Shalom My Gantseh Megillah Family and Friends,

Welcome to the last issue of the Gantseh Megillah for the year 2007. Our Megillah family grew by almost twenty percent this year, and our friendships and bonds continue to strengthen. The initial concept for the Gantseh Megillah was to be a mechanism for Jewish people and our friends to have a haimish and interesting gathering place for information, ideas, and communication. Needless to say, I am very proud of the way this dream is being realized.

The majority of the Gantseh Megillah family members, who joined us 9 years ago, are still with us today. Many of you now reading this first heard of the Gantseh Megillah from a friend, relative or acquaintance. The Megillah is truly a grass roots idea that has taken hold and sustains itself thanks to your efforts. It is our Megillah family who make it possible for Arnold and me to maintain this publication. So, we are grateful for your donations and efforts to spread the word.

All our hard work would be for naught without the support and dedication of our family members. Our writers, both the regular crew, and the authors of guest commentaries and stories, are all members of our Megillah family. This effort is a gift that they give over and over again, and as an editor and reader I am touched by their generosity and spirit. These are the human attributes that I had hoped to demonstrate when I first conceived of the Gantseh Megillah.

As you may know, we have been working on a total redesign, which features our new Megillah Chai Life theme. Considering we have a design team of two, this has turned out to be a pretty big project. I am proud to announce that we will be ready to unveil the new improved Gantseh Megillah with the January, 2008, issue. We believe you will find the new Megillah Chai Life extremely user friendly, easy to navigate and full of new features that will make your visits even more rewarding than they have been in the past.

The new Megillah will make use of the popular social networking sites such as Facebook as well as others. You will also be able to instantly email and comment on anything you see in The Gantseh Megillah. Another new feature is a Gantseh Megillah Google search engine, which will help you locate articles and information of interest to you. The search engine has access to our complete archive so relevant information will be just a mouse click away.

We are also introducing the Megillah on line store. This is a new way you will be able to support our community by purchasing tshatshkes, gifts, and other good stuff featuring Howard the Yiddishe Pup and other Megillah images. All our products will be of the finest quality, and will identify you as a member of the Gantseh Megillah family.

Donations have been an important source of support for our work. We thank all of our Megillah family members who have made financial contributions over the past year. We have made it our policy never to charge a subscription fee for membership in our community, so your generosity is enormously appreciated and extremely important. The store will be another way for you to support the Megillah, and we encourage our family members to continue their financial assistance in any way they are comfortable. The amount of the donation is never important, and we do ask all our members to participate by spreading the word, soliciting new members, sending in interesting material, and living the Megillah Chai Life.

As you can guess, we are very excited about the year ahead. We expect 2008 to be the Megillah’s greatest year for growth and accomplishment thus far. Your participation and encouragement will continue to make this possible, and we will do everything in our power to make our work worthy of your support.

Arnold and I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone in our Megillah family and your loved ones a very happy, prosperous, and most of all healthy New Year. We are proud to have you as members of the Megillah “where friends are mishpokhe.”

Much love to all of you,
Michael