Jesner award winners are well suited to model roles
CHIEF RABBI Ephraim Mirvis has told award-winning young volunteers that they are role models for the future of the community.
Rabbi Mirvis was addressing the latest ceremony for the Yoni Jesner Awards, established in memory of a dedicated young Glaswegian volunteer killed in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in 2002 at the age of 19.
“Boys and girls, I’d like to ask something from you,” he said. “That this evening should not be a graduation, the conclusion of what you have done for your Yoni Jesner Awards, but rather the beginning of an entire lifetime through which giving selflessly will always come naturally.
“Try to become role models yourselves. People who will inspire others, people who set an example for others to follow. You will be just as Yoni Jesner was.”
Around 300 people attended the Finchley ceremony at which more than 100 award certificates were presented, some by members of Yoni Jesner’s family.
His mother, Marsha Gladstone, said: “I’m so proud to associate Yoni’s name with this project because this way of giving is truly what Yoni was all about.”
The awards are administered by JLGB, in partnership with the Yoni Jesner Foundation.
Also on the night, the Jesner foundation presented scholarships to Avishai Marcus and Tsipporah Lax. The scholarships support students who spend a year in Israel before university and recognise those demonstrating exceptional activism within their community.