Berkeley man held by Hamas among 6 hostages found dead in Gaza

BERKELEY -- Hersh Goldman-Polin, a young man who grew up in Berkeley and who was being held hostage by Hamas terrorists, has been killed in Gaza along with five others. He had become known to the Bay Area and to the world because of the efforts of his parents to bring the hostages home. Now, a devastated Jewish community says keeping hope alive is "mandatory."

On Sunday morning, the message came in an Instagram post with a somber black background. The family announced the death of their beloved Hersh, a 24-year-old, fun-loving man who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 at an Israeli music festival. Aaron Katler is a long-time family friend living in Berkeley who was part of "Team Hersh," that worked to get him released.

"It's not the way the story was supposed to end or any of us thought it would," said Katler. "We all really believed until there was reason not to believe that he was coming home."

Reports are that, on Friday with Israeli troops moving in, Hersh and five other hostages were executed by their Hamas captors. Hersh had become high-profile in the crisis when he had been forced by the terrorists to make a propaganda video. His parents brought the Democratic National Convention to tears as they described the kidnapping of their only son.

"Since then, we live on another planet," Rachel Goldberg-Polin told the convention crowd in August. "Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that John and I and all the hostage families are enduring."

Katler said Hersh's parents worked tirelessly to make the hostage crisis something other than a geo-political struggle.

"John and Rachel made this a human and humanitarian issue," Katler said. "They made it real. And, hopefully, Hersh's memory and his legacy will be to make the world a better place ... and make that part of the world a better place."

There was a larger than usual crowd at the Lafayette highway overpass on Sunday morning. Yoav Harlev organized the weekly demonstration and said no one was giving up.

"Hope is not optional. It's mandatory." Harlev said. "And that's kind of how we're operating right now. You've got to have hope. These are real people with real lives with families waiting for them.

Despite the heartbreaking news about the hostages, demonstrators said they felt an obligation to the remaining captives to stay optimistic.

"I always have hope," said Ilana Pearlman from Berkeley. "You look at Hersh's mom ... How can I, not having a child in captivity, say I don't have hope? That's unfair. So, I am going to hope and keep showing up. I have to do it."

Yael Nivam Kirsht understands the crushing pain. Two of her family members were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Her sister-in-law was eventually released but her brother-in-law was murdered.

"The remaining families that still have captives, they do not have the luxury of giving up hope," he said. "And we are here today as a community to say we are not giving up hope. We're still standing together with you. We will stay with you until the hostages are back."

The hostage crisis, like the situation in Gaza itself, is a problem with no obvious answer. Does hope for their return lie in a military operation or a negotiated settlement? And how much faith could anyone have in a deal surrounded by so much inhuman brutality?