Ariella & Shmuel Gilad
Guests of Honor
Ariella and Shmuel Gilad both grew up with Great Neck Synagogue as their home away from home. It is fitting, then, that they met after crossing paths getting coffee from the gym on Shabbat morning in 2013. In a way it was "bashert," or predestined from Hashem, that their story starts with GNS, as their fathers, Robert Spitalnick and Yehoshua Gilad, sat down the row from each other in the beit midrash for so many years.
Shmuel was born in Houston, Texas in 1983 to Chaya and Yehoshua Gilad. When he was two years old, with his sisters, they moved to New York, and ultimately to Great Neck. Shmuel's free time was spent in GNS youth programming and playing basketball a few times a week in the gym. He was educated at NSHA, Great Neck North, Queens College and Touro Law School. He is a partner at the Law Firm of Walsh and Gilad, PLLC, focusing his practice on complex commercial and residential real estate transactions.
Ariella was born and raised in Great Neck, to Karen and Robert Spitalnick. So many of Ariella's childhood memories are also of GNS youth programming with Rabbi Jensen and Rabbi Moskowitz, a legacy which so beautifully continues with Rabbi Doctor Mike and Zehava Atlas. Ariella went to NSHA, as well, followed by the Ramaz Upper School, NYU and New York Law School. Also, a lawyer, Ariella is a Principal Court Attorney to the Honorable Judge Frances Wang, in Queens County Supreme Court, Criminal Term.
B"H Ariella and Shmuel have two beautiful children, Maya (6) and Lev (3), who are active members of the youth department and students at NSHA.
Ariella and Shmuel humbly accept this honor, as a message to their children about the importance of Jewish community. They also would like to recognize their parents who set them on this path, and their beloved grandparents z"l. Finally, they accept this in honor of the brave men and women on the front lines, protecting the State of Israel.
Shmuel was born in Houston, Texas in 1983 to Chaya and Yehoshua Gilad. When he was two years old, with his sisters, they moved to New York, and ultimately to Great Neck. Shmuel's free time was spent in GNS youth programming and playing basketball a few times a week in the gym. He was educated at NSHA, Great Neck North, Queens College and Touro Law School. He is a partner at the Law Firm of Walsh and Gilad, PLLC, focusing his practice on complex commercial and residential real estate transactions.
Ariella was born and raised in Great Neck, to Karen and Robert Spitalnick. So many of Ariella's childhood memories are also of GNS youth programming with Rabbi Jensen and Rabbi Moskowitz, a legacy which so beautifully continues with Rabbi Doctor Mike and Zehava Atlas. Ariella went to NSHA, as well, followed by the Ramaz Upper School, NYU and New York Law School. Also, a lawyer, Ariella is a Principal Court Attorney to the Honorable Judge Frances Wang, in Queens County Supreme Court, Criminal Term.
B"H Ariella and Shmuel have two beautiful children, Maya (6) and Lev (3), who are active members of the youth department and students at NSHA.
Ariella and Shmuel humbly accept this honor, as a message to their children about the importance of Jewish community. They also would like to recognize their parents who set them on this path, and their beloved grandparents z"l. Finally, they accept this in honor of the brave men and women on the front lines, protecting the State of Israel.