Shalom My Gantseh Megillah Family and Friends,

Since I announced to my Megillah family the extent of my current health crisis, I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of concern and love from all of you. It has been a real eye-opener.  There is no doubt in my mind that you are all very much family to me, and I am deeply touched by your thoughtfulness and prayers. 

When we first began the Megillah in 1999, we couldn’t have imagined the extraordinary benefits that would be derived from our endeavour.  Arnold’s and my two-man goal was to promote Jewish culture and Yiddishkayt on the World Wide Web.  We hoped our contribution would be a small but meaningful avenue of Jewish connection for an increasingly Web savvy world.

A small circle of support quickly emerged, and by December, 2000, our first contributor, Eddy Robey, joined the team with her luscious and strictly kosher recipes. Over the next few months several more writers, who you have come to know, added their talents to our efforts and our subscriber list continued to grow.  Never in my wildest dreams did we expect to encounter so many new and wonderful friends.   

Over the past few years we have celebrated joy and happiness as well as deep sadness and loss with the Megillah meshpokha.  Arnold and I have attended weddings, shared home visits, enjoyed evenings out and engaged in pleasant phone calls with many of you.  We always look forward to receiving Emails with news and events taking place within your immediate families.  What more could anyone expect of family members?

To illustrate how far some of us will go to share tzuris, our dear friend Susan Smolenski, who, with her husband Tony, have been Megillah family members for several years, seriously injured her shoulder at the same time as me.  Ever since, we have been able to share our on-going experience with complete empathy and sympathy that would be hard to explain to anyone else.  Arnold and I were visiting with Tony and Susan in their home for a weekend when we went to New York for my nephew’s wedding.  It was quite the sight watching Susan and I kvetching together in our respective slings as our partners bustled around the house catering to our every need.  Tony and Arnold should receive some kind of award for their bravery and devotion.

This New Year is starting out on a somewhat down note for us, but we know we have the prayers and wishes of our entire Megillah Meshpokha for constant improvement as the days of the New Year progress.

Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your friendship and deep concern and may we continue to “be there” for each other for many years to come.

Much love to all of you,

Michael