It’s that time of the year again when non-profits and even some bloggers ask those who appreciate their work to consider contributing in a financial sense. And since Israellycool is now both a blog and a non-profit, I will be no exception.
(If you are on the Israellycool mailing list and/or have already contributed what you intended to for the year, feel free to not read on)
If you recall, I set up as a non-profit last year, in order to be able to not only dedicate myself to Israel advocacy full-time, but hopefully expand. What do I mean by expand? I mean by bringing on more writers, people to help with social media, graphics, and video, and even event hosting.
It has been slow going until now, but good things come to those who are patient. And thankfully, I have been at least able to keep things going, albeit at perhaps a slightly slower pace due to my other responsibilities.
Here are just some of the things we have been able to achieve in 2021:
- Being cited dozens of times by the mainstream media, including Fox News, the Jewish Journal, the Jerusalem Post, JNS, JTA, and Ynet (often cited as an expert)
- Exposing that speech by CAIR’s Zahra Billoo inciting against Jews, with the Israellycool video already being viewed over 100,000 times on Twitter alone
- Exposing the ‘fake’ Miss Greece who claimed to be boycotting the Miss Universe pageant in Israel, even having the official organization behind selecting Miss Greece link to an Israellycool post
- A recent exposé on antisemite Suhair Nafal receiving an award from the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the California State Assembly led to the award being withdrawn
- Our tweet on an antisemitic SNL skit ended up going viral, with the video being viewed over 2.5 million times, and forming the basis of multiple mainstream media reports.
- One post from June last year debunking a particularly pernicious antisemitic libel has been accessed over 50,000 times in the past year
- An earlier post exposing someone who had made antisemitic comments against a Jewish Australian politician led to the perpetrator contacting us and expressing genuine remorse and a promise to fight antisemitism
And of course as usual, numerous Israellycool posts have been referenced or somehow built upon by other individuals and larger organizations, whether it be to debunk libels, expose Jew-haters, expose media bias, or for some other reason.
I am super pleased there are many more people out there on social media – including many of you, dear readers – to help shoulder the load. It was not like this a decade ago. But I believe Israellycool is still well and truly needed (and ahead of the game) for the following reasons (among others):
- Continuing to provide original, compelling content, often out-scooping media outlets
- Maintaining a huge online archive of material (over 22,000 posts) that is still being accessed on a daily basis, and which regularly rank high in Google search results
- A track record in reaching ‘beyond the choir’ and influencing hearts and minds of those who are not necessarily staunchly pro-Israel
- Dealing with a multitude of topics – such as media bias, and exposing antisemites – while many other organizations focus on just the one
I hope you’ll agree we punch well above our weight among organizations and individuals promoting Israel and fighting antisemitism online.
I’m truly grateful for your support; together, we can change the way people look at Israel!
