On the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the parents of American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin spoke of the “anguish and misery” they have endured since their son was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7.

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg took the stage at the DNC to chants of “Bring them home,” before describing how Hersh, 23, hid in a small bomb shelter with 27 other festival goers when Hamas terrorists began the attack that killed 367 young people, including Hersh’s best friend.

“Hersh's left forearm, his dominant arm, was blown off before he was loaded onto a pickup truck and stolen from his life – and me and Jon – into Gaza,” Goldberg, Hersh’s mother, said. “And that was 320 days ago. Since then, we live on another planet. Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring.”

Jon Polin (L) and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Hersh Goldberg Polin (Getty Images)

The two wore stickers with the number 320 written on them as they addressed the crowd on Wednesday evening. Many could be seen shedding tears throughout the eight-minute speech.

“This is a political convention,” Polin, Hersh’s father, said. “But needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue; it is a humanitarian issue.”

He added that the families of the eight American hostages meet every few weeks in Washington and praised President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for “working tirelessly for a hostage and ceasefire deal that will bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home and will stop the despair in Gaza.”

Attendees listen as Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, speak on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention (Getty Images)

“There is a surplus of tragedy on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East,” Polin said. “In a competition of pain, there are no winners.”

The pair also expressed gratitude for the “millions of people” who have sent “love and support and strength” to the hostages’ families, saying: “You’ve kept us breathing in a world without air.”

Polin and Goldberg have been the only hostage family members to address the convention, which has prompted thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators to converge in Chicago in protest of Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Goldberg concluded the speech with a message to her son:

“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, stay strong, survive,” she said