Lay volunteering: what I learned from a classic Israeli folk song

My three-year old son is currently very into Israeli music – mostly Hebrew nursery rhymes, but sometimes he’ll throw in an Israeli classic – and they are the constant background noise of my house (better than ‘Baby Shark’!).

He was listening to ‘Eretz Yisrael Sheli’, a song we usually play on Tu B’Shevat, about the pioneers in Israel building up the Land. On the fifth consecutive repetition of the song, I started paying attention to the words and was amazed at how applicable they should be to us today.

Very simply, the song asks who built and who planted to make the Land so beautiful. At first the response is communal - ‘we all did it together,’ but it then breaks up into different characters sharing their individual contributions – ‘I built a house and therefore there is a house in Israel,’ ‘I planted a tree and therefore there is a tree in Israel,’ ‘I built a bridge and therefore there is a bridge in Israel,’ and so on.

How incredible to be able to point to something concrete and say with confidence that that is your accomplishment. What an amazing feeling to know that something exists because you contributed.

While we are not making the desert bloom in our United Synagogue communities in the UK, we have a lot to learn from the reflective attitude of the pioneers on their work, which we can apply to our community volunteers.

The NCVO (the National Council for Voluntary Organisations) has recently published ‘The Road Ahead 2024’ which is their advice for charities based on events and societal realities of 2024.

One of their main pieces of advice for recruiting and retaining volunteers is for charities to “improve their offer of flexible volunteering opportunities.” They explain that “people are looking for flexible, short-term, one-off and accessible opportunities” and advise that volunteers be given, so far as possible, a meaningful and rewarding experience.

Some volunteer roles are easier to format to be one-offs – like leading a children’s service or being on security. Other volunteer roles are longer by nature – like being an Honorary Officer or Council Member. How do we shift the long-term roles to fit the new volunteer formula of flexibility? And how do we ensure both short-term and long-term volunteers have a meaningful and rewarding experience?

Fully answering the former is part of a larger piece of work that I hope to share soon but, in the meantime, our classic pioneer song ‘Eretz Yisrael Sheli’ sheds some light onto bettering our overall volunteer experience:

• For short-term volunteer opportunities, the volunteer should be able to look at what they have done, with pride. There was a children’s service because they ran it. There was security because they stood alert. There was Torah Reading or Kiddush set out because they provided those services. The community should acknowledge it and actively share their appreciation.

• For long-term volunteer opportunities, break up the overall role into smaller tasks and the volunteers should be proud as they fulfill them. The community will celebrate Purim appropriately because they planned it. A community member feels heard because the volunteer listened to them. The community should acknowledge and actively share their appreciation (which may need to be modeled by the HOs and members of council).

There are major shifts happening in the world of volunteering to catch up with world events, but these small shifts can have a big impact – why not give them a try?