An Evening with Rachel Goldberg-Polin in discussion with Dr. Noam Weissman

Books & Books and Temple Judea proudly join forces to present "An Evening with Rachel Goldberg-Polin" for the release of her new book, WHEN WE SEE YOU AGAIN, a searing portrait of a mother's grief and strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy.

🎟️ Please note: Tickets are REQUIRED. Each ticket admits one(1) guest into the venue and includes one (1) copy of WHEN WE SEE YOU AGAIN ($30 + tax). Books will be handed out upon entry. Additional books will be available for sale at the event. Can't make the event?

Once upon a time, I was meandering down the road of life with my husband, Jon. It was a regular and beige life, and it worked. It was a warm beige. We felt, and were, blessed and lucky. Normal.
On the morning of October 7th, 2023, Rachel Goldberg-Polin's beloved twenty-three-year-old son, Hersh, was stolen from a music festival billed as a celebration of unity and love-and, in that moment, her life was forever separated into The Before and The After. Over the next eleven months, she and her husband, Jon, would work tirelessly-in public and behind the scenes-to secure the hostages' release, to breathe some humanity into the situation while they were experiencing relentless emotional and psychological torment. The power of her raw and fervent pleas soon made her the face of the hostage crisis. And when Hersh and five other captives were executed after surviving 328 days of violence and cruelty, she would also become the face of its ultimate cost.
In When We See You Again, Rachel pours her pain, love, and longing onto paper, giving voice to the broken among us, and reminding us that even when the world feels choked with darkness, light exists in a different way. How do we find it? Her own experience has been extreme, but at its essence, this is a universal story of trying to live with grief. It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love.
"There are days when I break completely," she writes. "I have cried for an entire day straight. I didn't think it was physically possible, but the weeping never let up. That is a very long time to cry. I kept hoping I would run out of tears. And then there are days when there is a whisper of sun. Not out there in the sky. In me. In us."

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son, Hersh, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, after having his dominant forearm blown off. Since then, the couple, who are dual American-Israeli citizens, have become full-time hostage advocates. They have been speaking worldwide about Hersh's abduction and fighting for all of the hostages to be freed. Almost a year after being stolen, on day 330, the IDF announced that Hersh had been murdered by Hamas, in a tunnel in Gaza, along with 5 other young people with whom he was being held. Despite the devastating loss of their son, Jon and Rachel remain steadfast in their quest for the freedom of every hostage held by Hamas.

Dr. Noam Weissman drives the educational vision and strategic growth of OpenDor Media across Unpacked, Unpacked for Educators, ConnectED, and Amplified. He hosts 'Unpacking Israeli History' and co-hosts 'Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam'. A Civil Society Fellow and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, he holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from USC. Noam was Scholar-in-Residence at Horace Mann and is frequently invited to speak at Jewish and non-Jewish institutions worldwide. He is married to Raizie and has four wonderful children.

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