RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – An extremely close friend of the Goldberg-Polin family, Orly Lewis, is expressing the horror of finding out Hersh Goldberg-Polin was killed by Hamas terrorists and left in a tunnel in Gaza.
Hersh, who lived in Richmond as a kid, was one of six hostages killed just before the Israel Defense Force could reach them as a part of a ceasefire agreement to release them.
Lewis tells 12 On Your Side that she’s known Hersh and his family since he was about 5 years old.
“It felt like someone was telling me that my son has been murdered… Hersh was like a son to me and my family,” Orly Lewis recalled when she found out Hersh was killed… “We wept… for a while,” she said.
Lewis shared how she’s just trying to take it day by day.
“You can’t describe the pain; it just penetrates through your whole body, and you don’t know how to describe it other than to just fall apart and let it run through you… I think all of us were hoping for a celebration, so it’s really hard to transform your brain and your heart and your thinking from celebration to mourning and I think in some ways, most of us are still processing it,” she said.
Sunday, Governor Youngkin released a statement saying in part: “Johnathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg woke up to unimaginable news that no parent should ever receive. Suzanne and I are angered and heartbroken by the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a senseless murder at the hands of terrorists.”
There will be a memorial or vigil held for Hersh in Richmond in the near future.
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