonymity, but some level of comfort with the people around me.”

Some of those people, sadly, have a better idea than most of what Polin is going through. “Unfortunately, I’m not the only one who’s coming off personal tragedy. There are others. This year’s ride is called the Yakir Hexter Memorial Ride. Yakir’s father is a guy I’ve known for over 40 years, way before we began biking together. I am sure there are others. I don’t know who else is going to be on the ride, but, unfortunately, I am sure I am not the only one with a very personal connection to some of the tragic activities of the last number of months.”

All of which makes this year’s Wheels of Love a highly poignant and crucial edition of the annual fundraising event.

Naturally, the ongoing security situation is also proving challenging for the organizers. Normally, the Wheels of Love participant roster is swelled by numerous generous-hearted folk who not only pay their riding fee and raise donations but also fly themselves and their bicycles over here from abroad for the occasion. With them less able or willing to make the trip to this troubled neck of the woods, the contributions made by local riders and donors take on even greater significance.

“I don’t know what percent of riders of the typical year will be able to ride this year,” says Polin, “but I think it is going to be mostly limited to people from within Israel. I know a few overseas riders who plan to be here, and are hoping to be here, but it’s still precarious. I have several friends who come from Holland every year to ride, and I know at least a few who are planning to be here this year as well. That would be great. It will be an emotional, meaningful, different ride from some of the past carefree, innocent rides that we have done.”

For now, Polin can focus on Wheels of Love, the physical effort required, the exhilaration of pedaling through some beautiful countryside, and sharing that with hundreds of other like-minded cyclists all doing their bit for a worthy cause. “It is a way to squeeze something positive out of a personal and national very challenging situation,” he says. “I think it’s human nature to feel good about doing something good for others.”

For more information about Alyn Hospital and Wheels of Love: https://www.alyn.org