Gila Hadani Ward
Gila Hadani Ward is the Director of Lifelong Learning at Temple Beth Sholom.
She is a graduate of the University of Florida where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. She also holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Florida College of Law.
Since her teenage years, Ms. Hadani Ward has held numerous leadership positions within the Conservative Movement. As a teenager, she served on the HaNegev (SE) Region USY Executive Board and the International USY General Board. In high school, she served as a camp counselor and unit head for many years at a Conservative Movement Day Camp. She also served as a member of the International USY Convention Executive Staff and a member of the staff of USY on Wheels, USY’s cross-continental tour of North America. She also served as an afternoon religious school teacher in Conservative congregational schools in Florida and Connecticut.
In 1992, Ms. Hadani Ward left her practice of law to join the staff of United Synagogue Youth as Regional Director for the Connecticut Valley Region. In 1994, she joined the Executive Staff of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s Department of Youth Activities in New York. In her position as the Assistant Director of the Youth Department, Ms. Hadani Ward served five years as the Director of the USY on Wheels Program and served 9 years as the Director of USY’s Annual International Convention, a conference of over 1400 teenagers and staff held each December.
In 1995, Ms. Hadani Ward was chosen as a representative of the Youth Department to the Conference on the Prevention of Intermarriage. In doing this, she traveled around the USA, facilitating seminars on how to teach in-dating and in-marriage to teenagers.
Gila joined the Temple Beth Sholom family in 2000 when she began to teach in the Machon Beth Sholom Hebrew High School. In 2002, she assumed the Directorship of the Program, directing both the Formal Hebrew High School Program as well as the informal Jewish educational component of the High School community as the Director of TBS’ Youth Programs. In June, 2006, Gila became the Director of Lifelong Learning at Beth Sholom, shepherding all of the Jewish learning that occurs at TBS from the Mommy and Me classes for infants to its most senior adults.
Ms. Hadani Ward has served as a member of the Advisory Council of the United Synagogue Board of Directors, representing the Jewish Youth Directors Association (JYDA), the Professional Organization of Youth Workers in the Conservative Movement, the organization of which she served as the Vice President. She is also a member of both the Florida Bar and the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She is a graduate of the Principals’ Leadership Institute sponsored by the Suffolk Agency for Jewish Educational Services (SAJES) and is currently a fellow in the Leadership Institute for Congregational Principals, a joint project of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College and funded by UJA Federation of NY. She is an active member of CAJE (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) and serves as a mentor to Masters Degree students in Jewish Education at the Davidson School at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Gila Hadani Ward currently resides in Roslyn Heights, New York with her husband and daughter.
