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On Wednesday evening, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin came to the Democratic convention, and for eight minutes and forty-four seconds, the politics stopped.
“This is a political convention, but needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue,” Jon Polin, Hersh’s father, declared, eliciting sustained applause.
Both Polin and his wife, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, had attached a strip of masking tape to their shirts with the number 320 on it—indicating that the hostages have been in captivity for 320 days.
“We’re heartened that both Democratic and Republican leaders demonstrate their bipartisan support for our hostages being released,” Jon Polin said.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin talked about the “109 treasured human beings” being held hostage, adding, “They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. They are from twenty-three different countries.”
Delegates wept and nodded along and murmured, “Oh, my God,” and “That poor, poor boy,” as images of Hersh, 23, appeared on the jumbo screen behind his parents—smiling and suntanned. In between bursts of applause, they chanted, “Bring them home! Bring them home!” Almost all of the tens of thousands of people crammed into the United Center stood silent.
There were no boos, no one waving any Palestinian flags. No one talked about “cease-fires.” If the left has been consumed by a mystifying moral relativism over the past few decades, there was none of that on Wednesday. There was just a tearful couple onstage doing what parents everywhere, anywhere, would do.
It was the most powerful moment, so far, of the week—and it echoed similar speeches given at last month’s Republican convention, in Milwaukee. It was also a reminder that the great bulk of Democrats are sympathetic to the plight of the Jews murdered and raped and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023—the antisemitism that seems to have engulfed much of the left notwithstanding.
As they were about to exit the stage, Rachel Goldberg-Polin leaned into the microphone and said: “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive.”
Peter Savodnik is a senior editor for The Free Press. Read his piece “A Vanishing Biden Reappears at the DNC” and follow him on X @petersavodnik.
It was sad because they think Harris and the Democrats in Congress care more about the hostages and the security of Israel than the do about making sure the hamas wing of the party turns out and votes for them.
Too little too late, Mamala. And I'm not taken in by your canned "Israel's security." vs so called Palestinian self determination. What did you do on behalf of the Kurds, or Tibet or East Turkmenistan or the racist apartheid faux statelet Turkey created on occupied Cyprus?
AS for Fetterman's Carrie Adams and nuance of her generation....Pa leez gurl.....I'm way older than even Senator Fetterman and I watched the nuance of the police in 1968 and all the nuance since the JFK assassination....Despite all the trashing my "not the greatest" generation" has come in for even from some revisionist boomers.....this generation has got to be the most uneducated and arrogant one.....I mean a lot of the boomer were arrogant but they did know the world.....this one is watching their device....tuned into really wretched song with the n word or the b word as every other word.....don't get me started, ms or mr carrie adams....you know nothing......SHAME. I grew up with Street Fighting Man , what's your anthem....free free palestine? fck that shyte.