337 – Jon Polin of Jerusalem, Israel, Serial Entrepreneur, Father of Three Including One Who Was Taken Hostage By Hamas

Transcript:

David Hirsch: Hi, this is David Hirsch, host of the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Just days after Jonathan Polin and I recorded this interview, the world learned of the tragic news that his son Hersh and five other hostages were brutally murdered by Hamas. Our hearts ache for the Goldberg-Polin family and all those impacted, Israelis and Palestinians by these grotesque and surreal circumstances.

Jon Polin: We have gotten such an outpouring of love and strength and support and prayers from literally, people all over the world. Every day for 328 days. We get messages from people on every continent, and we know that we’re not alone in this mission. I mentioned earlier that I grew up playing sports. There’s something about this mission where now every day that group passes, we have more and more people supporting us and, and it feels like if we don’t get up every morning and spring out of bed to hit the day and do everything we can for these hostages, not only are we failing ourselves and Hersh, but we’re letting our team down.

Tom Couch: That’s our guest this week, Jon Polin of Jerusalem, Israel. Jon is the father of three children, including his son Hirsch, who tragically was abducted on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas led attacks on Israel and who we have just learned was murdered by Hamas. Our host, David Hirsch, sat down to talk with Jon just a few days before news of his son’s fate reached us. And we’re going to play that interview now in its entirety. Here’s David Hirsch talking with Jon Polin on the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast.

David Hirsch: I’m, humbled to be talking today with Jon Polin of Jerusalem, Israel, an American born serial entrepreneur, founder of inlet, the Israeli network for Life Enhancing Technologies, and The father of three, including a son, who tragically was abducted on October 7, 2023 during the Hamas led attacks on Israel. And very sadly, to this day, day number 328 remains as one of the more than 100 hostages to timestamp this interview. Today is August 29, 2024, and quite coincidentally, the Paris Paralympics started just yesterday. Jon, thank you for taking the time to do a podcast interview for the Special Fathers Network.

Jon Polin: David, thank you so much for having me and for raising awareness and sharing my story and really Hersh’s story with your audience.

David Hirsch: You and your wife, Rachel Goldberg have been married for 27 years and are the proud parents of two daughters, Leebi and Orly, and 23 year old son Hersh, who was tragically abducted on October 7, 2023, and shockingly lost his left hand and forearm in a grenade explosion. My heart and the hearts of all those who believe in a, civil society reach out to you and Rachel and your family. We are praying for Hersh’s release and for the safety of all those impacted by these surreal experiences. Let’s start with some background. Where did you grow up? Something about your birth family.

Jon Polin: Sure. So well like you. I was born and raised in Chicago. Youngest of four children. My parents, Stanton Polin, of, blessed memory, passed away in May of 2017. And my mom, Leah Polin, still going strong at 86, thank God. They were both born in Chicago as well, so we had some long roots in Chicago. My father was a physician who’s a surgeon. Like I said, I’m the youngest of four. My father also was in the Navy. So till I was born, my family moved around a little bit. My father had done some of his training in Houston, Texas, spent some time in the Navy in the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia area. and my parents moved back to Chicago six months before I was born. And I had what I would say was a really great upbringing in general and specifically within my immediate family. I think we were a very normal, healthy family. My father was somebody who was very career oriented, but at the same time, he was a great dad. He was very available. He was a storyteller. I grew up for the first 10 years of my life on a street called Fargo, and then at age 10, moved to a street called Keeler. And growing up, my dad would tell my friends and me stories of the Fargo Phantom, and then it became the Keeler Killer once we moved. And, you know, he would tell us scary stories, but in a very appropriate way. As kids, he had all kinds of fictional characters that he would tell us stories about growing up. Sunday mornings when he would go on rounds in his hospitals, I would love to go and tag along and just sit in the doctor’s lounge while he was going to check on patients. Just, really healthy. I think father son relationship. And I to

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Jon Polin: this day think that a lot of my parenting is driven, as it is for many of us, by what we experienced growing up as kids.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing. It sounds like your dad, was very accomplished as a physician, as a surgeon, but he wasn’t so accomplished that he didn’t pay attention to you and your older siblings. And, the importance of being present, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually present in your family’s lives are what we always talk about. So, it’s always a relief to hear a positive story like that. Any other men who played a father figure role in addition to your dad when you were a younger guy, or maybe as a young adult for that matter.

