YCT Alumni Rabbi Hody Nemes & Rabbi Ari Hart: Hersh’s Fridge dedicated in Skokie in memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin

By Kyra Senese, Chicago Sun Times

A kosher community fridge honoring Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old with Chicago ties who was taken hostage and later killed by Hamas, was dedicated Wednesday in Skokie.

Hersh’s Fridge, which organizers describe as the country’s first kosher community fridge, is open 24 hours a day and offers prepared meals, produce, groceries and dry goods to anyone who needs them.

The project grew from the work of Solu, an Orthodox Jewish bridge-building initiative, executive director Rabbi Hody Nemes said.

Nemes said the community drew inspiration from community fridges in Chicago and Evanston.

Solu volunteers had also stocked non-kosher fridges and had wondered about creating a kosher fridge serving the Jewish community and its neighbors, he said.

For several years, the idea seemed like a “pipe dream,” Nemes said.

Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel. A group met Sept. 1, 2024 — the day after learning Goldberg-Polin’s body had been found in a tunnel in Gaza — to consider whether the kosher fridge idea was feasible.

When the group watched a livestream of Goldberg-Polin’s funeral, they heard his parents say, “May his memory be a revolution,” Nemes said.

The group wanted to honor that as a call for kindness and bringing people together, he said.

“We want to be part of that revolution,” Nemes said.

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