‘I Know He Will Want To Know What I Did’

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The New York Sun

Karnit Goldwasser, 30, writes a letter to her husband every night, but she doesn’t know whether he’ll ever read them. He is Ehud Goldwasser, whom she calls Udi, the 31-year-old Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hezbollah on July 12, the last day of his military service.

“I know he will want to know what I did for him to get him back,” Mrs. Goldwasser said yesterday at the Regency Hotel, in the first engagement of a five-day speaking tour in America organized by United Jewish Communities.

It was among the most affecting presentations in recent memory in the city. Mrs. Goldwasser told of the destruction in Nahariya in which she has lived since she was 9. It is situated at the north of Israel about seven miles from the border of Lebanon. Dozens of attendees embraced her after she spoke.

“The support that I get fills me with a lot of energy. Some of the energy I have kept for myself, but most of it, I send to Udi. I want him to feel very strong,” she said.

Over the next few days, Mrs. Goldwasser will tell her story in Washington, Baltimore, Chicago, and Los Angeles, before returning home Tuesday. Her goals are clear: “I came here to tell the story of Udi, to tell how life is in Israel, and to speak with your government,” she said. “What we intend to do to is bring Ehud back home,” she said.

The sponsor of Mrs. Goldwasser’s visit to America, United Jewish Communities, has another goal in mind, too: to raise funds for its Israel Emergency Campaign, launched July 17. So far, more than $83 million has been raised. The goal is at least $300 million. The money will go toward bringing the children and elderly in the north to relative safety in Israel. It is money that will fund trauma centers.

It is help that cannot arrive too soon, Mrs. Goldwasser said, describing the bombing that has taken place all around her home. “Not only the Jewish population is hurt during the war, also the Arab population,” she said.

At the Regency meeting, donors pledged $20 million to the campaign after remarks by Mrs. Goldwasser, Mayor Bloomberg, and the president of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York, Morris Offit.

Mr. Bloomberg sent a strong message of American solidary with Israel. “Now more than ever, it is vitally important that we stand up for freedom wherever it is in jeopardy. We must continue to stand with Israel in their fight against terrorism to ensure that Israel survives, prospers, and finds a way to live in peace. The world depends on Israel and America to stand up to terrorism, and we cannot let the terrorists succeed.”

Mr. Offit had his eye focused on raising money for the campaign. “The feeling is that the Israelis are on the front lines, and American Jews are here, so what can we do to show we stand with the people of Israel? The only way you can really express that is financially,” he said.

Officials said the campaign will run at a high pitch, and they left open the possibility that the overall goal would be increased. “You have to realize the needs are inexhaustible. You have some populations in northern Israel who can’t exist in northern Israel,” Mr. Offit said.

When talking to potential donors, Mr. Offit said he simply describes what he saw in Haifa on his recent visit. “It’s not the Haifa we know, it’s a city devoid of all humanity. You have a port that’s eerily quiet,” he said, noting that there are refugees now in Israel.

Mrs. Goldwasser said that while leaving home on Monday was difficult, since landing at Newark Airport late Wednesday night with her mother, Daniela Avni, and father-in-law, Schlomo Goldwasser, she has discovered a blessing of American soil. “Here, I am not so afraid. At home, you can only imagine. When you close the door you jump,” she said.

She defended Israel’s position in the conflict. “If people ask me if Israel is overreacting, I say ‘no.’ Israel has to defend its civilians,” she said.

She spoke boldly, passionately, even though she is not accustomed to the spotlight. “My husband is the spokesperson for the two of us,” she said. Asked what her husband would think, she paused and said, “I think he’d be very proud of me because he was the one that made me like this.”

Mrs. Goldwasser is a graduate student at the Technion in environmental engineering, the same field as her husband. She studies the watershed in the Lake of Galilee and is months away from earning her degree. But she has put her academic work on hold to focus on bringing her husband back home.

She was not supposed to make the trip to New York alone. Before the kidnapping, the couple had planned a trip to the city to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary.

“To be here without him is very strange. For our anniversary, I want to do it physically with him, not just emotionally,” she said.


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