Among the hostages killed in Gaza is an Israeli-American citizen with ties to Georgia

ATLANTA, Georgia (Atlanta News First) – An American-Israeli hostage taken during the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war between Israel and Hamas had ties to northern Georgia.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a native of California, was one of the six hostages killed and found dead in Gaza on Sunday.

He and several family members have long participated in Passover celebrations at Ramah Darom, a Jewish nonprofit organization with a summer camp in Rabun County.

Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages who were shot and killed. Their bodies were found in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Associated Press reported.

“There are no words to express the grief we are all feeling,” Camp Ramah Darom said in a social media post. “The hope we held onto, the raw emotion and tireless perseverance of Rachel and Jon, keeping Hersh and the hostages in our minds, make this news even more heartbreaking. We mourn with the entire Goldberg-Polin family.”

A memorial to Goldberg-Polin was erected at Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta, where Hersh's family is a member of the congregation. The memorial also honors two other hostages with ties to the congregation.

“He had this insatiable love for life, you could see it whenever you talked to him,” said Rabbi Ari Kaiman of Shearith Israel in Atlanta.

Kaiman presented a Shabbat table with place settings for three hostages, including Goldberg-Polin, with ties to the Atlanta community.

“For the remaining hostages, I still pray that they will have a place at the Shabbat table, that they will come home and that we can begin to heal this wound,” Kaiman said.

Kaiman said Goldberg-Polin was an avid reader and loved geography and soccer.

“We failed him,” Kaiman said, echoing the sentiments of Goldberg-Polin's father at a memorial service on Monday. “The loss is that we believed, we really believed, that he was coming home.”

Three of the six hostages – including Goldberg-Polin – were reportedly to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July. reported AP.

Goldberg-Polin lost part of an arm in a grenade explosion in the October 7 attack that led to the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.

The AP reported Polin's parents had led a much-noticed campaign for the release of the prisoners.including a meeting with President Joe Biden and Pope Francis and a speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.

“May Hersh's memory be forever a blessing and may his family know no more sorrow. Baruch Dayan Ha'emet,” said the statement from Ramah Darom camp.

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