New Logo and Mascot, a hedgehog
I founded Jewish Libertarians as a Facebook page in September 2012 or so, but have long wanted an actual domain. Well, I finally got it together and imported the old blog to here. That site will no longer be updated. Instead, all new posts will be here. Over the next days and weeks, I will be customizing and upgrading the website to look like the old blog, and also improve it a bit. Things have come a long way over the past near decade.
The most exciting thing is I will finally be able to accept submissions from guests as well as have regular contributors. I will develop a system to make it easy to submit posts, subject to editorial review, and then publication. This will help us have more frequent posts that will boost activity and readership. My inconsistent posting prevents people from consistently reading. I look forward to input from everyone. If you have any ideas, start writing!
Next, I commissioned a new logo last year and have not had the time to do anything with it. Soon, I will incorporate that logo into the page and this website. That also means I can finally make some cool merchandise, starting with stickers and t-shirts. I also have other design ideas for that. Proceeds will go to the organization to sponsor events and other activities.
Which leads me to the next announcement about our successful Shabbat BBQ at PorcFest 2021! We raised about $200 at the event and brought in many new faces. I am working on the accounting for this as well as a full audit to figure out how much money we have. At this point, I think about $1000, which isnt much, but helps us front events like PorcFest as well as holidays and celebrations and outreach. Thanks to the BBQ, I met a number of more observant Jewish libertarians like myself who live in New Hampshire. In the past, attendees either did not live here, or were not religious at all. With these new partners, we will be able to grow Jewish Libertarians into a full fledged organization! We are even talking about the first libertarian Jewish congregation likely in the world, but that is some time away.
For now, my plan is to continue working on this new website, integrate our new partners, and get a shop ready. Later on, we will be hosting events. I am hoping that next year I will finally be able to host my dream Freedom Seder for Passover. And for PorcFest next year, we are planning some big growth with a full Jewish Libertarians venue and a full slate of discussions and events. After a really awful year for many, things have been getting better in my part of the world. I look forward to sharing that with all of you!
And finally, I am going to get back on track writing up commentaries on the parashot. That is a glaring gap that needs to be filled. Once all the parashot are completed, I will publish them as a book. And after that, I want to do a full commentary on the Torah. There are many things I skipped because each parasha discussion needs to focus on one or two issues. A full commentary will in fact be easier because there are many passages that have little relation to liberty, and many that have massive relation to liberty. As always, stay tuned.