Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s memoir, When We See You Again, is an unvarnished account of grief after her son Hersh — one of 251 people abducted on Oct. 7, 2023 — was killed in a Gaza tunnel in August 2024. The book mixes public activism (including meetings with political leaders and mass protests) with intimate memories and small human details that resist mythologizing. Written as a survival act, the memoir seeks to make others see and feel the magnitude of her loss. It closes with a solemn vow to “carry” Hersh’s ‘why’ forward.
‘When We See You Again’: A Mother’s Raw Memoir After Her Son Was Killed in a Gaza Tunnel
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son, Hersh, was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas cross border attack on Israel and killed in Gaza nearly a year later, poses for a photo with her new book "When We See You Again," in Jerusalem, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s new memoir, When We See You Again, is a searing account of a mother’s grief after her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, and later killed in a Gaza tunnel in August 2024. Rather than offering tidy closure or a political verdict, the book focuses on memory, pain and the effort to make others see the depth of an unthinkable loss.
A Public Fight, A Private Wound
Hersh was among 251 people taken during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Early reports said his hand was severed by a grenade before he was dragged into Gaza and moved into the group’s network of tunnels. Family and friends clung to a line he reportedly quoted in captivity from Viktor Frankl: “Those who have a ‘why’ to live can bear with almost any ‘how.’”
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son, Hersh, was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas cross border attack on Israel and killed in Gaza nearly a year later, poses for a photo in Jerusalem, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Rachel became a public advocate for his release, appearing in numerous interviews, meeting then‑President Joe Biden, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and joining mass protests in Israel demanding action. After nearly a year in captivity, Hersh and five other hostages were shot dead underground in August 2024, about 328 days after their abduction, as Israeli forces were reported to be closing in.
Memories Over Myth
Rather than mythologize Hersh, Rachel writes about small, human details: how he picked his scabs as a child, his imperfect dishwashing, his encyclopedic knowledge of U.S. presidents and his devotion to Jerusalem’s local soccer team and a sister club in Bremen, Germany. Posters and graffiti bearing his face and the Frankl line remain visible across Israel.
FILE - Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, attend their son's funeral in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via AP, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Writing to Survive
“The book really started just as a way of taking this tremendous weight of suffering that was causing my soul to buckle,” Rachel says.
She describes the manuscript as a way to survive the next 15 minutes — an effort to translate an inner wound into words. The memoir is intentionally raw: “a very raw, peeled, oozing, throbbing pain,” she writes, recounting “hundreds of sodden days dripping with anguish.”
Rachel also explores the dissonance between her private suffering and others’ attempts to comfort her. She uses an image in the book — comparing her grief to the color blue for someone born blind — to explain why she feels desperate for people to perceive her loss.
FILE - Friends and supporters of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, protest outside of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence to demand a deal for the immediate release of all hostages, after Hamas released a video of Goldberg-Polin, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Lessons From Loss
The book reflects on a surprising outcome of public mourning: encounters with others’ suffering during Hersh’s shiva widened Rachel’s understanding of what she calls the world’s “surplus of suffering.” People who came to console often brought their own griefs, sometimes saying, “Let me stand next to you and we’ll be in this together.”
Throughout the hostage campaign Rachel repeated a mantra: “Hope is mandatory.” Even after the releases secured by an October ceasefire that followed the wider war — which, according to widely reported figures, resulted in more than 70,000 Palestinian deaths and caused devastation across Gaza — strangers still seek the small, creased hope she and her husband carried for so long.
FILE - Jon Polin, left, and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, pictured on screen speak during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A Promise
The memoir closes without easy answers. In a letter addressed to her dead son near the book’s end, Rachel writes: “I will carry your why. I'll do it, I’ll carry your why around the world.” It is both a vow and a continuing search for meaning in the wake of unresolvable loss.
When We See You Again will resonate with readers drawn to intimate, unflinching reckonings of grief and the ethical tensions of public advocacy in moments of national trauma.
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