Students aged 11-14 from six Jewish schools in Liverpool and London were honoured with their Yoni Jesner Award or Yoni Jesner Award Plus for 20 or 50 hours of volunteering respectively. The awards promoted the legacy of Yoni Jesner, and inspiring young Jewish volunteer who was tragically killed in a bus bombing in Tele Aviv in 2002, at just 19 years of age.
Present at the ceremony were four guests of honour: Marsha Gladstone, Yoni’s mother and Director of the Yoni Jesner Foundation; Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis; Councillor Mark Shooter, Mayor of Barnet; and Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Each young person had their picture taken with the Guests of Honour and Marsha, the Chief Rabbi and the Mayor all spoke about their own personal experiences of volunteering. The audience included the award recipients, their families, friends of the Yoni Jesner Foundation and various charity representatives from the community.
JVN Chairman David Lazarus also spoke at the event to thank the organisers and all who took part, including two young comperes – Hannah Sinyor, a Sixth Former from Hasmonean High School for Girls, and Oliver Abrahams, a Year 8 award recipient from JCoSS.
Leonie Lewis, Director of JVN, said: “Young volunteers are extremely important for our community, as young volunteers make older volunteers. The Yoni Jesner Awards is a great way to enthuse and inspire young people in our community to do something for others, who we hope will in turn inspire their parents, grandparents, siblings and other friends and family to also give their time.”
Lara Bloch, new JVN intern, said: “It was really interesting to attend my first JVN event and see first-hand some of the great work the charity does. I enjoy working for an organisation that helps so many great causes in the community, in this instance through young people in school.”
Many of those who completed their award will have the opportunity next academic year to undertake their Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award with the JLGB as the next step on their evolve volunteering journey.
