USA Today has named Rachel Goldberg‑Polin as one of its Women of the Year.

The Jerusalem resident, who was raised in Chicago, became a symbol of the fight to release the 251 hostages abducted during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, when terrorists surged through the border and murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel.

Goldberg‑Polin’s 23-year-old son, Hersh, was taken hostage from the Nova music festival, where his arm was blown off by a grenade in the Hamas massacre. In August 2024, he was murdered in a Gaza tunnel by Hamas terrorists along with five other captives.

“Her commitment to save as many of the 251 hostages as possible from the throes of Hamas captivity never wavered, even after Hersh was returned to her in a body bag,” a profile about her in the American daily said. She and her husband Jon Polin became two of the most recognizable faces of the movement to free the hostages.

The article said that Goldberg‑Polin, 56, still finds it hard to go out, even to the grocery store, without people recognizing her, even when she is partially disguised.

“I’m still very much this........

© The Times of Israel