Over 250 people attend first Yoni Jesner Award

Monday 15 June 2009 saw over 120 students and their parents attend the first ever Yoni Jesner Award Ceremony at St. John's Wood Synagogue, with guest of honour Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

The ceremony celebrates the culmination of students from each of the mainstream Jewish secondary schools having completed over 20 hours of volunteering inside and outside of the Jewish community.

UJIA is raising the community leaders of tomorrow, through exciting educational programmes, such as this, that will instil them with communal responsibility based on values such as chesed (kindness). The Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks thanked UJIA for 'putting chesed at the heart of the community.'

UJIA's Yoni Jesner Award (YJA) aims to encourage as many young Jewish students as possible to involve themselves in volunteering projects as part of their Jewish journey. We aim to create a community wide award scheme with an annual ceremony for all participants and encourage students to see volunteering as a life-long commitment.

The scheme is dedicated in memory of Yoni Jesner, a Bnei Akiva leader who was tragically killed in a bus bomb in Tel Aviv in September 2002. He was committed to encouraging young people to do as many acts of chesed (kindness) as possible, and was a truly inspirational role model for many young people.

Run through Jewish Day Schools, pupils aged 11-14 years old, will be encouraged to complete a certain amount of voluntary hours within, and importantly, outside of the Jewish community throughout the academic year.

You can see photos from the event in our photo gallery. Please click here.