For the last five months, Chicago native Jeremiah Smith, 28, has been driving a truck around major U.S. cities and college campuses with a picture of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 24, and other hostages who were abducted in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists.
This week, he's circling through the Windy City as the Democratic National Convention (DNC) takes place.
Smith’s mission to remind others about the hostages' plight is deeply personal to him.
Goldberg-Polin was like a "little brother" to him, Smith told Fox News Digital. Goldberg-Polin's grandmother, Marcy Goldberg, rescued Smith from the difficult circumstances of his childhood and introduced him to a new way of life.
This backdrop of outreach, friendship and kindness in America has helped fuel Smith's efforts behind the wheel of a truck, this week and well before.
Smith has driven around Chicago, New York City, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, St. Louis and parts of New Jersey to date.
Despite masked pro-Palestinian protesters kicking his truck, throwing water at it and trying to open the door while he was driving, he just keeps going, he said.
Smith described his experience driving around DePaul University in Chicago in May while pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded the campus in encampments.
"They were giving me the middle finger. They cussed me out," Smith said.
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"A couple of people called me a White supremacist. A couple of people called me the N-word."
He said that some tried to incite him to fight. "I felt maybe one time that I was going to get attacked."
Smith added, "They [say] they want peace, but they really don’t. I saw how much hate there was."
After five months of driving this truck six days a week, Smith reported that out of all the protesters he encountered, "maybe two people came to talk to me who were peaceful."
He continued, "Some people, when I tried to talk to them, would just put up a 10-7 [with their hands] … then [would make a sign] with their fingers [as if they're] slicing their throat."
Smith said he wants everybody to know that he’s never going to stop fighting for the hostages held by Hamas terrorists to be freed.
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His devotion to a friend and to the cause has deep roots in his own upbringing.
Smith grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing project in the Near North Side area of Chicago.
"There was violence. Some people were selling drugs, [there were] fights … I was seeing people locked up. I was seeing people shot," he said.
For Smith, the silver lining was playing baseball with his friends and meeting Marcy Goldberg when he was six years old, "the first Jewish person I [ever] met."
She was his tutor at the George Manierre Elementary School in Chicago, he said.
Goldberg invited Smith to her Chicago suburb apartment to celebrate Shabbat with her family — including young Hersh, who was just a toddler at the time, he said.
Smith fondly remembered Marcy Goldberg delivering grape juice and challah rolls to patients who were spending Shabbat at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
She and other volunteers at the program she started made over 35,000 visits to patients in a 25-year period, according to Chabad.org.
Marcy Goldberg’s charitable nature extended to Smith and his family.
She took Smith into her home and cared for him from the ages of 11 to 18. His siblings also lived with her at different times.
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"I felt safe at Marcy’s house," he said.
The Goldberg-Polins became Smith’s surrogate family.
Every year for Passover, he went with Hersh’s parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, and both sets of young Hersh's grandparents, to a Passover retreat at Camp Ramah Darom for about 10 days in Atlanta, Georgia.
Smith relayed how he and Hersh Goldberg-Polin formed a close childhood bond, and described Hersh as having a great sense of humor.
"He’s very funny," Smith said. "If you were around him … he would make his presence known by cracking a joke when it’s very quiet."
Smith added, "He’s so friendly with everybody. You’re going to know that he’s in the room."
Smith remembered flying overseas for the first time to attend his friend Hersh’s bar mitzvah in Israel. "It was so fun," Smith said. "I told Marcy I wanted to have one."
The Goldberg-Polin family moved to Israel in 2008, when Hersh was almost eight years old, according to previous reporting by Fox News Digital.
Smith stayed in close contact with the family over the years. He estimated that since Oct. 7, he’s seen Marcy Goldberg about 70 times.
When Smith found out his friend Hersh had been at the Supernova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, he said, "My heart started beating really fast. [It] dropped into my stomach … I just thought about Marcy."
Smith relayed that when he rushed over to her apartment 30 minutes away, she resolutely told him, "He’s going to be home soon. He’s fine."
He added, "If you know who Hersh is, you know [that] he’s going to find a way to get home. He’s going to find a way to make everyone happy. He’s the type of person you want in your life."
Smith met Jeff Aeder, 62, a longtime family friend of the Goldberg-Polins, at his first Shabbat dinner at Marcy Goldberg’s when he was young.
Smith said that his own father was "great," but he was using drugs at the time — and Aeder became "like a second father" to him.
Aeder told Fox News Digital that he came up with the idea of hiring Smith to drive a truck with pictures of Hersh and other hostages across it to combat the hate-filled messages he saw after Oct. 7.
"I saw some trucks with Hamas slogans on them and it infuriated me," he said. "It was really just surreal that people were coming out and supporting a massacre."
Aeder said he wanted to have a peaceful and nonconfrontational way of getting across two messages.
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"One is that we can't forget about the hostages," he said. "Two is that antisemitism is not a progressive idea. It is an illiberal idea that has no place in this country."
He added, "We can't just be quiet and not stand up. We have to let them know that we're not going to be intimidated."
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As for Smith, who is still driving a truck with hostage pictures on it, "I'm going to be out here until every hostage is home," he said.
"And when Hersh comes home, and there are still hostages there, I’m still going to be out here."
It has been over 300 days since the hostages' loved ones have heard from them.
As of Aug. 20, 2024, it is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted on Oct. 7 are still in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 that are confirmed to be dead, according to Jewish Breaking News.
