My blog anniversary!

                                                                                                             B-H

It’s been a year since I posted my first essay on this blog and March will mark a year since my book “Another Convert” was published.

I started a little later with blogging compared to other Jewish blogers and perhaps my readership is not as large as the others.  I post weekly (on average) and have from 50 to over 500 readers a week depending of the topic and time of posting. Most of the visitors are from the US but guess where else my readers are from? Poland, my native country you would think? Not at all!  The second largest reader base is Russia or Germany, then the Netherlands and the  Ukraine for the third/fourth position followed by Canada, Norway, Latvia, Romania and other European countries and South America as well. I also have visitors from India and China, Australia and New Zealand. Readers from African countries and from the Indochina peninsula are browsing from time to time. Aha, somewhere there half way down this list was also Poland.

I always wonder who are the people who visit my blog? Many of them on a regular basis some once in a while, while some come only once. Who are they? Are they Gerim like me? Are they people preparing for Geirus? How many Jews born in Jewish families are reading my posts? Are they all observant or are there a number of non observant Jews? Who are the people from Norway, Latvia and Romania and the more “exotic” countries listed above?

As you can see there are almost no comments on my essays or at least the comments are disproportionately less than the readers. Why is this so? Another question I am pondering. Are my thoughts so brilliant and my points so cogent that no comments are necessary?! Or perhaps my readers think that I am made out of eggshells and any disagreement or criticism will harm or destroy me?! To those who might think this way, let me explain something. I have stood up against greater obstacles in my life than words of healthy criticism or even a nasty comment or two. Don’t be afraid! Matys Weiser is not only made out of flesh and bones but his skin is callused with the various ups and downs of life.

Some have contacted me through email at  anotherconvert@gmail.com and we had a very interesting  and fruitful exchange of ideas.

Thank you for motivating me to continue blogging. Thank you all for reading my blog and I hope that I will be able to inspire you in the future as well.

My blogs this year touched upon all kinds of topics and areas of life. This was the year of the Egyptian revolution and we are currently witnessing the emergence of new revolutions by people seeking a less repressive forms of government. This was the year which will be remembered as the year when Laybe Kletzki returned his precious neshuma back to his Creator. During this tragic event I was able to write some of my best essays. As Rashi comments on the death of Miriam, the passing away of the Tzadik – brings teshuva among the people. Without any doubt, as for many others, Laybies story caused me to reconnect and strengthen my connection with Hashem to a higher level.

This was also the year when my only daughter got married. A special time for every father and this inspired some interesting posts as well.

I posted about 50 posts and I have another 20 in various stages of completion. Meanwhile life is always presenting me with new topics and almost every week there is something interesting to write about.

As you can see from some of my unedited posts, editing is the major issue for my writings and postings. My English is not the best to put it mildly, I make grammatical errors as well as spelling mistakes due to the fact that English is the newest addition to the languages that I am conversant with. The fact that I have a minor case of dyslexia does not help matters. But I still have a desire to write and there are still people who are interested in reading my blogs. This year I had a few editors who helped me with my essays and now my chavruso and friend is doing the editing for me. However he is a businessman and has other things on his head then editing my essays.

Now if I may I will switch the subject and talk a little bit about my book. Whoever read my book prior to it being published were ecstatic with praises about how great it is and how important it would be to have it published.. They didn’t simply express polite acceptance or even moderate admiration for the book, some of them were actually flaming with the belief that this book is so important, full of information of interest to various groups of people. I was very pleased to hear this feedback about the book as any author would be. But I am perplexed. If they are right why have so little copies been sold? Is it only a matter of marketing where without the proper advertising no product can be sold these days? Were the topics of the book too controversial or technical in some way? I’m sure that this book cracked some of the shell which some people like to live in. Without a doubt some parts of my book can shatter such shields of ignorance or self-indulgence where people create an environment and a god which serves them, and not other way around.

My goal was to help foster an atmosphere where a man can find out who he is! Where a man can find his Creator! Where a man can create an environment where he can unite with the Giver of Life through the gift of his life. An environment where we create an attachment to Hashem by fulfilling the commandments of the Torah for the Jewish people and for adherence to the Noahide laws for non Jews.

BeEzras HaShem, last week with the help of a few contributors we started an advertising campaign which due to financial difficulties was never done properly before. I pray and hope that this time around more people will find out about this book and that they will find this book not only interesting but motivating and inspiring as well.

Matys Weiser