Hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin's mother Rachel is holding hope her son will be at her Seder table

NEW YORK – Rachel Goldberg, mother of American-Israeli hostage 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was named to Time’s 2024 annual TIME100 list of most influential people in the world.

“Rachel’s inclusion on the TIME100 list is in recognition of the impact she and her husband Jon Polin, along with hundreds of other families of hostages taken by Hamas, and millions of people around the world, have had in raising global awareness of the hostage crisis and their unwavering efforts to continue to fight for the release of Hersh and every hostage,” a group representing hostages’ families said on Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, Goldberg participated in a webinar with Association of Reform Zionists of America marking six months of captivity where she talked about her son’s personality and recalled the hours leading up to the morning of October 7 where she learned something horrific happened.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin

Goldberg described Hersh as funny with a dry, dark sense of humor. Hersh is obsessed with soccer and loves electronic music and has a sense of wanderlust that took him on a solo nine week trip through Europe in 2023 not long before October 7.

On the night of October 6, Hersh joined his parents and two younger sisters for Shabbat services and dinner to celebrate Simchat Torah. After dinner, Hersh told his parents he and his best friend Aner Shapira were going to go camping.

“And as he was leaving, as he was walking out, he turned around in the doorway and he looked at me very casually and just said, ‘love you, see you tomorrow,’” Rachel said. “And that was 195 nights ago.”

Hersh and Aner were among the thousands of young Israelis attending the Nova music festival the morning of October 7.

Rachel recounted turning her phone on that Shabbat morning and finding a text form Hersh saying he loved them and he was sorry. Witnesses, and later video footage, confirmed Hersh was kidnapped by Hamas from a small bomb shelter on the side of the road near the festival site. Aner was killed in the bomb shelter where he saved countless lives.

Hersh’s last phone GPS coordinates were from inside of Gaza.

Since then, Rachel and Jon have been working tirelessly and traveling back and forth from Israel to Washington and New York City meeting with world leaders and advocating for a deal to release the hostages.

“We run every single day as hard as we can,” Rachel said.

Rachel acknowledged how Iran’s attack against Israel over the weekend complicates the latest deal the US put on the table last week as the American-Israeli hostages’ families met with government officials in DC last week.

The future of the deal remains uncertain.

“We should all just keep praying for miracles and freedom and unhardened hearts, and God willing, the next time that I see you, Hersh will be next to me,” Rachel said. “I am still believing that he will be at my Seder.”