Jon Polin: You know, I played sports a lot growing up, so I always had coaches. We are an observant Jewish family, so we were regular synagogue goers. And I could look back now and say that in different ways, different rabbis, family rabbis, I think, are people who I think about and played, influential roles in different ways in my life. And I think of other men, my friend’s parents, in certain cases, who maybe weren’t per se, kind of seminal figures in my life, but from whom I took specific lessons. I’m somebody who is blessed with the ability to try to recognize the good in the world and in people and when I see it, try to acknowledge it, I think some of that’s inherent. But I think of people in my life, even if there were people who were only in, my life for a small part, who had that outlook and who. I look back now and say they must have influenced me in some way. I. I have a friend whose father was also a physician. We were not super, super close, but I think about my time at that friend’s house, how much that father would say things to me as a kid visiting his house of like, he’d come home from work and say, like, I’ve got the greatest life, I love my job. I’ve got the best wife, the best kids, and just total positive outlook. And I think about that friend’s father sometimes now as a, grown up, myself and a dad, myself and a working person. And I think how important it is to convey that and how it influences the people who see it and hear it.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, there is something to be said for enthusiasm and, a lot of men are not very expressive. So it was unique perhaps that, you witnessed that at a young age and it stuck with you. And one of the ways I think about what you were saying earlier, if I can paraphrase it, is that you emulate the guys that are getting it right and maybe live vicariously through those that, you know, maybe, you know, you wouldn’t want to do what they did right. You don’t want to go down that path. So thank you for your openness and transparency.

Jon Polin: Yeah.

David Hirsch: My recollection was that you went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, took a BA in history, and then, you have a master’s degree in management from Ben Gurion University, Boston University, a joint program. And, not to make this the focus of our conversation, but how would you characterize your career?

Jon Polin: Interesting question. I would characterize it as definitely not anything extraordinary in terms of the path. But I would say it has not been a straight line. You and I had a chance to speak for a minute before hitting the record button. And I know that you’ve had two jobs in your career. I am somebody who, in some ways, and I say this in a healthy way at age 54, is still kind of figuring it out, which is to say I’ve always been responsible. I’ve always worked. I’ve worked in Fortune 500 companies, I’ve started my own businesses, I’ve sold the business. But I’ve never been somebody who plans my career long term. It’s been a lot of, that sounds like something interesting. I’m going to go for it, and I’m going to go do it. And so far, that’s worked out reasonably well for me. I don’t know how I would advise young people today in terms of their career planning, but I’ve been fortunate. I’ve worked hard, A little bit of luck, and thank God it’s worked out well for me.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, thanks. I think, that entrepreneurial spirit that you have, right? That resilience, you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained. You didn’t say it, but that’s sort of how I interpreted it. And, you know, you are looking for opportunities, right? And, you’re okay with not knowing, you know, exactly where you’re going to end up. Right. And, that’s part of the beauty of it. And, not everybody can say that.

Jon Polin: Well, something I’ve said to my kids several times, if you try, you may not succeed, but if you don’t try, you certainly won’t succeed. And I say that through the lens of my career, and I think any entrepreneur would echo those words, right? You got to go for it, and you zig and you zag and you figure it out and you build resilience. But the first step is jumping in.

David Hirsch: Absolutely. So, out, of curiosity, how did you and Rachel meet?

