Who is rooster613?

Rooster613 is Yonassan Gershom, a Breslov Hasid who lives in Sandstone, Minnesota, a small town about 100 miles north of Minneapolis. I was born in Berkeley, California in 1947, grew up in the Philadelphia area, and moved to Minnesota in 1973. My family and I currently live on a small 15-acre hobby farm, where we have chickens, geese, dogs, cats, and an organic garden. (No, there are no other Jews here except my family -- it's a long story. You can read more about our life here on my personal family farm page and on my blog. (NOTE: "rabbigershom.com" is NOT ME! It is some sleazy hyjacker using my name to defame me -- I have NOTHING TO DO WITH that site!)

I originally came to Wikipedia because somebody had linked one of my websites here. I checked it out and liked what I saw. I also noted that the Breslov Hasidism page left much to be desired at the time. So, I added more content there, and have been working on other Wikipedia pages related to Breslov and other forms of Judaism. I created the following pages:

• Nathan of Nemirov
• Yisroel Ber Odesser
• Na Nach Nachma
• Yisroel Halpern
• Ani Maamin
• The Rooster Prince
• Young Israel
• Lamedvavnik -- was a separate page but is now combined with Lamed Vav Tzadikim
• Lionel Friedberg

To-do list:

• Improve Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev stub.

• Improve the page on the Jewish Peace Fellowship and link it to the pacifism page (actually, that page should have a section on Judaism under the religion section -- will do that also.)

A few brief facts about me (not to brag, but people do ask):

• Professional writer with five books in print (Beyond the Ashes, From Ashes to Healing, Jewish Tales of Reincarnation, Jewish Themes in Star Trek, and Eight Candles of Consciousness: Essays on Jewish Nonviolence. My work has been translated into seven languages (that I know of.) My blog is at JewishThoreau.com.

• Top Reviewer on Amazon.com

• On Advisory Board of Jewish Vegetarians of North America(JVNA) since 2005

• Master Gardener from 1995-2006 with the University of Minnesota.

That's all for now -- thank you for checking out my page here.

Why is my username rooster613?

Well, "613" refers to the 613 mitzvot or commandments in Orthodox Judaism. As for rooster, of course, that is a male chicken -- and also refers to a Breslov teaching parable, The Rooster Prince.