Rabbi Ilana has worked in the Calgary Jewish Community her whole adult life and has had the honour to serve many organizations including the Calgary Jewish Academy, the Calgary JCC, BBYO, Jewish Students’ Hillel, Temple B’nai Tikvah, and, most recently, as the Holocaust and Human Rights Educator for Calgary Jewish Federation.
Her volunteer work has included sitting on the executive of various Boards, including Camp BB Riback, the Calgary JCC, the BBYO Regional Parent Board, and serving lunches at the Calgary Drop-In Centre.
Rabbi Ilana received her Semicha with the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute (JSLI) out of New York in December 2020. Since then, she has been busy building her independent ‘Rocky Mountain Rabbi’ Rabbinic practice, virtually serving a small Kehillah in Florida, teaching on subjects such as Holocaust Education, Yiddish, and Mussar, acting as the Calgary Jewish Community Chaplain for Jewish Family Service Calgary, and being a member of the Beth Tzedec’s B’nai Mitzvah team.
Rabbi Ilana is passionate about Judaism and loves to teach about the beauty and majesty of our tradition. It has been her lifelong dream to be a spiritual leader and she is so grateful to be a part of the Beth Tzedec family.
Rabbi Ilana has three grown children and lives with her husband, David, and a very large dog. She loves to read, sing, tell bad jokes, and is attempting with more enthusiasm than success to master the baritone ukulele.