Jon Polin: I was a seventh grader

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Jon Polin: in a private Jewish school in near north suburb of Chicago. And first day of school for me, seventh grade for Rachel, eighth grade. Rachel showed up and had transferred into my school for eighth grade. And we then went on, after that, elementary school to go to high school together again. She’s a grade ahead of me, and we were friends from the time I was in seventh grade till the end of high school, we were friends. She was at my bar mitzvah. We’ve got pictures to prove it. We were the same height. but it wasn’t like we were dating. We weren’t childhood sweethearts. We were friendly. She graduated high school a year before I did and went off and did a gap year program, then went to university on the east coast. I went off the next year and did my thing, and we were not in any touch at all. Fast forward seven years. It’s now 1994, and I showed up in Israel to go to graduate school. And I was walking down the street in Jerusalem one day, walked by a cafe, heard somebody calling my name, and it was Rachel, who I had gone to elementary school and high school with. And we started to talk and one thing led to another, and three years later we were married.

David Hirsch: I love that story. Thank you for sharing.

Jon Polin: It’s actually really great, David, because, I love it too. And what’s great about it is we knew each other as kids. When I tell stories about my childhood, she knows the characters, she knows the places, and vice versa. Yet we weren’t sweethearts from seventh grade. And that was it. The rest is history. We each went off and did our own thing, different universities, different lives for a number of years and then reconvened. So certainly wasn’t planned, but I think it’s a great combination.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, I love that story. Thank you again for sharing. And, in sort of a fun way, we have something else in common. My wife’s only like eight months older than me. We were actually in the same grade, high school. That’s where we met. And, we were high school sweethearts and different, colleges. But I jokingly, refer very tenderly that, I married a cougar. Right. Because she’s an older woman and I think of her as a young cougar.

Jon Polin: Well, in our case, it’s even slightly more exaggerated because Rachel just made the cut of being born in the 1960s and I’m in the 1970s. So I say not only did I marry an older woman, but I married a woman who was born in a different decade.

David Hirsch: Okay, well, thanks again for sharing. Sort of curious to know, before becoming parents, did you and Rachel have any connection to the disability community?

Jon Polin: Zero. Well, I shouldn’t say that I, growing up, had an uncle, or it was my mom’s cousin who had down syndrome. And he was a regular in my life. You know, holidays and, Shabbat meals. So Larry was a regular at our house. He was a presence in my life, by the way. I would say the same thing for Rachel. Her mom’s sister experienced brain damage as a child. So Rachel, growing up always had an aunt who had some mental challenges. And so we each had it in our lives, but it wasn’t something that was a topic of conversation. But I guess what it did is perhaps made us both sensitive to people with different needs.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, thanks. enlightened, but maybe not on a day to day basis, ongoing basis is what I think I heard you say.

Jon Polin: Yeah, that sounds right.

David Hirsch: There’s a life before October 7, 2023, and after. And I’m sort of wondering, how would you characterize your life and that of your family beforehand?

Jon Polin: Yeah, it feels like, eons ago, but, similar to what I said about my own childhood, I would say that kind of about my own family, which is, I think we were just a kind of happy, go, lucky, normal family, three kids. Hersh is our oldest. You mentioned this. Two sisters, Leebi and Orly. Hersh and Leebi, born in California. We were living, and I was working for a company in the Bay Area. Then we ended up in Virginia for four years, where Orly, our youngest, was born. I would think, and, you know, you need to ask others that we’re a totally normative family. Healthy relationships, the usual healthy spats here and there, but we enjoy being with each other. You’d have to ask the other four, but I could make that statement. But I always say it in a way where it doesn’t mean that that meant we had to be on some fancy ski trip or at Disney World. Really, what I treasure the most still is just what I call the normal nights. The normal nights at home. You know, a Tuesday night when we’d

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Jon Polin: eat dinner and end up, later sitting around the couch, just being what I would say is normal. Those are the best recollections and what I’m most looking forward to when we successfully bring Hersh and the other remaining hostages all back home.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, thanks for sharing. It does seem like maybe eons ago, with all that’s transpired in the last 10 months, how did you learn about Hersh’s abduction?

