Chief Rabbi pays tribute to young volunteers

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks paid tribute to the achievements of young volunteers in the community at the annual Yoni Jesner Awards on Monday 14 June 2010. 120 high school students and their families attended the award ceremony organised by UJIA and the Yoni Jesner Foundation at St John's Wood Synagogue.

Lord Sacks and Marsha Gladstone, Yoni Jesner's mother, presented the award to Year 8 students taking part in the scheme which works in Jewish day schools across London to promote the value of volunteering, both in the Jewish community and wider society. Pupils who received this year's awards have donated their time to causes ranging from caring for residents in Jewish old people's homes and fundraising, to working on environmental projects and collecting food and clothing for homeless people and asylum seekers.

The awards were set up in the memory of Yoni Jesner, a young Bnei Akiva leader from Glasgow who lost his life in a terrorist attack in Israel in 2002. Participants complete 20 hours of volunteering to receive the award - but many go above and beyond this. Schools taking part in the Yoni Jesner Awards are Hasmonean High School (boys and girls), Immanuel College, JFS, King Solomon High School and Yavneh College. The scheme is supported by the Jewish Volunteering Network.

Samuel Masters, a participant from King Solomon High School, said:

"I am very proud to have been able to be a part of the scheme. I have to say that I didn't realise how much work goes into organising community services and projects that lots of us take for granted. Volunteering has made me appreciate these things more."

Marsha Gladstone, Yoni Jesner's mother, said:

"It is impossible to measure the worth of projects like the Yoni Jesner Awards, which get our children actively involved. It is only through doing that we grow and change. The awards are, I believe, what social responsibility is all about - inspiring our young people to become the role models of the future."

David Brown, UJIA Social Responsibility Manager, commented:

"It is wonderful to see how Yoni Jesner has inspired so many young people to get involved in our community and beyond. Many of the participants said that they enjoyed the experience so much that they will be going back to volunteer after the awards. People are really moved to act."

You can see more pictures from the 2010 Yoni Jesner Awards in our photo gallery. Photographs by Isaac Strang.