All are invited to “Feel the Joy of Jewish” on June 22nd as we celebrate the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County’s (JCoOC) first ten years of partnership programming and service throughout Orange County. This unique non-profit is a without-walls Jewish space dedicated to helping people fulfill Jewish needs and interests in creative and accessible ways, prioritizing partnership and collaboration in programming to invigorate Jewish connections and innovatively serve the entire community. Since their founding in 2016, JCoOC has worked with more than fifty organizational partners and showcased the talents of many gifted leaders in SoCal ,l,.and nationally that have Jewish joy and knowledge to share. JCoOC’s vibrant tent is always open to new Jewish ideas and needs, and their first response is, “How can we help?”
From the outset, JCoOC founder Rabbi Marcia Tilchin envisioned the art of collaboration broadly, eager to work with both organizations and gifted individual leaders however possible to inspire cooperative Jewish activism, performing and fine arts events, creative religious expression, substantive small-group Jewish education for all ages, support those navigating grief, and offer a range of opportunities for spiritual development. Rabbi K’vod Wieder has been a key partner in the ideation and formation of some of JCoOC’s most impactful mission-driven efforts.
On June 22, 2026, JCoOC is hosting KOL HAKAVOD, a community-wide celebration of their first decade of contribution to OC Jewish life that will honor K’vod’s years of impact and service, not only to his congregation, but within interfaith dialogue circles, his work building community end-of-life resources, and his masterful skills as a teacher of Jewish meditation and mysticism. Proceeds raised from this evening will be used to enrich county-wide offerings in Jewish spirituality, meditation, healing, interfaith dialogue and acts of hesed (lovingkindness) to nurture the seeds he has planted over the past 15 years.
Rabbi K’vod Wieder grew up in LA and OC. He attended college at UC Santa Cruz, received a master’s degree in counseling at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, and ultimately realized he wanted to dedicate his life to serving the Jewish community. Prior to entering the rabbinate, K’vod worked for Chochmat HaLev – a Jewish meditation center in Berkeley, CA, the Jewish Federation of Sonoma County, and ran his own Jewish Spiritual Counseling practice that offered classes and retreats. He also directed a teen philanthropy program for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation that helped communities around the country bring together Federations, philanthropists, BJEs and synagogues to teach teens about the Jewish value of tzedakah for which he received the Etz Chaim Educators Award from the North American Alliance of Informal Jewish Education. He has served on the faculty of Aleph’s Jewish Renewal Kallah, Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality, JCCs and synagogues.
Laguna Beach (August 2016)
Concurrent with his years of study at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in LA, K’vod wrote religious school curriculum for Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades, participated in a community organizing fellowship with the Jewish Funds for Justice, and served as a rabbinic intern at Congregation B’nai Israel in Tustin and Temple Beth El of South Orange County (TBESOC).
In 2012, TBESOC hired K’vod as a full-time rabbi to be a clergy partner in leading Reform and Conservative worship services and to serve the entire community. Highlights of his tenure include creating an 8th Grade Tzedakah Philanthropic program, innovating their Small Groups initiative Can We Talk?!: Building Relationships Through Disagreement, and launching a Center for Meditation and Jewish Spirituality that fostered distinctive worship services, weekly online meditation and spiritual practice sessions, an annual Jewish meditation weekend retreat, and bringing nationally renowned scholars to the community. Since 2021, K’vod has become a sought-after resource for non-Jewish religious leaders to help them understand and dialogue about Israel and antisemitism from a Jewish perspective.
In 2022, K’vod began working with the Jewish Collaborative of OC and Rabbi Tilchin to establish Hesed Shel Emet (a pluralistic, community-wide Hevra Kadisha) and the OC Jewish Meditation and Spirituality Collective. Under JCoOC’s umbrella, he has led monthly in-person Jewish meditation sessions at the Merage JCC, taught for their Advanced Learning Institute and led a meditative 2nd day Rosh Hashanah experience open to all. His warm and comforting presence has touched hundreds of people seeking clarity and spiritual direction.
K’vod is married to Ilana Rogel Wieder, a playwright, actor, director, yoga teacher, and author of Jewish children’s books. His children are Levi, Aiden, and Aviv. He begins his new position as senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Atlanta, Georgia in July. Orange County was blessed to enjoy his talents, warmth and expertise for fifteen years and we wish him all the best.
Please join the Jewish Collaborative on June 22nd in Newport Beach for a festive evening that will celebrate his accomplishments and community legacy.
