JVN Blog

In one of our past blog posts, we talked about how many university students struggle with building the best possible CVs. This leads many of them to view volunteering as a requirement, or even a chore, that they need to do in order to because there is so much demand for paid starter-level jobs, or […]

A refrain made popular by the Beatles was surely meant for the Festival of Chanukah! Of course a week has seven days, but Chanukah is about the extraordinary; the miracle of a small container of oil that burned beyond its one day lifespan for an additional week. The number eight is itself an extraordinary number […]

Have a look at our latest infographic! We’ve pulled together some statistics about volunteering in the Jewish community. For a small community the numbers are staggering! If you’d like to join the 1000s volunteering across the community register with JVN here, and if you want to see the latest volunteering opportunities check out our network. […]

  Here’s an uncontroversial statement: educating young people is extremely important. Academic success is at the forefront of government policy and many parents’ minds, and this has been the case as far as we can remember. But academia, nowadays, has an educational rival. Citizenship and so-called informal education has an established place on the National […]

  When you decide you want to give your time and volunteer it can sometimes be a challenge to find the charity that you want to help. Sometimes you simply go for one you already know or have heard of, but it can be immensely beneficial to have a think before you start and see […]

The festival of Sukkot is full of symbols. We build a sukka (temporary structure) to represent the tents of the Israelites when they resided in the desert before entering Israel, as well as to demonstrate our faith in G-d’s protection, as the structure is exposed to external elements. We wave the Arba Minim (4 Species) […]

A Familiar Refrain… The awe inspiring prayer Unetaneh Tokef, questioning who will live and who will die, is a most familiar refrain for Rosh Hashanah. The prayer repeatedly states that G-d has inscribed a judgment against all who have sinned, but teshuvah (repentance), tefillah (prayer) and tzedakah can alleviate the decree. None of these elements […]

For most young people, whether applying for university, internships, or jobs, there is constant pressure to have the best CV/UCAS form possible. Most understand that with the extreme competitiveness for places it is essential that you make yourself stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately this has created a compulsory mentality towards volunteering as merely doing […]

Our new Social Media Consultant and former intern, Elliot Cukier, was recently afforded the lucky opportunity to go to Israel with the Genesis Challenge programme. Here he tells us all about the amazing time he and the rest of his group had, and the lessons they learnt about volunteering and giving back along the way… […]

This week we handed our blog over to JonFreedman, a volunteer and former London 2012 Games Maker. We asked him to give us his thoughts on how we can rekindle the spirit of London 2012, one year after the Games captured the giving disposition of a nation. This is what he had to say… My […]