Old picture from our Sefer Torah event in Stavropol. And now in Hebrew http://col.org.il/show_news.rtx?artID=45686 The comments there are informative.
The reason I started updating this blog regularly was that so many people - family, friends, sponsors told me how interesting it would be to read about the trials and tribulations of a new couple going out on shlichus to Russia. Particularly an American (Canadian) couple heading to one of the more rural cities out there.
Now thanks to our dramatic deportation story, it has become very popular, enough to be quoted by the LA Times, and I'm afraid that I will be misquoted by further papers. (The Times took a joke about being in a future book by Mordechai Staiman out of context).
My goal is to return to my community, not to make a point or upset the Russian authorities. My question is now whether or not to make the blog private (which I have done temporarily, while I await a similar answer from rabbi Lazar).
Reasons to keep it open:
- Reach out to more people who can get inspired and read about a tough (yet always interesting) shlichus
- Friends and supporters don't have to sign in every time they want to read my blog, and friends that I forgot to invite will have easy access
- Ultimately I have nothing to hide. Closing the blog seems like I'm afraid to let the world know what's going on, particularly now that anyone who wants to read it (for good or for bad) can easily find out about it
- It's probably not too difficult to hack into my blog. I assume any newspaper and certainly the Russian authorities have easy ways to get in and read what they want
Reasons to close it:
- Avoid being misquoted by newspapers, which will keep the story (hopefully) low-profile so Rabbi Lazar can continue to do his work to get us back to our cities
- Who knows who reads it now anyway? it's not exactly so wise in todays world to be so public
- Anyway I originally made the blog for friends and supporters
I'd like to hear what you think. Please comment.
3 comments:
Rebbi why yo make problems jewish comunity stavropl we very glad you make holiday we not second class
Chaim, glad to see you're up to date ;)
You're doing the right thing asking Rabbi Lazar, he would know best what is appropriate. It seems to me that especially with the Russian authorities you might hurt your cause more by granting interviews and antagonizing them. I'm sure higher Russian officials can overrule the decision when they find the letter from Mr. Pushkantser to be a slanderous lie based on jealousy.
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