Jon Polin: So Hersh was taken on Saturday, morning, October 7, 2023. But I’ll back up one day before that to Friday, October 6, which Friday night, October 6, was not only the Jewish Sabbath, Shabbat, as every Friday night is, but it coincided with the holiday of Simchat Torah, a joyous holiday. And so the five of us, Rachel and I and our three kids went to synagogue. Friday night. It was festive. We dance with the Torah. It’s a holiday that is the cycle of ending the annual reading of the Torah and rewinding it and beginning anew. And it’s a celebratory thing, so you dance holding the Torah. Each of us got the chance to do that and we were just having a nice time. And then from there we went to a friend’s house for dinner in the neighborhood. Three families were there, all of us are close friends with kids similar ages. And I actually remember several times sitting at dinner just saying like, this is so nice, the six grown ups, if you will, and all of our kids who are not little kids, but teenagers into their early twenties, all hanging out together and it was just really nice. And Hersh had brave brought a backpack with him to dinner and had told us that he was going to come to us, come with us to synagogue and to dinner, and that afterwards he and his friend on there were going to go do something fun. He’s 23 years old. We didn’t ask for details. We trust him. We know on there and trust that they were going to do something mature and responsible. And at 11 o’ clock at night, Hersh kissed Rachel, kissed me, and went over and hugged the hostess and said goodbye to the whole crowd. And as he was walking out, he kind of looked at Rachel and me and said, love you, see you tomorrow. And he was off. The next morning, Saturday morning, I got up early and went back to synagogue. And early upon arrival is when we started to hear air raid sirens going off in Israel. Those of us were in synagogue early, persevered through a few. We went in and out of the bomb shelter of the synagogue and after about an hour a military representative came running into the room and said, by orders of the military, everybody’s got to go home, go home and go into your bomb shelters. And so we all went running out. I got to my apartment at about 8:45, probably 9:00 clock Saturday morning, and as I walked in, Rachel said, I think we have a problem. We, as traditional Sabbath observers don’t generally use technology on the Sabbath, but when there are air raid sirens going off and one of our kids is not home, Rachel had turned on her phone and when I walked in, she showed me that we had in the little three person WhatsApp group that Rachel Hirsch and I have together, she showed me that he had sent back to back messages at 8:11am on Saturday morning, October 7th, us saying I love you in the first message and I’m sorry in the immediate subsequent message. And that’s what we saw, that’s what we knew. Our daughter quickly got on her phone, Leebi, and started to look for what was going on in the country, where might Hersh and Honor have been. And pretty quickly found that there was this music festival, for peace, love and unity in the south of Israel. Hirsch is an avid music festival fan. He spent last summer traveling for nine weeks in Europe going to six different music festivals. So he pretty quickly said they must be at the festival. Hersh and his friend Aner, who were together at the festival, have a third buddy. They’re like the three musketeers who was out of the country. But Rachel messaged the third friend and said, are Hersh and Aner at the festival. And the third friend said, they are. That’s about the time of mourning, where pictures and videos started to surface of the south of Israel, of the magnitude of destruction that was going on there, including at the music festival. We were seeing videos basically in real time of militants, running through the festival,

