Today that we reached 54,000 Facebook "likes" on our official Facebook page. Although we are firm believers in quality over quantity, this number is significant, as it is 18 x 3,000. In case you're not aware, 18 is a significant number in Judaism:
This symbol, commonly seen on necklaces and other jewelry and ornaments, is simply the Hebrew word Chai (living), with the two Hebrew letters Cheit and Yod attached to each other. Some say it refers to the Living G-d; others say it simply reflects Judaism's focus on the importance of life. Whatever the reason, the concept of chai is important in Jewish culture. The typical Jewish toast is l'chayim (to life). Gifts to charity are routinely given in multiples of 18 (the numeric value of the word Chai).Although numbers in social media generally mean nothing, we are proud to be able to reach many people in this realm, especially as we have a strict banning policy on our Facebook page. We ban spammers, those who incite hatred or violence, and Christian missionaries trying to convert Jews, or praise Jesus, etc. We also ban people who have nothing better to do than to take a contrary POV to everything we post. In short, we ban anyone we don't like, and we do this often, so 54,000 people who make it past our filters, does mean something to us, especially as we see many pages doing everything they can to try to maximize "likes." Some of the largest pro-Israel and Jewish pages allow all types of spam, as well as the promotion of antisemitic and jihadist content, and content designed to preach to Jews for conversion. Such pages have no real standards. Ironically, many of them are run by well-funded organizations that falsely claim to take principled stands and they pay social media managers good money to manage their online presence, but all we see is widespread mismanagement.
We're also proud of our continued success, especially we continue to run this organization at a financial loss. Unlike most of the major well-funded Jewish establishment organizations that bring in millions, as they continue to neglect the problems and help cause them, we are not well-funded. But we do care, and we actually try to do something about them.
We do indeed thank those of you that understand this, and continue to support us, even if you're not in a position to spare a few bucks a month to help keep us going and growing. While bringing in enough money to cover the basics of running this operation would be wonderful, it wouldn't necessarily be a sign of success. Not all financial success is deserving necessarily, and some who deserve the most, oftentimes receive the least. It's one of those twisted injustices of this world, in which there is no shortage. It is why this quote by Mark Twain remains one of our favorites: "It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them." But at least we can still reach a large number of people, and not just on Facebook but we also reach them on Twitter, where we have over 58,000 followers, and some of our closest friends aren't on either, and receive our updates via email, RSS, Skype, etc.
There's still a ton of work to do. Always. And we have to continue to be as resourceful as possible. A lack of posts here or on Facebook/Twitter does not mean a lack of activity on our part. As many Israel/Jew haters and Islamic terrorist supporters and other frauds, liars, and hypocrites get off from any attention they receive from us, much of our work has to be behind the scenes. We cannot publicize every victory, or the details of everything we're doing. In many ways our effort has been going back underground, like it was pre-2008, but we want to assure you, the work continues.
