Welcome, Jlife, to the Jewish heart of New Jersey! And welcome Publisher/Editor leadership team, Mody and Tracey Gorsky.

A strong, independent media source connecting and representing all Jews is essential to a thriving Jewish community. Thank you for helping our community begin to build a platform to meet that need.

Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey is proud to have made the shidduch between Jlife and this community. And we are grateful to the 70+ local Jewish organizations who, together – fueled by our respective supporters, volunteers, and professional staff members, including clergy – turned the possibility of a Jlife for Monmouth and Greater Middlesex counties into a reality.

We are delighted that a growing number of Jewish organizations are excited to be part of Jlife’s launch, to share news of the launch with their members and participants, and to populate the magazine and its related media platforms with content about their people, milestones, ideas, and more. Thank you to every synagogue, school, camp, every community and cultural center, arts organization, youth group and youth center, human services and senior services agency, college enrichment program, Hadassah, choir, and the list goes on.  

An information hub serving every Jew is essential to a vibrant, resilient, and sustainable Jewish community. This is especially true in an era when we must all – regardless of our varied religious observances, family origins, stages of life, and political leanings – connect and communicate equally to address the effects of antisemitic bias and threats as much as excite people about sharing in experiences from joyful traditions and educational events to advocacy engagements, somber remembrances, and more. We need a way to stay informed about evolving needs and achievements among our extended family. And above all, we must have a mirror through which to see each other, know each other, appreciate one another, and bring into focus our collective beauty – differences and all. 

For readers who may not be aware, Jlife is not a “Federation paper.” Nonetheless, when there is a pressing unmet need for a community-wide resource that no one organization can fill alone, Federation convenes partners, and we seek to create a solution together.

What started with a Federation survey of 800 current and recent local Jewish community leaders about two years ago, and continued with a great deal of partnership building, research, and development since then, culminates with the launch of Jlife Heart of NJ’s inaugural issue. We are pleased to have helped facilitate this milestone.  

And this is just the beginning.

Share Jlife with the people you know. Subscribe and encourage others to subscribe here. Encourage the business owners and organizations you know to consider reaching their target audience through advertising. Send in your story suggestions, news, and letters to the editor. Have an idea for content you’d like to see in Jlife? Let Mody and Tracey know. Have a question about Jlife you’d like to run by us at Federation? Give us a call or drop us a line.     

Jlife is slated to publish as a monthly digital magazine free of charge for all subscribers, with a website, bi-weekly e-news, and social media in between. The feasibility of a limited print run may be explored in the future.  

Jlife’s publishers, the 70+ local Jewish organizations’ representatives who provided input, the vast majority of the original communal leaders’ survey respondents, and dozens of survey respondents of all ages and associations who also gave their in-depth opinions through focus interviews, agreed that the new Jewish community news source should not emphasize conflict and controversy, foster political division, or seek to replicate hard-hitting investigative journalism available elsewhere. The overwhelming preference was for an uplifting and positive media hub that connects, empowers, and inspires readers to engage in, enjoy, and make the most of Jewish life and culture in the heart of NJ and beyond.

We invite you to be part of Jlife’s success story.

Over time, may we all participate in its growth, contribute to its content, support its advertisers, and benefit from its ability to enrich the way we live Jewishly and strengthen the backbone of our Jewish community. 

Once again, many thanks to each and every one of the hundreds of community leaders who have contributed to the shaping and launch of Jlife Heart of NJ, a hearty welcome to Jlife’s publishing/editing team, and let us join in saying a Shehechiyanu to mark this auspicious beginning.

Visit jlifenj.com to read and subscribe to Jlife.