Leah is the grandmother, and Abby is the aunt of American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin. He was taken captive on October 7th, 2023 from the Nova Music Festival and held by terrorists in Gaza for 329 days. He was brutally murdered along with five other hostages by their captors. Leah and Abby have been advocating and keeping up awareness for the hostages. We warmly welcome them to our community to share their family’s experience.

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About Leah Polin:
LEAH GOLDSTEIN POLIN is a Chicago native and a graduate of Roosevelt U, Northwestern U and what is now Spertus Institute, formerly the College of Jewish Studies.
After years of teaching elementary school she founded and was the director of the Dawn Schuman Institute for Jewish Learning which provided people in the metropolitan Chicago area an arena in which to learn a variety of Jewish subjects and share Jewish ideas and thought in comfortable informal settings
She has organized Jewish heritage tours to many interesting and exotic countries and has visited Israel over 60 times.
Hadassah has been her major area of interest for over 50 years and she has held leadership positions in many Jewish and educational organizations. She is an initial member of the Jewish Women’s Archives, JWA.0rg.
Her hobbies include Scrabble, tennis and reading.
She is the mother of 4, and the grandmother of 14 grandchildren, 10 of whom currently live in Israel.

About Abby Polin:
Abby Polin has been an active member in the greater Chicago community for most of her life. On a professional level, Abby has been in mortgage banking for 30+ years and has transacted thousands of mortgages for homeowners all over the Chicagoland area as well as nationally. She also has renovated residential properties in the city as well as the northern suburbs and has been engaged in various aspects of real estate during her lengthy career.
Abby has always been involved in charitable and philanthropic activities including previously serving for seven years on the board of her children’s school Solomon Schechter Day School and currently on the Women’s Philanthropy Board of the Jewish United Fund. She is a board member as well of her homeowner’s association in Boynton Beach, Florida.
She has a degree in finance, marketing and business administration from Boston University and was a participant in the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
In May of 2023, on a rooftop overlooking the Mediterranean, Abby married her long-term boyfriend Simon who she met through her kids’ school in 2005 and is the very proud mother of Madison, Emily, Judah, Sophie, and Harel
Abby is the aunt of American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin who was taken captive on October 7th, 2023 from the Nova Music Festival and held by terrorists in Gaza for 329 days until he was brutally murdered along with five other hostages by their captors.
Abby, her mother Leah, and daughters Madison and Emily along with other family members have been advocating and keeping up awareness for the hostages via meetings, speaking engagements, and interviews with the media.