Sheila Feldman joined Adat Shalom in 1993 and quickly became one of our most
active members. Her volunteer work for the congregation has included serving as High Holiday Coordinator, Newsletter Editor, and Co-Chair of the
Community Life Committee (a Board position). In November 1999, Sheila accepted a full-time, salaried position as our
first executive director.
She remains in that position and has become a member of the National Association of Temple
Administrators (NATA).Sheila honed her administrative skills while holding executive positions at the National Naval Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. She has long been active in the Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) and continues to serve that organization as a certified parent educator, leading parenting workshops and giving talks in the larger community. She finds that her work in PEP and in Adat Shalom complement each other nicely, and she remains strongly dedicated to both organizations. She and her husband, Bill Blackburn, live in Silver Spring. They have six grown children and two grandchildren from previous marriages.
Chava Gal-Or is the Director of Education and Youth at Adat
Shalom. In June 2002, she came to Adat Shalom via Atlanta, Georgia where
she was
the Education Director at a Sephardic synagogue. Chava has been a Jewish
educator since she was 17 years old as an assistant in a Hebrew School
classroom and
has used the opportunity to teach in a variety of Hebrew School and day school classrooms to grow in the way she
envisions within the field of Jewish
Education. She received her BA and the better part of a MA in Jewish
Studies
from Baltimore Hebrew University with an emphasis in Jewish Education.