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Jon Polin: rockets flying overhead, shootings going on. And we went into scramble mode and really quickly started to just try to figure out where might these guys be? Hersh and Aner we called the US Embassy and we contacted officials in Israel. As you can imagine, it was chaos in the country. And by mid afternoon our apartment was full of dear friends who came over because they knew that he was there. Word spread and they jumped into action mode. And we had people on their phones and laptops around the apartment. And we started to see lists on the Internet of, there’s a group of festival people who showed up at such and such a city or such and such, Kibbutz in the south and Hersh and Aner’s names both appeared on several lists. And each time we found somebody who knew somebody who lived in that area. And we’d ask them m to go check on, whether it’s true that they were there. And each time it came back saying, we have no record that they’re here Saturday night. We still have not heard anything. We still have not located them. I went to file a report that the local police we late into the night Saturday nights had no information other than we knew he was at the festival. A picture emerged in the middle of the night Saturday night on the Internet of 29 young people. And now we know it’s 29. It was hard to tell in the picture, 29 young people crammed into a bomb shelter in the south. And Hersh was in that picture. And the way things work nowadays, David, our, daughter and some friends of ours sprung into action mode and were able to identify other people in the picture. And by Sunday. So 24ish hours into this whole nightmare, they were able to connect with some other young people who had been in the same bomb shelter as Hersh. And by Sunday afternoon we heard from eyewitnesses the story of what happened, which is festival goers escaped the festival as militants came into the festival. And many of them then, as shootings were happening on the highways going out of the festival and bombs were flying overhead, many of these people abandoned their vehicles and ran into these above ground bomb shelters. And what happened in the shelter where Hersh was, is terrorists came and started to throw grenades into the bomb shelter. Hersh’s friend Danar was standing in the doorway and by all accounts was one of the main heroes of the day. he was able to repel seven grenades. They would come in, he would toss them out. Grenades, we’ve learned, have you have a four and a half second time period from the time the pin is pulled till the time it detonates. So, so grenade thrown in. He quickly picked it up and threw it out. He was able to repel seven before gunmen came in and started to shoot up the bomb shelter, including Aner, and he was killed. and what the witnesses told us is that shortly after 8:00am, gunmen came into the bomb shelter and took out four young men, Hersh being one of them, at gunpoint. When Hersh stood up to be taken out is when the witnesses saw that his left arm below the elbow had been blown off. And these witnesses were under a pile of dead bodies pretending themselves to be dead. That’s how they were able to ultimately stay alive and to bear witness to what happened. And Hersh was taken at gunpoint. And that was what we heard from the witnesses. Subsequently, 10 days later, we were being interviewed on Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN. And reiterating what we know of the story, our son was taken out of a bomb shelter with his arm blown off, et cetera, what I just told you, and it was fascinating. We finished the interview, hung up, and as we’re hanging up, we hear Anderson Cooper himself say to us, guys, I’m going to call you. We thought that was strange. And we got a call from Anderson saying, I want to tell you I have a video of the abduction and I’m going to send it to you. And that is how we first saw the video of Hersh being abducted. We got it from Anderson Cooper of CNN, who had picked it up, on a tour of the south doing research on the massacre at the Nova Music Festival. And that’s where we saw, that Hersh was as the witnesses had described. Taken out of a bomb shelter, walked at gunpoint, pulled himself with his one good arm onto a pickup truck. And, that is all we knew for 201 days. For the first 201 days of this saga, we knew he was taken. We knew he was critically wounded. We didn’t know

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anymore. But we’re optimists. We are people who are faithful in our Jewish religion. And so we believed that he was going to be okay. we were praying he was going to be okay. And on day 201, towards the end of April, we saw a Hamas released propaganda video that was Hersh with his one arm reading a script, likely, but speaking into a camera. And we got to see him and hear his voice for the first time in 201 days. First and last time. And, that video gave us a lot of strength. And we continue to run around the world, literally, and speak to everybody. We can speak to elected officials, politicians, celebrities, religious leaders, and do everything we can to advocate to bring home Hersh. And what are now the remaining 106 additional hostages. There are 107 still being held as of today. These are people, the world oftentimes doesn’t know this, but these are people who come from 23 countries of origin, 23 different citizenships. They represent five religions. There are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus being held. And we and the other families of hostages have been doing everything we can to raise awareness, advocate, and bring them all home.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, it’s breathtaking to hear you recount that story. I know that you and Rachel have become outspoken advocates on behalf of all the hostages and been thrust into the limelight, like you’d said, meeting with members of the United Nations in Geneva, meeting with Pope Francis, meeting with President Biden, and most recently, the two of you were on the stage at the Democratic National Convention. What observations or insights can you share as a result of those experiences? You know, meeting with these high level individuals?

