Anderson Cooper spoke with Rachel Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem about the life and death of her only son, Hersh, who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 and later executed. This is a condensed account of their extended 60 Minutes conversation.
Hersh and the last night before Oct. 7
Rachel described Hersh as easygoing and sharp, “on the brink of budding” into adulthood. On Oct. 6 the family walked to synagogue for Shabbat. They blessed Hersh in the traditional way—placing both hands on his head—and he kissed his mother, said “I love you” and “I’ll see you tomorrow.” That was the last time she saw him.
The attack and the first messages
On the morning of Oct. 7 the family woke to sirens. At 8:11 a.m. two texts arrived from Hersh: the first read “I love you,” the second “I’m sorry.” He had sent them from a crowded bomb shelter near the Nova Music Festival, which Hamas attacked. Survivors later told of 29 people crammed into a bomb shelter where terrorists threw grenades and sprayed machine-gun fire; some hid under bodies to survive. Hersh’s left arm was blown off by a grenade; video later showed him wounded but alive as he was forced into a pickup truck and taken into Gaza.
Days of advocacy and “hope is mandatory”
Rachel and her husband, Jon, spent months advocating for the hostages—meeting leaders, traveling the world, doing media interviews. To keep the urgency visible she wore pieces of tape marking the number of days the hostages had been held. “Hope is mandatory,” she said: without it she could not have functioned through the 330-day odyssey that followed Hersh’s kidnapping. The first months were torturous, filled with fear that their child was being tortured and abused. When proof surfaced that Hersh had been taken alive, it gave the family the energy to continue.
Proof-of-life videos and the burial
During Passover in April 2024, Rachel received a CIA contact’s call and a video showing Hersh alive; it was excruciating but confirmatory. Later Hamas released a propaganda video showing the stump of his arm. Families continued to push for action. On day 328 some families went to the Gaza border and shouted messages to their loved ones; Rachel screamed into a microphone, blessing Hersh and telling him they were working day and night. She later learned he had been killed that very day.
On day 330 Rachel had a dream of a small olive tree growing through planks with a plaque bearing Hersh’s name. That night Israeli intelligence arrived to tell the family that Hersh had been found among bodies in a tunnel in Rafah. Rachel called the military officers “messengers of death.” She said she was “broken” and initially could not process the finality. Hersh’s funeral was massive: thousands lined the streets from their house to the cemetery. Rachel said she told him, “Finally, finally you’re free,” and at the grave she screamed “I’m sorry.” Thousands of signs and people came to mourn; parents warned her she might never be OK again—a warning she later understood as truth.
What Rachel learned about Hersh in captivity
In February 2025 a released hostage, Or Levy, told Rachel about spending time with Hersh in a tunnel and about how Hersh had been treated. Or said Hersh had bled to death from his wounds and had been taken to Al-Shifa Hospital at one point, where his jagged bone was amputated. Or reported that Hersh repeatedly quoted Viktor Frankl—“when you have a why, you can bear any how”—and that Hersh asked Or about his own family, saying, “you’re the guy from the bomb shelter, you have a son,” indicating Hersh knew the names and had clear lines of caring.
Or described the conditions in the tunnels: Hersh and others were driven into Gaza, moved through tunnels, held together with other hostages. Or’s account clarified earlier gaps about who Hersh had been with, the medical neglect in the first days, and the efforts of captive men like Ori Danino to save each other. Or’s testimony also gave Rachel comfort: it confirmed Hersh had heard his mother’s voice on the news, knew they were trying to bring him home, and had been conscious and giving words of meaning to other captives.
How Hersh died
According to intelligence and Or’s account, Hersh and other hostages were executed at close range in a tunnel near Rafah. Hersh suffered multiple gunshot wounds; his body bore six bullet wounds. Or said Hersh and Ori Danino had been inseparable in the tunnel, with Ori sitting on Hersh’s left to compensate for Hersh’s missing hand. Rachel said that hearing Or’s testimony—two men describing Hersh’s final moments—was both devastating and essential.
Advocacy after the killing
After burying Hersh, Rachel and Jon continued to advocate for other hostages. They felt they owed it to their son and the remaining families. Rachel said that if they had any leverage to help others it would be dishonorable to stop. She spoke of trying to convince leaders of the urgency of rescue and of having to learn quickly how to navigate international diplomacy, advocacy and media. She also said she felt they had been let down by officials who hadn’t acted with the urgency families believed was necessary.
Grief, faith, and meaning
Rachel described the first 330 days as “the good part” because he was alive then; once she learned he had been executed, she said, “this is the rest of my life,” and she must now live without a piece of herself. She likened the trauma to being struck by an 18-wheeler that parks on top of you. For months she needed to push herself through each day: “hope is mandatory,” she repeated. She also described a longstanding morning prayer—“I am grateful to you, creator of the universe, for returning my soul to me. You have tremendous faith in me”—that sustained her during the ordeal.
Rachel spoke candidly about faith: she said the knowing, after learning of Hersh’s death, that Hersh “isn’t supposed to be here now” felt like the closest she’d ever felt to God. She rejected the idea that the loss was a punishment and instead said she was left with questions about why, about the tunnels, and about how to accept that many things remain unanswerable.
Meeting Or Levy and what he gave them
Rachel said Or’s release and his willingness to meet made a crucial difference. Or had spent time with Hersh in captivity and shone light on previously dark areas: that Hersh had received some medical attention, that he had said Viktor Frankl’s line to others, and that he had heard his mother’s voice on the news and understood the family’s efforts. Or’s testimonial affirmed that Hersh had known they were doing everything to bring him home, a comfort to the parents even amid the horror of his execution.
Keeping Hersh present
Rachel has kept Hersh’s room as he left it—still the room of a young person about to embark on life. She keeps talking about him aloud, reading passages she wrote, and sometimes answering questions the way he would have. She described grief as “chronic, ever present, constant, gnawing, circular, not linear,” but said grief had shifted in meaning for her: it is “a precious badge of love,” a continuing relationship. She described small moments of discovering new things about him—finding journal entries and friends’ memories—and how those snippets extend her relationship with Hersh beyond his death.
The “tunnel” prophecy
Rachel found an old journal entry Hersh wrote in 2015 in ninth grade that repeatedly used the word “tunnel” and spoke about entering a dark tunnel and emerging at the other end. She and her daughters called it prophetic given Hersh’s eventual fate, and she said the recurrence of “tunnel” in his writing has stayed with their family in a haunting way.
Removing the tape and the aftermath
The family had been marking days with pieces of tape—thousands of them—on a wall and on their bodies while pushing for the hostages’ return. When the last bodies were returned, they took down the tape and discovered paint came off the wall—“tearing the skin off our house,” Rachel said. She still sometimes reaches to put a tape on and remembers the urgency that drove the family and many others through the long months.
Carrying the why forward
Rachel said Or’s words—that Hersh said their voice reached him and that he knew they were speaking to leaders—felt like a life-affirming “CPR from beyond.” They learned Hersh’s mantra in captivity and the importance of having a why to bear the how. Rachel described her work as trying to give words to pain—to let other people know how to name and hold grief. Her public advocacy and the writing of her book (When We See You Again) are part of that effort: to describe the pain, to keep memory alive, to help others find voice and meaning.
Possibility of future
Rachel does not know if she will ever be “OK” in the way people use the word. She speaks of grief as growth alongside pain: bamboo that continues to grow, a continuing relationship that transforms. She said she would like to believe she will see Hersh again, though she does not know how that will look, and she keeps trying to find ways to live in the world without the part of herself that Hersh was.
Editor’s note: This is a condensed version of the extended interview originally broadcast on 60 Minutes.