Hersch’s Fridge is both a memorial and a rare kosher food pantry

John Polin recalled that his son was an idealist who “sought to make the world a better place” in small ways.

For example, while living in Jerusalem, his son was involved in a mixed Jewish-Arab soccer game that he liked to attend, Polin said.

“He never once said ‘I’m going to build bridges, I’m going to make peace, I’m going to drive co-existence, I’m going to destigmatize the other.’ None of that,” Polin said. “He’d say ‘I’m going to soccer’; although I think he knew it had the potential to be something more than a soccer game.”

Polin’s son, 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was one of six authorities reportedly recovered in August 2024 as part of ceasefire negotiations between Israel and the terrorist group. 

Earlier this month, Polin stood outside a Skokie synagogue and shared those memories of Goldberg-Polin to help dedicate in his legacy what may be the nation’s first 24/7 kosher food pantry.

Hersh’s Fridge, located in the parking lot outside the Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob, 8825 East Prairie Road, offers two fridges and dry pantry storage to supply discrete and anonymous access to free kosher food, said Ari Hart, a rabbi at the synagogue and organizer of the pantry.

The pantry has received “tens of thousands of pounds” of food from area restaurants, catering halls and local residents’ kitchens since its first “soft launch” 10 months ago, Hart said, and it has served individuals from all backgrounds, sometimes seeing 50 visits a day. 

A ceremony outside the pantry on Sept. 2, drew approximately 200 people to honor the memory of a man who had passion for kindness and family ties to the Skokie community, Hart said. 

“We have extraordinary infrastructure for individual mourning — Shiva, Shloshim, meal trains — but we have almost nothing for collective grief,” said Amanda Goldstein, a co-chair of Hersh’s Pantry. “What do you do when the person you mourn is someone that you’ve never met? When you live too far away to visit the Shiva house, or to bring a meal or to simply be in the room?”

“This unscaffolded grief looks for something to become. The absence of structure becomes, strangely, an invitation to transform shared sorrow into shared purpose. That is what this fridge is.”

Leah Rubin, another co-chair of Hersh’s Pantry, said the JUF reported that 21% of nearby Jewish households struggle financially, and noted the Niles Township food pantry now serves approximately 8,000 people a month. 

A news release from Hart and Goldsten also notes that the Jewish population is often underserved by conventional community fridges and pantries.

Hart said he and other members of Solu, a Jewish faith organization, began discussing a kosher food pantry in Skokie a few years ago. But after learning of Hersh’s death, Hart said the organizers were so despondent they considered not moving forward. 

Then, after hearing Polin call for a “revolution of kindness” during his Hersh’s funeral, the organizers decided to create the food pantry in Hersh’s name, Hart said.

“Hersh believed in helping the hungry and building bridges between communities. We have kept his values in our hearts as we’ve created this living monument to his memory,” said Rabbi Hody Nemes, executive director of Solu, in a news release.

“In keeping with Jewish tradition, Hersh’s Fridge serves everyone with dignity, no questions asked.”

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