RSS
Mother of Murdered American-Israeli Hostage Declares ‘Finally, You’re Free!’ as Thousands Gather for Funeral
Mourners gather in Jerusalem for the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Taken by author
The mother of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin eulogized her son in front of thousands of mourners at his funeral in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon with the exclamation that he was finally set free.
“OK sweet boy, go now on your journey. I hope it’s as good as the trips you dreamed about,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said, addressing her deceased 23-year-old son, an avid traveler.
Her voice cracking, she added, “Finally, sweet boy, finally, finally, finally, you’re free!”
“One thing I keep thinking about is how out of all the mothers in all the entire world, God chose to give Hersh to me. What must I have done in a past life to deserve such a beautiful gift?” she said.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was born in the United States and moved to Israel at age 7, was abducted on Oct. 7 while at the Nova music festival with his best friend, Aner Shapiro. Shapiro, who fielded three grenades from the roadside bomb shelter the two were hiding in, was one of 1,200 people killed that day by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists. Apart from Goldberg-Polin, 250 others were kidnapped to Gaza.
Goldberg-Polin’s body was found along with five other hostages over the weekend in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Hamas terrorists had executed them prior to a raid by Israeli forces.
“Those beautiful six survived together and those beautiful six died together. And now they will be remembered together forever,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said of her son, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.
Addressing her son, she went on: “You had lost your arm, and you thought you were dying. And you wrote to us, I’m sorry, because you knew how crushing it would be for us. So you fought to stay alive, and now you are gone.”
“Now I no longer have to worry about you; you are no longer in danger. You are with beautiful Aner. I hope he will show you around,” she added.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin delivering a eulogy at her son’s funeral in Jerusalem on Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Taken by author
Thousands of people gathered at the Har Menuchot cemetery in the fringes of Jerusalem. Many more hundreds lined the streets of the capital city holding Israeli flags as the family accompanied Goldberg-Polin to his final resting place. The funeral was also livestreamed and viewed by 17,000 people.
The eulogies were delivered in near pin-drop silence, broken only by the occasional, heart-wrenching cries from the crowd.
“It’s so hard to be here, but how can you not?” one mourner, Hezi Fried, told The Algemeiner. “I didn’t know him, but I feel like I did. Everyone did.”
The sentiment was echoed in Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s eulogy. “We didn’t know you in life, but you live inside us,” Herzog said.
“Our hearts, already broken, are now shattered into a million pieces,” he said.
Herzog also expressed his regret at the country’s failure to bring the hostages home alive.
“I apologize on behalf of the State of Israel, that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of Oct. 7, and that we failed to bring you home safely,” he said.
Herzog compared the “pure barbaric evil” of Hamas to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who, he said, “taught the world about dignity” and “touched all of humanity deeply.”
Hersh’s father, Jon Goldberg, remarked that the most common refrain he had seen and heard from people since his son’s murder was “sorry.”
“We failed you. We all failed you. You would not have failed you,” he said. “What you would be pushing now is to ensure that your death and the deaths of all the soldiers was not for nothing.”
In her own eulogy, his wife thanked her community and well-wishers around the world who “prayed for us, cooked for us, cared for us when we could not stand up.”
“I’m so thankful to you, and I apologize deeply, but we’re going now to need continued help to get through this sickening new chapter,” she said. “And I’m so sorry to ask because we’ve given you nothing, and you have already given us profoundly and completely for 11 months.”
Mourner Rebecca, who did not know the family, said she felt “crushed with guilt” at Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s words.
“She says that but I don’t feel it’s true; she gave us everything. She was the one who held us all up instead of the other way around,” she said.
In between sobs, she continued, “How can we as a community ever do enough or be strong enough for this amazing family?”
Mourners gather in Jerusalem for the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Taken by author
Eden Danino, who traveled from the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, said he had made it to three of the hostages’ funerals since Sunday. “It was heartbreaking to be there. We just never, ever thought it would end like this. I was so sure they would come home.”
The murders triggered nationwide protests and general strikes across the country on Sunday evening and throughout Monday, with many demanding a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the war in Hamas-ruled Gaza launched by the Oct. 7 massacre.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin expressed her gratitude to God for the “most stunning honor to be [your] mama.”
“But now my worry shifts to us,” she continued. “How do we live the rest of our life without you? I know you’re right here. I just have to teach myself how to feel you in a different way. One last thing I need you to do for us now. I need you to help us stay strong, to help us survive.”
The post Mother of Murdered American-Israeli Hostage Declares ‘Finally, You’re Free!’ as Thousands Gather for Funeral first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears
The Telegram logo is seen on a screen of a smartphone in this picture illustration taken April 13, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin.
Authorities in two Russian regions have blocked the Telegram messenger because of concerns that the app could be used by enemies, a regional digital development minister was quoted as saying by the TASS state news agency on Saturday.
Dagestan and Chechnya are mainly Muslim regions in southern Russia where intelligence services have registered an increase in militant Islamist activity.
“It (Telegram) is often used by enemies, an example of which is the riots at the Makhachkala airport,” said Yuri Gamzatov, Dagestan’s digital development minister, adding that the decision to block the messenger had been made at the federal level.
Gamzatov was referring to an anti-Israel riot in Dagestan in October 2023, when hundreds of protesters stormed an airport to try to attack passengers arriving on a plane from the Jewish state. No passengers were injured, and authorities have prosecuted several people over the incident.
News of the plane’s arrival had spread on local Telegram channels, where users posted calls for antisemitic violence. Telegram condemned the attack and said it would block the channels.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the blocks in Russia.
Based in Dubai and founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, the messenger has nearly 1 billion users and is used widely in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Moscow tried but failed to block Telegram in 2018 and has in the past demanded the platform hand over user data. Durov is under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organized crime on the app.
Gamzatov, the minister in Dagestan, said Telegram could be unblocked in the future, but encouraged users to switch to other messengers in the meantime.
The post Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, in Washington, DC, Feb. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action said it caused the damage, posting on social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland said it was investigating.
“Around 4.40am on Saturday, 8 March, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said, adding that enquiries were ongoing.
Separately on Saturday, a man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.
The post Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled
A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: Mary Altaffer/Pool via REUTERS
Columbia University’s interim president said the school is working to address the “legitimate concerns” of US President Donald Trump’s administration after $400 million of federal government grants and contracts to the university were canceled over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
In an announcement on Friday, the government cited what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s New York City campus as the reason for pulling the funding. The university has repeatedly been at the forefront of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.
“I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns,” Katrina Armstrong, the university’s interim president, said in a late-night message to alumni on Friday. “To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combating antisemitism on our campus.”
The Trump administration said the canceled funding is only a portion of the $5 billion in government grants that has been committed to the school, but the school is bracing for a financial hit.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” Armstrong said.
Federal funding accounted for about $1.3 billion of the university’s $6.6 billion in operating revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a Columbia financial report.
Some Jewish students and staff have been among the pro-Palestinian protesters, and they say their criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism. Minouche Shafik resigned last year as Columbia’s president after the university’s handling of the protests drew criticism from pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides alike.
The administration has declined to say what contracts and grants it has canceled, but the Education Department argues the demonstrations have been unlawful and deprive Jewish students of learning opportunities.
Civil rights groups say the immediate cuts are unconstitutional punishment for protected speech and likely to face legal challenges.
The post Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.