December 18: Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my 60th birthday.

Holy Cow.

I’m not going to be writing a JEWDAYO entry about myself (too much research), but I am going to pause in the project for this one day (Steven Spielberg’s birthday, 1947) to tell you briefly about my plans for its future.

I’ve now completed two years of daily blogging about Jewish political and cultural history. I keep expecting readers, especially long-time readers, to get numb to it, but lots and lots of you continue to open it every day, and I still get mash notes. It is becoming more and more challenging, however, to find truly worthy and interesting dates: Jews are a tiny people, after all, and have had only a couple of centuries of modern social creativity of the kind that I report on in JEWDAYO. Still, the project brings me joy and serves as an important portal to the Jewish Currents website and the rest of the work we do, so it’s my aim to continue into Year Three, with some variation — and with a little help from you.

• First, I would like to invite readers to make this project a little more participatory by sending me suggestions for people and events to feature in JEWDAYO. You don’t have to write the entries, just tell me what you know — by e-mailing me at [my full name, one word] at earthlink dot net.

• Second, I’m going to begin to introduce occasional mythical dates as JEWDAYO entries — when, exactly, was Moses born? — based on the Biblical calendar and other far-out calculations. That way, on slow days when my research is producing bubkes, I can go beyond the realm of history and offer you some interesting Jewish lore or text study.

• Third, I urge you to purchase a copy of JEWDAYO the Book, at our marketplace, for $21.95 (with free shipping). It is designed as a day book, in which you can enter your own significant dates, and it does not become obsolete with the calendar. JEWDAYO the Book makes for a handsome holiday gift. Reading these entries several pages at a time has a cumulative effect that resembles a roller coaster ride.

• Fourth, I urge you to approach the decision-makers in any Jewish organization in which you participate and turn them on to JEWDAYO. We have marketing materials that offer JEWDAYO as something that can go out to a congregational or organizational membership list for a very low fee, under the organization’s own logo. You can help us in other ways, too — “like” us at Facebook, toot your horn, share entries with friends (anybody can sign up to get these e-mails with one click by visiting at our website archive). We deserve to grow.

• Finally, while most gracious people say, “Please, no gifts” when they tell folks about their birthdays. I’m doing the opposite: I ask you to make a tax-deductible contribution, as generous as you can make it, to Jewish Currents magazine in support of JEWDAYO. Surely these e-mails bring you a dime’s worth of entertainment or inspiration or comforting familiarity each day ($36). So please ante up and help us sustain this creative marathon.

I thank you for letting JEWDAYO into your info-saturated lives. May the new year bring you blessings and be kinder to our country and our planet — and may our Jewish identities call us all to social responsibility —

Lawrence Bush, Editor