'Tonight we will try to smile.' Miki Goldwasser (archive photo)
צילום: רונן בוידק
Mother’s letter to kidnapped son
Miki Goldwasser tells her son Udi family will celebrate Passover with empty chair around Seder table. 'Hizbullah will not defeat us; we'll secure your release,' she writes
The Eve of Passover, 2007. While other Israeli families will sit around the table Monday, celebrating the Jewish people's flight to freedom thousands of years ago, the families of the three kidnapped soldiers will sit around an empty table, hoping to secure the freedom of their sons.
In the midst of holiday celebrations, the empty chairs will not cease to remind them that their boys aren't home yet.
In honor of Passover, the following is a letter that Miki Goldwasser wrote to her son Udi, held captive by Hizbullah for the past several months:
Udi my child,
Today is Passover Eve. The holiday of liberty. The family will celebrate Passover separately this year. Dad, Yair and I will be at aunt Nurit and uncle Eitan’s home. Karnit, Daniella, Omri, Yahel and Rotem will be at grandma Miryam’s. Gadi is still in India.
We’ve never celebrated any holiday in this way. We were always together – laughing, chattering, fooling around, and mainly - feeling immensely happy.
Tonight we will try to smile as a show of gratitude to our host. We’ll try.
Udi, I must tell you, I have been approached by several families who suggested not celebrating Passover this year in solidarity with the three families whose sons remain in captivity. We do not know these wonderful families, but I asked them not to give up on the holiday, but rather celebrate it to spite of those who want to weaken and defeat us.
We will celebrate with an empty chair (around the Seder table) – your’s, Gilad’s (Shalit) and Eldad’s (Regev) chair. I promise you that no one will defeat us; neither Hizbullah nor Hamas. We will not be undermined from within either – we will secure your release. Our war today – for your release – guarantees the safety of all of our children tomorrow.
Udi, I suppose you don’t know what day it is today – that the sky is blue and spring is just around the corner; perhaps the scents of the new blossom are reaching you; maybe you can hear the singing of the migrating birds, and maybe it is your thoughts that are wandering.
But we are here with you each and every moment, day and night. And we are not letting go. We are not waning. No one will defeat us.
Happy Passover to you, my child.
Happy Passover to all of Israel.
Your mother, Miki
