A Stain on Israel’s Soul: Remembering Hersh Goldberg-Polin and the Beautiful Six

Today was the first yahrzeit (anniversary of death on the Hebrew calendar) for Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages murdered by Hamas in captivity last year.

In Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis, you can listen to the video clip of Hersh’s mother’s moving words, which reveal a hard truth: that of the 68 members of the prime minister’s coalition, only one took the time to reach out to her family.

One.

The other 67 showed exactly what they are: void of compassion, void of integrity, void of any moral compass.

Shame on them.

And this is not an isolated failure; it is a reflection of the government itself, a coalition so consumed with clinging to power and pandering to extremists that it has forfeited even the most basic sense of humanity.

At a time when Israelis are desperate for empathy, direction, and moral clarity, the prime minister and his partners offer nothing but silence, cynicism, and a vacuum where human decency should be the standard.

This is not leadership. It is a stain on Israel’s soul.

Even while Rachel Goldberg-Polin bears witness to a painful reality, her words inspire us to lift Hersh’s memory, and that of the other murdered hostages, by working ‘to make our complicated world a bit better.’

In an Instagram post she wrote:

”Please do something during those 24 hours to make our complicated world a bit better. It can be something big or small, quiet or loud, private or public. Do it in memory of the Beautiful Six, including our Hersh. May his memory be a revolution…for goodness”

Rachel reminds us that their memory demands more than words—it calls on us to act, to fill the world with the decency their murderers sought to extinguish.

זכרונם לברכה — May the memory of Hersh, Ori, Eden, Almog, Alexander, and Carmel be a revolution for goodness, and endure as the blessing they were to their families, their friends, and to Am Yisrael.