Our Family Educators, Rabbi Samuel and Gila Ross hold lots of special events throughout the year for kd pupils and their families. Before each of the chagim they hold whole school fairs such as the pre-pesach fair where families were encouraged to create crafts together to enhance their sedarim. They also invite parents in pre pesach to give them ideas on how to bring the seder to life sharing lots of good ideas. Before major events, such as the siddur ceremony they invite parents in to do a special craft with their children. They also offer Hebrew Reading courses and parenting advice.
Rabbi Samuel and Gila Ross returned to England with a wealth of experience, after a decade of working with youth and families in western Canada. They are the proud parents of 6 children. So are no strangers to being around sweet children, and juggling parenting and life! Interesting fact, their children were born in London, Germany, Calgary and Vancouver, Canada and they are all dual citizens! After working with youth and families in Calgary, they moved to Vancouver, western Canada's largest city, 6 years ago. Rabbi Samuel, as the director of NCSY in Western Canada, and Gila, as the youth director of the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue, where she ran youth and family programming for the broader community. Rabbi Samuel and Gila were regular educators in both the primary and secondary schools in Vancouver.
During their 10 years, NCSY saw tremendous growth with new programs implemented, and record attendance for many events, with over 250 teens, pre-teens and their families reached annually. Rabbi Ross’s work saw him honoured with “Best of the Best” award by National NCSY. They also created a successful program for local university students. Gila's outstanding work as youth director in Vancouver translated into many new families getting involved through creative programs such as the Families That Give Initiatives, T-Jex - the after-school supplementary school, Tot Programming and Holiday & Shabbat Programming. Before coming to Vancouver, she successfully created, developed and ran several programs in Calgary. She opened a Sunday school for kids including a mother and daughter Bat Mitzvah program. She taught adult education and initiated community wide programs to teach kids and their families about Chaggim. Gila also taught as a preschool teacher in Calgary instilling a passion for Judaism in 25 children on a daily basis. Gila has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in psychology.
Please do reach out to Rabbi Samuel - 07990 333 926 or Gila - 07990 333 946 to say hello and/or to
share with them your ideas or suggestions. They look forward to hearing from you!
