Karnit Goldwasser interview

Michelle Tedford
Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Karnit Goldwasser remembers asking her husband to describe what he tried to capture in the photographs he took of people and places.

“He loves to take pictures that make you think what was here, what was happening, and when the picture was over, what happened,” she said.

When she pictures her life, there is much missing.

What was there was her husband, Ehud Goldwasser, an environmental engineering master’s student at Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology, called up to reserve duty in the Israeli military in the middle of the term. What happened was his capture on July 12, 2006, a flash point for the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. What has happened — or, more specifically, what has not happened — is what she now tells the world.

In the nine months since his capture, Karnit has had no word of the health or location of her husband, known as “Udi.” She will be the featured speaker for the Jewish Federation Joint Annual Meeting on May 10 as part of her worldwide tour to help free Udi and two other Israeli soldiers also being held, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit.

“I’m traveling all over the world, not just to meet communities, but to meet leaders, to (have them) raise their voice and have the world leadership to tell that this is not just an issue of the families, it’s an issue of the free world,” she said via phone from her home in Nahariya, Israel.

The war ended Aug. 14 with a United Nations-brokered ceasefire, which called for the unconditional release of the soldiers. They continue to be held.

Her love and her drive have lead Karnit to a personal transformation as a public figure. Previously, she was used to speaking before crowds, though they usually consisted of children and her speeches were in Hebrew.

For two and a half years, she was a manager for Terach, a program that teaches children self-confidence. She said the work was rewarding.

“You’re giving to a society who needs you,” she said of the work.

In that life, she considered herself happy and normal. She said she would awake each day with a mission in mind, a list of tasks to complete.

Karnit is also an environmental engineering graduate student at Technion. But for her, focusing on work and school are now impossible. She awakes with only one mission: to free her husband.

“Since the day he was captured, for more than eight months, my mission is to bring back Udi,” said Karnit, who was a newlywed when her husband was captured.

Her travels have taken her to Chicago, San Antonio and so many other cities she cannot recall them all. In March, she met with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Karnit said some in the Israeli government have given her support, but they are reluctant to push publicly for the soldiers’ release.

It is public pressure, she insists, that will convince Hezbollah to allow the Red Cross to evaluate the captured soldiers. It is public pressure, she said, that will bring him home.

“I want them (the people) to understand that we need their help and to raise their voice to send letters and petitions,” she said.

“I want their leaders to do whatever they can do. If they only have connections in the United States, contact those in the United States. If they have contacts in Syria or Lebanon, use them.”

The contacts she has made continue to be her support network.

Udi would leave their home littered with magazine subscriptions. Today, Karnit’s counters are covered with postcards of support and petitions signed by long-lost friends, fellow soldiers, and strangers hoping to lend their voice to hers.

Karnit Goldwasser will be the featured speaker at the Jewish Federation’s Joint Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 10 beginning with hors d’oeuvres at 5:30 p.m. followed by the program at 6 p.m. For more information, e-mail Information@jfgd.net.

© 2007 The Dayton Jewish Observer