Make Me a Match!

“Matchmaker Matchmaker make me a match! Find me a find! Catch me a catch!”

Well we’ve definitely got finds, but starting today, we’ve also got matching!

Starting Today, thanks to a very generous donor, every donation made on www.half-shekel.org will be DOUBLED until we raise $20,000.

2000 years ago, you would have given a half-shekel coin as tribute to the Temple.

You could only give HALF of what was needed and your neighbor’s contribution would COMPLETE the donation.

We are officially in the three weeks of Jewish mourning that culminates in the fast day on the 9th of Av to commemorate the destruction of the Temple and many other terrible events in Jewish history. It is a common practice to learn about the Temple construction and laws during this time. We will do our part by providing videos and information from our research about these topics.

Do your part by helping us complete our research on First and Second Temple Period architectural fragments and other artifacts.

Give now at www.half-shekel.org and double YOUR impact.

Crowdfunding Announcement

Announcement: For the rest of our Annual Appeal (ending February 1st), everyone who qualifies for a silver-coated replica of our half-shekel coin will be AUTOMATICALLY upgraded to a full silver replica. Those who qualify for our full-silver replica will be a part of our Circle of Friends and receive their coin in a special display box. Make sure to get yours now at half-shekel.org.

Update on the Crowd Funding Campaign

50 days ago we launched a crowd funding campaign to support the research and publication of the Temple Mount finds. We’ve produced a video clip summarizing the story of the Sifting Project and the importance of publishing the finds.

The video has English and Hebrew versions, and the website and English video are translated into 15 more languages. We translated the website to many languages since we believe that the story of the Sifting Project and the story of the Temple Mount – as evidenced by its archaeological finds – will be of much interests all over the world.

When we launched the campaign on Facebook the Hebrew video immediately went viral and reached 10,000 people within three days, while the English video was less successful and reached 3,500 people. Up to date the videos were watched (30 sec views and more) on Facebook and YouTube by 43,797 people. 12,050 people have visited the website and 199 people have donated a total sum of $21,940. We intend to continue the campaign until the end of 2015.

The video has the potential to reach a very wide audience, especially these days when the Temple Mount is in the focus of the news. Since many ignorant comments are being heard in the media and distorted articles are published in major newspapers, this story and archaeological information is essential for establishing an educated debate.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project does not have a political agenda, and as open minded academic researchers we are open minded for any conclusion that can be deducted from the finds. We oppose ignorance. All scientific or academic research eventually serves humanity by helping us make better decisions. If the sifting project finds could help reduce tensions that are rooted by ignorance – we would be happy to serve this goal as well.

It is worthwhile to mention that about 15% of the website visitors are Arab speakers, and there are about 353 shares and hundreds of likes to the Arabic version of the website. It seems like the Arab world is very interested in this story.

If you haven’t visited the website yet, so please do so at: http://half-shekel.org , and if you could donate and encourage your friends to donate to the project, we would be grateful.