March 28, 2024
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March 28, 2024
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Linking Northern and Central NJ, Bronx, Manhattan, Westchester and CT

Welcome to Special Needs in Bergen County & Beyond!

We at JLBC are proud to present our first-ever Special Needs pull-out section as part of our biggest paper ever! It is our hope that the next few pages can provide you with an even stronger sense of the many wonderful programs, people, and organizations out there—both in our local community and globally—dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals with special needs.

Discerning readers may have noticed over the past year that our paper regularly features articles, columns, pictures, and events focusing on children and adults with special needs, as well as the organizations helping and assisting them. Well, we admit it. We’ve been found out. This issue is indeed a personal one, both as a sibling and a parent.

In searching for a theme for our first edition with a special pull-out section, it became quickly obvious what our theme would be. There is a well-known catch-phrase in the special needs community that “We Are All Special Needs” and that each of us—and especially our children—all have special needs of one kind or another. How true! At JLBC, we felt that there is simply so much going on in this area—in our schools, shuls, camps, volunteer organization—and with our neighbors—that we agreed this should be the focus of our first special pull-out section.  So many good people and organizations are dedicated to this issue, so how could we ignore it? I know firsthand of the incredible selflessness and dedication of our son’s dedicated Yachad advisors, Friendship Circle volunteers, HASC counselors, special-ed teachers at JESC and our local schools. They deserve to be singled out and profiled in some fashion.

As a special needs parent who is now trying to plan the appropriate celebration for my son’s rapidly approaching bar mitzvah, I have always felt the need to look to his future. It was a blessing that in the past year I also met Bruce Maier and Zev Grossman of AXA Advisors. Their work with Friendship Circle, Yachad, and families with special needs children and adults, is exemplary. We hope you will enjoy their article and take a look at their ad in these pages. When it comes to planning for families with Special Needs, they are certainly the JLBC’s go-to team.

Thank you to all our advertisers, partners, and contributors who have made this section “special.”

By Moshe Kinderlehrer, Co-Publisher, JLBC

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