JSDD celebrates 20 years of service
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JSDD celebrates 20 years of service

At the celebration are JSDD executive director Linda Press, center, with honorees and past presidents Lois Rose, left, and Lynda Wachsteter. 
At the celebration are JSDD executive director Linda Press, center, with honorees and past presidents Lois Rose, left, and Lynda Wachsteter. 

FAMED FOLKSINGER Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, entertained the crowd of 300 at the 20th anniversary celebration of Jewish Service for the Developmentally Disabled. The party and concert were held Nov. 6 at the Morris Museum’s Bickford Theatre in Morristown.

At the event, the JSDD, which provides residences and artistic programs for hundreds of adults with special needs, honored two past presidents, Lois Rose and Lynda Wachsteter.

The agency grew out of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ’s Commission on Individuals with Disabilities, which opened its first group residential home in Millburn in 1989. Six years later the commission became the independent JSDD. 

Today the organization supports 40 people in 11 residential programs in one of the few sets of kosher residential homes in the state for adults with special needs.

JSDD also operates the Wae (Wellness, Arts, Enrichment) Center, an alternative learning facility, at its headquarters in West Orange. 

Linda Press has been JSDD’s executive director since 2001; Marilynn Schneider has been director of the Wae Center since 2004.

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