JVN Blog

For her regular feature on Jewish festivals, JVN Director Leonie Lewis talks about Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) and the relationships we can build with others in our community through volunteering… I am an avid reader, perusing a wide variety of novels, often recommendations by Richard & Judy! However, I do also regularly read more […]

  As I anticipate the pending arrival of Tisha B`av, the 25 hour fast, where Jews the world over mourn tragedies in our history, particularly the destruction of both Temples as well as a number of other tragedies that befell our people over the centuries, I am reminded that 100 years ago today, the Great […]

With summer well and truly upon us we thought it would be timely to go through the different volunteering opportunities that are available to do outdoors.  Whilst we can’t guarantee the British weather, there really are some amazing ways that you can volunteer outdoors and make a difference whilst working on your tan!   Below […]

The Yoni Jesner Awards, JVN’s largest programme, held its annual awards ceremony in the evening of Thursday 3rd July at the Camden Centre, London. The awards celebrate the volunteering achievements of young people aged 11-14 who have volunteered in their local communities over the past academic year for at least 20 hours. 193 awards were […]

This year as in the past few years, the national Volunteers’ Week coincides directly with the Jewish Festival of Shavuot. This gives us at JVN an opportunity to link the valuable contribution volunteers make to our community with the festival of chessed (kindness).  But this year, we have an added significance – it’s the 30th anniversary […]

I was talking to a friend recently about life and work and we both agreed that there are too many people stuck in a job they don’t like. This is a real shame. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and it is a waste spending years, months, even days doing something which you […]

Why: Thanking volunteers is possibly the best way of keeping them involved. A recent JVN survey revealed that regularly thanked volunteers are more motivated – “The professional staff regular thank me for my contributions, which is lovely” – than ones who are not – “It would be nice if the organisation to thank me occasionally for my […]

It was great having Anthony Meyerstone come to our office today, we caught up with him to hear some of his thoughts about becoming a Trustee for JVN and volunteering in general. Anthony has recently joined JVN as a Trustee, he is a Pharmaceutical Consultant in his day to day job, trying to bring new […]

After my totally amazing experience of being a 2012 Olympic ceremonies cast performer, I was looking to do some meaningful volunteering work over the Festive season of 2013, and decided to search on the JVN website. I found that the West London Synagogue (WLS), in particular Davina Carter and Laura Solomons, had joined a project […]

I love design. Objects, buildings, clothes, jewelry, stationary, nature, food, you name it. If it’s colourful, beautifully placed, smart, creative and puts a smile on my face – I LOVE it! I am currently looking for a job. You know how it feels. Sending your CV everywhere with the hope that someone will actually read […]