Hooray!

Hooray! We managed to reach our goal, of raising $400,000, which along with the quadrupling by a special donor means that in total we now have $1.6 million for our new museum building!

Over 500 people donated to the campaign. Perhaps most touching was a modest donation received from a teenager, accompanied by a note about how much he loves the museum, which was later followed by much larger donations by his parents and grandparents!

While these funds do not cover the entire cost of the new building, they certainly provide the lion's share (ba-da-bum!), and things are moving forwards! These are exciting times. Thank you to everyone who donated and who helped spread the word.

In other good news, this we hatched our very first Chinese golden pheasants! Here is a picture of one of the chicks, together with a picture of the adult bird. Pheasants are kosher birds, which we served at our Feast of Kosher Curiosities, although the mesorah is usually taken to extend only to the ring-necked pheasant, not the golden pheasant. Golden pheasants are among the most beautiful of all birds!

We plan to run a Feast of Biblical Flora & Fauna in Teaneck in October, followed by a Feast of Exotic Curiosities in Los Angeles in February!