MyShtetl.co.za staffer Mike Shapiro conceived the idea: Let’s have some fun with our users seeing that April Fool’s day falls on a newsletter day!

“Brilliant!” was the immediate response of publisher Ant Katz, who has pulled many such pranks on his audiences over the years.

The timing was perfect.

After two days of no relationship with their e-mails, Katz figured, Thursday morning would be the perfect time as everyone would be restoring their relationship with their digital lives. And the fact that they had been out of contact with the world for at least 49 hours would make it all the more likely that they may forget about the date and believe the foolish stories.

"Let's do it!" Katz told MyShtetl staffers.

Ant Katz sent out some e-mails to a shortlist of MyShtetl contributors and friends. The ideas flowed in - the best of which were used to fool users.

Shapiro himself submitted the idea of the merger between the Beth Din and the MJC – which Katz toned down to make it a bit more credible. See World First for Beth Din

Chabadgirl contributed the detailed “diesel” story (which also needed to be toned down to add a semblance of believability). See Motor Manufacturers Stump the Rabbis

Parsha-contributor and columnist Josh Hovsha found the classic White House Seder story (as well as another one that was immediately ‘dissed’ for being OTT), see: White House Seder

And Ant Katz put it all together, with pics and all, and re-hashed his favourite ‘Goldstone for SAZF chair’ story so enjoyed in the past by among others, Avram Krengel himself - who has framed a copy of the ad that ran with it in Sunday Times. See: SAZF Palace Coup

What did users think of this bit of fun? Go to the bottom of this story and click on comment. Yell us if we caught you at all. And how you felt when you realised you were being made a fool of.