Bereaved father Jon Polin is using his grief to help others.
Polin’s son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was killed by Hamas in August after he was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7 and held hostage for almost 11 months.
In the weeks since, Polin has turned to one of his loves to clear his head: cycling. He’s also putting his pedal to good use as a rider in next month’s Wheels of Love charity cycling event to benefit the Alyn Hospital, a pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation center in Jerusalem.
“Cycling has always been therapeutic for me, and it is certainly more true now,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “My son was murdered six weeks ago, after having been held captive for 330 days. It was, needless to say, a very trying year. It was basically a year in which I didn’t do any riding.”
Now, Polin finds that getting back into the saddle is alleviating some of the angst and pain, at least for a while. “Since Hersh was killed, I have been back on the bike, and I find it physically good for me – but more than that, it is spiritually and mentally therapeutic as well.”
Real therapy is being outdoors
Getting out on his mountain bike and trundling along the back roads and pathways of the autumnal rural environs of his hometown of Jerusalem has done him a world of good, he said. “I have, for various reasons, only done one therapy session so far. I will do more. But, in the meantime, my real therapy has been my bike riding. I am really grateful that I have it as an outlet.”
In a statement he placed on the Wheels of Love page of the Alyn website, Polin wrote: “I’m obliterated and mourning, but my friend, who also lost his son tragically, has a life motto: ‘Ride through.’ So I will try.”
The full story will appear in the ‘Post’s gala Simchat Torah magazine in Wednesday’s newspaper.