Member Spotlight:

Derick and Shula Vance-Hill

If you’ve attended any events in the past couple of years at Keneseth Israel, it is likely you have seen Derick and Shula Vance-Hill’s smiling faces. The couple not only frequently attend events, but they often volunteer their time and effort in making our events successful ones. Derick has become active in the KI Men’s Club, and most recently was one of the cooks at the Men’s Club’s Pizza and Falafel in the Hut Event. Shula volunteers a great deal at KI, and she recently contributed her kitchen skills to the synagogue’s Simchat Torah Party. Both of these events were part of our successful Sukkot Harvest Festival. Shula has also volunteered on our membership and programming committees, and Derick has contributed his talents to our website and IT efforts.

Derick and Shula joined Keneseth Israel in 2014. Shula notes that they were taken in by how welcoming the community at KI is, and “we found where we belong.”  Both are proud to note that they are Jews by Choice, and they were enamored of Judaism’s sense of structure and deep traditions and rituals. They enjoy attending Shabbat services on Friday night and Saturday morning, when time allows in their busy schedules.

Derick is an IT systems programmer at the University of Louisville. Prior to that, he served as a systems engineer and administrator at Bellarmine University.  He considers himself a “technology jack-of-all-trades” with a gift for adapting quickly to new situations. Shula works with the babies at Keneseth Israel Preschool. You may have also seen Shula when she has volunteered in our front office or at the gift gallery. Shula also has a BA in history from Bellarmine University, which is where Derick and Shula met.

In their spare time, the Vance-Hills mostly enjoy spending time with their friends. Derick also likes to take things apart and put them back together, and he also enjoys his work on the 48 Hour Film Project, which is a wild and sleepless weekend in which teams make a movie - write, shoot, and edit - in just 48 hours. Shula considers herself a gamer – her favorite game is Assassin’s Creed 2. It’s interesting to note this game allows the player to roam freely within several regions throughout late fifteenth-century Italy, and Shula says she can understand the Italian in the game due to her language studies. She also speaks French, and is learning Hebrew.

We are so happy to have the Vance-Hills as part of our family!