A television show entitled Crossing Over features John Edward, a self-proclaimed psychic medium, who says that his encounters between humans and those who have gone to the spirit world “is ‘driven by a belief in God: it’s energy from that force that allows us to connect with this energy.’[1] Edward was convinced of his mediumship after a childhood encounter with a psychic reader. As he said, “She told me things that there is no way she could have known. And the first part of the reading was that this was the path that I was supposed to be on and that I was supposed to be a teacher and help people-and I thought she was nuts.”[2] I had a similar encounter with psychic John Roncz z”l which I spoke about 4 years ago on Shemini Atzeret Yizkor. Whether or not we believe in psychics, mediums, clairvoyance, clairsentience or signs or whether we think it’s all a hoax is not what is important to me. What is important is that not everything in our lives can be scientifically explained and the more scientists discover, the more they realize they don’t understand.
I chose this introduction because it reminded me of a story from Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s book When We See You Again that deeply connects to Yizkor. Rachel writes: Hersh was always curious about Germany and how it had changed since the war… [When] Hersh was sixteen and already involved with the Hapoel Jerusalem soccer team’s fan club, he was eager to meet the sister-city fan club members of the Werder Bremen soccer team, from Germany, when they came to Jerusalem for some collaborative programs with Hapoel.
Hersh was excited that he was part of the language glue connecting the Germans, Jews, and Arabs. The Germans all spoke English. The Jews and Arabs spoke Hebrew. But not everyone could translate between everyone. Hersh was the youngest, but fluent in both Hebrew and English, so he made many new friends that week. One of the projects the two clubs did together was to paint a giant mural with youth in the Arab neighborhood near our house in Jerusalem. It still stands there, on the wall under the bridge connecting Beit Safafa to Talpiot. …
Those friendships lasted and grew. The Germans [from Bremen] came back to Jerusalem regularly, and Hersh went to Bremen several times on his European adventures.
In the summer of 2023, one of the Hapoel fan club members was getting married. About twenty of the Germans came for the wedding. Hersh asked if we could host a group of them for dinner one weeknight.
It was a beautiful evening with perfect weather. We set a long table outside. Hersh and I cooked in the afternoon…. it was Hersh and me hosting a bevy of soccer fans from Bremen, and some of Hersh’s Hapoel pals came as well.
We had such a lovely evening together. At one point the young German man across from me said how meaningful it was for all of them to have Jewish friends, and that no one eighty years ago in Bremen would have imagined it possible.
Hersh had told me that on each of his four trips to Germany, it would inevitably come up that he was Jewish, and all of his non-Jewish German friends would talk about the Holocaust with such complicated feelings. He commented that they should not feel remorse for something their grandparents did, and that he was sad, but touched, that they felt the need to bring it up to him. Two of them had asked him to forgive them for “the sins of our grandfathers.” Hersh was insistent that he was not the right addressee and they were not the ones needing to ask forgiveness. I thought it was moving and sensitive of all of them.
There is a gorgeous photo from the night of our dinner in August 2023. Hersh looks glorious, as do all those healthy and vibrant young people brimming with potential….
Recently, on a Tuesday at two in the afternoon, [my husband] Jon, [our daughters] Leebie, Orly, and I… decided to go visit Hersh’s grave. I don’t go there often. I don’t need to go there to feel Hersh. And going to a child’s grave is puzzling, upside down and unraveling. But we went.
As we were parking, we looked at the large area where Hersh is buried and saw two people standing over Hersh’s grave. They were putting something there. They were unfamiliar to us. I said I would wait in the car.
Jon, Leebie, and Orly walked over to Hersh’s grave. Orly texted me right away, “Come.”…
The young man and woman introduced themselves. They were Leonard and Alex, on vacation from Germany. They were staying in Tel Aviv, but had come that day for a Hapoel Jerusalem soccer game in the evening. So they came early to see Hersh.
Leonard said, “We came to say thank you to Hersh for being our matchmaker.”
Alex went on to explain, “When October 7th happened, one of my closest friends…. told me all about Hersh. I joined her from the start, attending vigils and gatherings to bring awareness about the hostages and specifically about Hersh.”
…. Leonard went on to share that he had read articles about Hersh and started to come to the gatherings for the hostages [in Bremen]. It was there that he met Alex and heard more about Hersh. They would hold the poster with Hersh’s huge smile shining, with the word underneath: Entführt. Kidnapped.
It was through the committed struggle to free Hersh that Alex and Leonard became close, and now they are a couple.
In the Talmud it says that successful matchmaking is harder than the miracle of splitting the sea. Jewish folklore says that if someone matches three couples, that matchmaker gets a bonus place in the Garden of Eden when they go to The World to Come.
Even though neither [Leonard nor Alex] … is Jewish, Leonard said he knew about that idea. He continued, “We know Hersh is already in the Garden of Eden, but because he successfully brought Alex and me together, we also know he has at least a third more of a portion.”
Later, …we went back and read the note they had left on Hersh’s grave. [I]t had messages from each of them:
[From Alex]: Dear Hersh, What a beautiful view you got from your place of rest. Wherever you are in spirit, I hope you are happy and that you get good reception to watch the soccer games.
[From Leonard]: Thank you for inspiring me to fight for light, love and peace.
[Rachel continues]: I imagine Alex and Leonard one day telling their grandchildren about the forever boy who was their matchmaker. Those grandchildren who would not be if they had not met during a dark time when the world was breaking. And I imagine that one day, those grandchildren will save the world, and then all will be illuminated.
Hersh managed to do something harder than splitting the sea, all the way from the Garden of Eden.
Well done, sweet boy. What else will you do from there?[3]
I share Rachel’s story because it reminds us that those taken from us might be able to make profound impacts through their legacies. One of the central teachings of Judaism, and one that I find challenging, is that things happen for a reason, even if we don’t know what that reason is until years later…or even if we never know. One of the best ways by which to remember our loved ones is to tell their stories, share their values and keep their legacies alive. That is what I hope we will strive to do when these holidays end tomorrow night. Through honoring the lives they lived, we keep them alive, near and dear in our hearts.
[1] Edward, John (2001). Crossing Over. Jodere Group. p. 21. ISBN 1-58872-002-0.
[2] “John Edward: An Alleged Psychic Who Claims to Communicate With the Dead”. CNN. Larry King Live. June 19, 1998. Archived from the original on February 20, 2003.
[3] Rachel Goldberg Polin, When We See You Again (New York: Random House, 2026), pgs. 246-52.