Jon Polin: Well, one thing I’ll tell you is when you are on a mission in life that is literally a mission of life or death, saving a loved one’s life, nothing is scary. We will go and we will bang on the door of world leaders. We will get in the room with them. There’s no fear, no nervousness. We will get up on a world stage. Rachel and I have talked a lot about that. You can’t scare us. That’s one thing. A second thing I will say is there are pros and cons of our technology driven world and our social media driven world. But one thing I will say is it has enabled us to have a voice, build a voice, spread our voice, and build advocacy. And what’s happened in return is we have gotten such an outpouring of love and strength and support and prayers from literally, people all over the world. Every day for 328 days, we get messages from people on, every continent. And we know that we’re not alone in this mission. There is something I, mentioned earlier, that I grew up playing sports, and I say there’s something about this mission where now every day that group passes, we have more and more people supporting us. And it feels like if we don’t get up every morning and spring out of bed to hit the day and do everything we can for these hostages, not only are we failing ourselves and Hirsch, but we’re letting our team down. And so there’s something really powerful about the support. And, you know, we get a message from somebody, a two sentence message. They might think it’s not a big deal, but to us, it matters and it strengthens us. I could pull so many lessons from kind of what we’re learning, but, I guess the main thing is we’re not done. We have one super clear mission. Save the life and return our son and 106 other hostages. And we have not done it yet. We’ve met everybody, we’ve been on big stages, but none of that matters. One thing here matters, and that’s the result we’re looking for that we don’t have yet. And we got to get it. Until that time, we keep on going.

David Hirsch: Yep. From your lips to God’s ears. That’s what my grandmother, used to say.

Jon Polin: Wise words.

David Hirsch: Yeah. I imagine you’ve received some advice. Is there any advice that comes to mind that has been instructive or helped you, get through this and maintain your sanity?

Jon Polin: So one piece of advice is, for the first few months, Rachel and I would work 20 hours a day, take our sleeping pills that were prescribed by our doctor. The first few days, get in bed and say, we failed. We’ve got one mission

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Jon Polin: and we didn’t accomplish it today. And somebody said early on, you can’t think that way. You gotta be thinking through the lens of, we didn’t fully succeed, but we chipped away. We chipped away more at our goal, and there is something to be said for that. And now we both have this image all day, every day, every meeting, we walk out and say, maybe David is the stone that we need to unturn. Who’s going to bring the result we’re looking for. And you chip away, chip away, chip away. You maybe don’t feel like you’re accomplishing something, but we’re waiting for the breakthrough where that last chip happens. We break through the wall, daylight comes in and we accomplish what we’re shooting for because of the clarity of mission. I just see that lesson so much more here in this experience than I ever saw. Even though I kind of new pieces of that as an entrepreneur. It’s just the clarity here is so much brighter and clearer that that’s what we’re doing. We’re chipping away and turning over stones.

David Hirsch: Yeah. well, I love what I might refer to as this relentless forward motion. Right. That you are propelling yourself. Right. And it’s an endurance contest. Right. This is not something you could do by sprinting. Right. You’d like to.

Jon Polin: Our friend Ruby, who we unfortunately have become like family with, as we have with all the hostage families through this experience. Our friend Ruby, whose son Itai is being held, and unfortunately after five months was pronounced having been killed on October 7th. And now we’re all fighting to bring home his remains. but Ruby said early on that what we’re all doing every day is we are sprinting a marathon. We’re at full speed at all times, only to get up the next morning and do it all over again. We don’t know how long we’re in for, so we have to be going at full speed. There’s no pacing. So this is a mission that is a total blend of sprinting plus endurance all at once, at all times.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, I admire you. That is, quite ambitious just being a marathoner, triathlete, you know, maintaining that, pace and that velocity, you know, it takes like a superhuman strength. My wife and I visited Israel in January of 2019 and with the help of the Telos Group, a D.C. based, not for profit, dedicated to the peace process, we had the privilege of doing 14 site visits, meeting with Jews, Muslims, Christians. On one of those visits, we met two fathers, Rami Adalin and a Jew, and Assam Arem, a, Muslim, who both very sadly lost their daughters in the conflict. In separate instances. They’re members of the parent circle. Are you familiar with the organization and the work that the parent circle does?

