Although I know the coronavirus has everyone on edge in our community and beyond, I cannot let the occasion of The Jewish Link’s seventh anniversary pass by completely unmentioned and unnoticed.

Moments such as these are a wonderful chance to look back and reflect a bit and, most importantly, say thank you. First, I want to thank our staff of talented editors, writers, columnists, contributors and salespeople who help bring The Jewish Link to the printed page and your screens every week. We really have come a long way since the days when I used to do everything myself, including delivering the paper. Thank you!

Thanks as well to our continually growing group of dynamic advertisers who believe in The Jewish Link and, more importantly, are growing their own businesses on the strength of The Jewish Link’s platform. It gives me tremendous nachas to look around and see businesses and nonprofits that have started and continue to grow in part due to their ongoing commitment to advertising in and with our paper. Thank you!

Just to share a quick anecdote about our dedicated Jewish Link advertisers, we recently sent out a short survey to nearly 400 key advertisers, offering all respondents a $10 Amazon gift card if they filled it out. How many of our advertisers do you think responded? Nearly 300 out of 400, if you can believe that! And yes, I and The Jewish Link were happy to pay out nearly $3,000 in Amazon gift cards (although I will admit that I didn’t think that many would respond initially). I was blown away by the amazing response and by the overwhelmingly positive feedback and comments in the survey results.

I must also say thank you to our readers and our community members who read our paper weekly in New Jersey and beyond. I will never tire of hearing that The Jewish Link is someone’s main reading on Friday night or Shabbat afternoon. My editors and I love to hear about how dynamic and diverse our community is, with our local businesses, schools, shuls, nonprofits and sometimes just individual families or even young children all doing incredible things or starting unique programs or doing something no one had thought of prior. We feel privileged to write about and cover our community week in and week out and look forward to doing so for many years to come. Thank you!

Thanks are also in order to my co-publisher, Teaneck deputy mayor and friend Mark (Mendy) Schwartz, who was a good acquaintance seven years ago when we started the paper together and is today a close friend and guide. I am proud to be associated with him and help him as he runs again for Teaneck town council in May (more to come on this in future editions of our paper). Thank you Mendy, and hatzlacha on the upcoming election!

By Moshe Kinderlehrer, JLNJ Co-Publisher