A couple of percentage points might not sound dramatic. But behind those percentages are many more people giving their time to help someone else, support a cause or strengthen their community. After years of declining participation, that matters.
And within the Jewish community, we have even more reason to be proud.
The latest national figures available, from the 2024/25 Community Life Survey, found that 45 per cent of Jewish adults volunteered formally or informally at least once a month, compared with 33 per cent of adults across England. Jewish adults had the highest volunteering rate of any religious group.
I’m not surprised.
Volunteering has always been woven into Jewish communal life. Many of us started young, through youth movements, Scouts and Guides, leading camps or Israel tours. Today, young people volunteer through organisations such as Gift and Project ImpACT, through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award with JLGB and the Yoni Jesner Awards. Students volunteer through J-Socs and their universities. Adults give their time to synagogues and across our many Jewish charities, from delivering food and befriending someone who is lonely to sitting on a committee or becoming a trustee.
But when I see that 45 per cent, I don’t only think, “Isn’t that wonderful?”
I also think: what about the other 55 per cent?
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I don’t believe most people who don’t volunteer are unwilling to help. Life is busy. People are juggling work, children, caring responsibilities and countless other demands. The way people want to volunteer is changing too. Increasingly, people are looking for something flexible that fits around their lives rather than another fixed commitment in an already crowded diary.
That is why we need to get better at showing people just how varied volunteering can be.
Barbara, a retired teaching assistant, joined JVN’s volunteer database during Covid. She is a learning support and reading buddy for young adults with learning disabilities.
Seeing the difference volunteering made to her own life, she encouraged her husband Stephen to get involved. He wanted to use his financial skills for a good cause, so JVN introduced him to charities looking for trustees. He found a hospital charity whose mission particularly resonated with him and joined its board.
They also volunteer together each year with JVN’s Maccabi GB team and at the Norwood Carnival.
Their story captures something I wish more people realised: there isn’t one way to be a volunteer.
You might have an hour a week. You might have one Sunday every few months. You might have professional experience a charity desperately needs. You might want to meet people, learn something new or simply do something useful. All of those are valid ways to contribute.
For more than 20 years, JVN as the UK’s Jewish centre of volunteering excellence has connected people with opportunities that work for them, while helping charities make volunteering a positive and rewarding experience.
We connect people with meaningful volunteering opportunities, support charities to build strong volunteer programmes, and champion the contribution volunteers make to our community.
Because volunteering doesn’t just fill gaps. It connects people, develops skills, reduces isolation and makes our charities and communities stronger.
And our community isn’t built once a year at Rosh Hashanah. It is built through every phone call, every visit, every Tuesday morning, every trustee meeting, every Sunday afternoon and every volunteer shift.
So this Yom Tov, perhaps there is a different question we can ask ourselves.
Not: “Do I have time to volunteer?”
But: “What could I do with the time I have?”
Whatever the answer, there is almost certainly a charity that would be very glad to hear it.
Find your ideal volunteering role at jvn.org.uk.
Nicky Goldman is chief executive of JVN
jvn.org.uk
Registered charity 1130719