Jon Polin: I’m very familiar with the parent circle and the work they do. I have a lot of admiration for it. Yes, it is bereaved Jewish, multi faith parents all sharing in grief together. And we’re not going to get into the politics and the history of this conflict, because we don’t have time for that today, David. But what is clear is it’s a horrific conflict. There’s suffering on all sides. One of the things that we said just a week ago at the Democratic National Convention when we had the chance to get up on the podium and speak, is, in a competition of pain, there are no winners. That is a truth that everybody in the parent circle knows. Again, we can’t get into the politics or the history of this conflict. We’re not going to solve this conflict. But, there are no winners, and we just need to find a way to solve this short term. My focus, our focus is bring home the hostages. We know that the best way to bring them home is going to be a negotiated settlement. We know that part of that negotiated settlement is going to be a ceasefire to end this war. Then there’s a lot of work ahead for all of us in this region to not just make this another round in the cycle of violence, but to make it, hopefully, the last round. But, again, right now, if there are any ancillary benefits to the region or the world or any inspiration for anybody that comes out of the work that Rachel and I are doing, that’s great. But right now we’re just trying to save Hirsch and save the hostages and reduce the tension in this region.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, it’s an admirable goal and not just self serving. Obviously you have a vested interest, but, you know, we need to dial down the, tension that exists. Right. It’s not healthy. It’s leading to bad outcomes here, there and everywhere else. I’ve previously done three interviews with Israeli dads. back in July of 2022, during the global

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David Hirsch: pandemic, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi Colman Samuels, co founder of Shalva, the Jerusalem based beacon of hope for Jews, Muslims and Christians impacted by disability. Are you familiar with Shalva?

Jon Polin: Super familiar. They do amazing work. It’s an impressive organization. Inspiring. Yes, a big fan.

Tom Couch: We’ll be back with more of the conversation on the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast in just a few moments. But first, this quick message. Please help 21st Century Dads gather research on families raising children with special needs by having them complete the Special Fathers Network Early Intervention Parents survey. A link to the survey can be found in the show notes. As a token of our appreciation, each person, mom or dad, who completes the survey will receive a great dad coin. Thank you. Now, back to the conversation.

David Hirsch: So I’d like Just to focus for a moment on this Israeli Network for Life Enhancing Technologies, or inlet. what’s the backstory? What’s your role there?

Jon Polin: So I should come up with an interesting, inspiring backstory. What I’ll say is I’ve been an entrepreneur, I’ve started a few companies, so I’ve been part of the very fertile Israeli startup ecosystem. You asked earlier about my exposure to people, with disabilities or people with different abilities growing up, and I don’t know what was kind of the moment that made me say, like, this needs to happen. But, really it was through my work as an entrepreneur and I was doing work that I’m proud of that was, you know, I think contributing something good to the world, but it wasn’t saving lives and it wasn’t in the space of disabilities. But, I just started to meet so many impressive, inspiring entrepreneurs who were doing things to improve people’s lives in such a dramatic way. I was seeing people who were building technologies for visually impaired, hearing impaired, all kinds of cognitive challenges, and I just got inspired by them and started to meet more and more of them and realized that there are common challenges that all of them face. I started to drill into the whole world of disabilities and really educate myself on just the astonishing numbers of how we all know people. We all have people in our lives and our families. And it just started to become a passion of mine to figure out how to help improve lives. On one hand, help entrepreneurs who are trying to do so, on the other hand, realized that as many of them are facing similar challenges, there’s got to be some way to streamline and create an umbrella that helps all of these entrepreneurs work together. And just started to connect dots little by little. And that became inlet, the Israeli Network for Life Enhancing Technologies. And I’ve been removed from that now completely for this entire period of time dealing with focusing on only saving Hersh and the hostages. But, I’m still so inspired by the people who give their lives to making the world better for people with disabilities. And it’s such a fascinating time, driven by technology now with the immense potential to do that, to use technology to improve the lives of people who could benefit so much from it. There’s obviously an irony here that now I’m the father of somebody who’s permanently disabled. We got to bring him home. We’re going to get him the treatment that he needs physically, emotionally. But I feel like I’m equipped now as somebody with the knowledge to understand what technologies are out there in the world of prosthetic. Limbs, how artificial intelligence can now make the use of those limbs so much better. Again, goal number one is bring Hersh home, and we’re going to get him the best treatment, use the best technologies, many of which I’ve already come across and know to make him as whole and functioning as could possibly be.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, like I said earlier, from your lips to God’s ears, we’ll have to do, look back maybe a, year, years down the road and see what Inlet’s been able to accomplish. So I’m thinking about advice, and I’m wondering if there’s any advice you can share with parents, maybe specifically dads, who find themselves in an unexpected situation.

