Dear Esty, amv"sh
I don't think that my blog has much of a circulation. Sometimes I think I'm the only one that's reading it and indeed one of my main objectives of the blog is to keep track of what I am writing and use it as a useful tool . I am posting your letter for what it's worth.
As you can see there is no real advertising. However, I am flattered by the fact that you thought it did have a wide circulation that would bring in money for your organization. However, let me suggest you contact www.yeshabulletin.org that has a great news website especially for YESHA and it's created by Rivka Ryback. Perhaps the two of you can work out an arrangement.
In any event, if you can actually get individuals, Torah scholars davening on behalf of Yesha for 40 days and publicize it, it would show that this group really cares for their fellow Jew even if they are not in the nationalist camp, Even if the Jews in Yesha and their supporters don't send large contributions to your group of Torah Scholars since the the Yesha community is not the wealthiest group when it comes to shekels and they themselves are living on faith and are doing tremendous chesed among themselves and helping their own group to survive, it will be comfort for them knowing that you share in their pain and hopefully also validate their struggle. They have the zechus of actually living many Mitzvoth of the Torah dependant on the Land and agriculture. They have the wonderful opportunity to keep, do and observe these Mitzvoth in addition to learning and teaching. I wouldn't be surprised if many themselves join the Kotel group to daven 40 days for this cause. Based on the fact that Yesha residents are facing expulsion, prayer is on their minds 24/7, 365 days a year..
FYI In Hebron I know for a fact that a group of women say tehillim on a regular basis (once a week) with names of cholim, shidduchim etc at Maarat Hamachpela. I know because I myself participated in it and there were pages of names regularly updated for addons and deletions according to the type of request. I don't believe that they get paid for it and the locals in the community provide the names. Many of the names are submitted by their relatives, friends or neighbors and friends of their relatives, friends and neighbors.
Personally I believe that Hashem is giving Am Yisroel this window of opportunity to see if we will care enough about 350,000 or so of our fellow Jew and do something about ir or will we merely disregard what happened to the 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif and act as if such a thing never happened and can't happen to 350,000 people.
The only way another expulsion can happen chas vechalila is when the media and the left succeed in demonizing the hilltop youth who they portray as radical extremist, haters of the State, who put up illegal outposts with no respect for the law and who are a fringe group with violent tendencies that wish to kill and murder all Arabs. They represent them with a vengeance and moral equivalence with Fatah and Hamas which is equated with evil and suicide bombers. The public reading this distortion then equates the hilltop ;youth and all that they believe in, and those that justify their struggle as an evil group "worthy of expulsion". This analysis was suggested by Dovid Wilder of the Hebron Community.
If however, mainstream Jewry and especially a righteous group of Jews that daven at the Kotel, validates their struggle in Judea and Samaria and agrees with the statement that each and every Jew has the right to settle in every part in Eretz Yisroel, this breaks the negative villification of the settlers and makes it much harder psychologically to go ahead with another expulsion.
Thanks for listening and I would be happy to hear your response! I didn't go on your website because my computer's filter has a bug in it and at the moment is not allowing me on to any sites. Hopefully this will be resolved soon! Kol Tuv, Robin
Robin
On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Esther Dresdner <esty@westernwallprayers.org> wrote:
Hi Robin,
I came across your blog and really enjoyed reading what you share, and am inspired by your strong beliefs in Hashem's Mitzvos and spreading their truth.
I immediately thought that a partnership between both of us might be quite mutually beneficial since our audience seem to be very similar.
Please read about our organization at your leisure: http://westernwallprayers.org/fortydays/whatwedo.html
In short, we are a fund raising project for families and Torah-learning in Jerusalem. In gratitude for a donation, we pray on a person's behalf for 40 days at the Western Wall. Located in the heart of the Jewish quarter, Western Wall Prayers is run by a Yeshiva family who seeks to provide a source of income to the struggling Jerusalem Torah scholars and their families. We have helped 100s of people looking for their Beshert, people going through health problems, legal matters, family issues, financial distress and many others. I'm wondering if your members might too want a little help from above by the Kotel?
As a charity, we don't have a lot of money to spend on advertising as we're donating a large majority of it. But perhaps we can form an affiliate relationship where you would get 10% commission on all the donation that come from your site. Would you be willing to try this structure for a month to test the waters? None of the leg work is required on your part as we would provide the banner, the tracking code and an ability for you to track the campaign from our affiliate software.
I'm eagerly looking forward to your feedback and regardless, keep doing what you're doing. It's a great blog!
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All the best,
Esty Dresdner