Jon Polin: Gosh, I don’t know that I’m, equipped to be given out advice, but the one thing that does come to my mind is be

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Jon Polin: present. I think those two words, we oftentimes are distracted. Either literally, we’re not around or we’re around physically, but we’re mentally distracted. And, ah, just be present, be available, enjoy the everyday moments in life and in particular in life. As a parent, I think that that’s what’s best for kids as well. Like I said, I don’t think that it’s, that kids need to. Not need. They shouldn’t be spoiled and feel value through material things, trips, et cetera. They just want healthy relationships. They just need healthy relationships. And that just starts with being present. That would be the biggest thing I would say.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, you would not know this, but you’re a poster child for our message. And what I often say is being present not just financially, which is what the state cares about, but being present physically, emotionally and spiritually. And, you’ve summed it up very succinctly. Is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up?

Jon Polin: I admire the work that you’re doing. I’ve, listened to you and I know the importance of, as we just talked about being present as a parent particularly. I think there’s something about dads needing to be present. So thank you for everything you’re doing, David. Thank you for giving me a platform today to share my story. I would invite any listeners who want to join what I hope will be a very short journey until we succeed, but who want to join the journey of us bringing Hirsch home. We are very active on social media. BringHershHome, on all social channels. we are part of the broader hostage family network in this crisis of Bring them home now on all social channels. Please go there, follow and Help us raise awareness. Make sure that the world knows that There are still 107 hostages from 23 countries being held in tunnels in Gaza. Make sure that Americans who are listening know that there are eight American citizens being held. And raise your voices and do everything you can to advocate to bring them home as quickly as possible.

David Hirsch: We’ll put that information in the show notes so it’ll make it as easy as possible for somebody to follow up with you. If somebody wants to contact you, what’s the best way to do so?

Jon Polin: So the best way nowadays, while we’re in the midst of this mission is, you can email us, Email me. It gets to me at savehersh h e r s h @gmail.com and I’m findable on social media. Probably most relevant for this audience would be on LinkedIn.

David Hirsch: I’ll be sure to include, a LinkedIn post as well. Jon, after Hersh’s release and once the dust settles, let’s commit to do a follow up discussion and put these exceptionally tense experiences in proper perspective.

Jon Polin: David, I hope we could do that later today, or worst case, tomorrow. That’s the goal.

David Hirsch: Jon, thank you for your time and many insights. As a reminder, Jon is just one of the dads who’s part of the Special Fathers Network, a mentoring program for fathers raising a child with special needs. If you’d like to be a mentor father or are seeking advice from a mentor father with a similar situation to your own, please go to 21stCenturyDads.org. Thank you for listening to the latest episode of the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. As you probably know, the 21st Century Dads foundation is a 501c3 not for profit organization, which means we need your help to keep our content free to all concern. Would you please do consider making a tax actable contribution? I would really appreciate your support, Jon. Thanks again and to Hersh, as your mom has said repeatedly, we love you. Stay strong and survive.

Jon Polin: Amen. Thank you, David. And thank you to all your listeners. We should hear good news soon.

Tom Couch: And thank you for listening to the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. The Special Fathers Network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs. Through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children match up with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for dads to support other dads. To find out more, go to 21stCenturydads.Org.

David Hirsch: And if you’re a dad looking for help or would like to offer help, we would be honored to have you join our closed Facebook group. Please go to Facebook group facebook.com groups and search dad to dad. Lastly, we’re always looking to share interesting stories. If you’d like to share your story or know of a compelling story, please send an email to david@21stcenturydads.org.

Tom Couch: The Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast was produced by me, Tom Couch. Thanks again to Horizon Therapeutics who believe that science and compassion must work together to transform lives. That’s why

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Tom Couch: they work tirelessly to research, develop and bring forward medicines for people living with rare and rheumatic diseases. Discover more about Horizon Therapeutics at horizontherapeutics.com.

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