Our Team

Rabbi Hazzan Marcia Tilchin is the founder and spiritual leader of the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County (JCoOC), a community mosaic that offers creative and collaborative programming designed to foster and deepen Jewish connection for individuals and families.  Ordained from both the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Marcia served Conservative congregations in Upper Nyack, New York and Tustin, California before launching her own initiative in 2016. 

Rabbi Marcia's full biography is here along with links to her Shabbat messages and podcasts!
rabbimarcia@jewishcollaborativeoc.org

Madalina Garza, Digital Marketing and Content Manager
joy@jewishcollaborativeoc.org

Maryann Malkoff Guilds, Engagement & Compassionate Care
jcoocevents@gmail.com

Cantor Fran Chalin (VITAS Healthcare) M.S.W./M.J.C.S., has been both clergy and educator in the Los Angeles Jewish community for more than 20 years. She served as cantor for Beth Chayim Chadashim, the world’s first synagogue with outreach to the LGBT Jewish community. In this role, she was an active member of the Interfaith clergy coalition for human rights and healthcare reform. She currently serves as a hospice chaplain with VITAS, working with families as they confront dying and death. In addition to her family, Fran loves are writing, teaching and preserving the Yiddish language. She also directs a Yiddish chorus called Zingen Far Sholem (Singing for Peace).

Rabbi K'vod Wieder
A native of Orange County, K’vod received his BA in psychology from UC Santa Cruz in 1993 and his MA in Transpersonal Psychology (counseling) from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 1996. He received an MA in Jewish Studies from the American Jewish University and was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in 2012. He is a member of both the Central Conference for American Rabbis (Reform) and the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) For the last 26 years, K’vod has been teaching classes, leading retreats, and counseling students in meditation, prayer, and creative forms of Jewish spirituality in the United States. He has served as the assistant director of Chochmat HaLev – a Jewish meditation center in Berkeley, program director for Sonoma County Jewish Federation, director of the B’nai Tzedek Teen Philanthropy Program for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, program director for Elat Chayyim Center of Jewish Spirituality, and trained and interned with Jewish Funds For Justice and One L.A in the area of congregation-based community organizing.  In 2001, K’vod created and implemented the first county-wide post-bnai mitzvah program in Sonoma County, and won the Etz Chayyim award for Informal Jewish education at the National Conference for Informal Jewish Education in 2005. K’vod joined Temple Beth El of South Orange County in 2011 to serve the synagogue’s vision of Progressive Judaism. In collaboration with staff and congregants, he has initiated some of TBESOC’s strongest initiatives, including the 8th Grade Tzedakah Board, Small Groups, Pathfinders, Can We Talk?! Building Relationships Through Disagreement,  and the Center for Meditation and Jewish Spirituality. He is husband to Ilana Rogel-Wieder and the father of Levi, Aiden, and Aviv.

Rabbi Ilan Glazer is passionate about ending the stigma of addiction in the Jewish world and helping Jews in recovery and their loved ones find recovery and serenity one day at a time. He believes that life is a beautiful journey of learning and growth. Suffering can be transformed into joy and everyone is a miracle. Rabbi Ilan is the author of the number one bestselling book, And God Created Recovery: Jewish Wisdom to Help You Break Free From Your Addiction, Heal Your Wounds, and Unleash Your Inner Freedom. He’s the Founder of Our Jewish Recovery and a Shatterproof Ambassador and Family Program Instructor, a member and Director-At-Large of the National Speakers Association’s DC chapter. Rabbi Ilan teaches widely about healing, recovery, grief and mourning, happiness, spirituality and success in all areas of life. Rabbi Ilan is a freelance recovery and transformation coach, an accomplished storyteller and musician and the host of the Torah of Life podcast. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife, Sherri, and their cat, Taylor.

Eric Dangott, Rabbinical Student
Eric Dangott is a Huntington Beach native. His initial interest and enthusiasm in Judaism blossomed under the guidance of numerous teachers. Eric is currently studying at the American Jewish University, and looks forward to immersing himself as a full time student in Rabbinic Studies.  It is extremely meaningful for Eric to support and develop the Jewish community in the exact place his seeds of Jewish love were first planted. 

Kohenet Rachel Kann is the 2020 New England Jewish Poetry Festival’s Featured Poet. She is a WORD: Bruce Geller Memorial Prize recipient for her latest poetry collection, How to Bless the New Moon, from Ben Yehuda Press. She was the 2017 Outstanding Instructor of the Year at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. Her Spoken Word Visual Album, The Quickening, has received accolades from film festivals in Florence, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and New York. She has performed her poetry in venues such as Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, The Broad Stage, The San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts and TEDxUCLA. 

Rachel facilitates Realize Paradise Soul Journeys as well as Shabbat Soul Journeys and New Moon Union Rosh Chodesh Circles through Mishkon Tephilo. She also facilitates one-on-one and group ceremonies and rituals for folks from a diversity of backgrounds with the intention of facilitating the realization of paradise through the release of trauma and an increase in self-love.

Rabbi Daniel Levine is a southern California native. Raised in San Diego, he attended UCLA and graduated with a duel Bachelor’s degree in Jewish Studies and Cognitive Science. Daniel attended YPS rabbinical school in Israel and earned a Masters degree in Jewish history from UCLA.

Rabbi Daniel is the Campus Rabbi and educator for Hillel Orange County, a rabbinic fellow at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton, and a wonderful addition to JCoOC's ALI team. He has taught Jewish studies at Tarbut V’Torah and is a writer for Orange County JLife Magazine. Daniel’s mission is to help show people the relevance, beauty, and value within Jewish history and tradition. When not excitedly talking about Talmud, Jewish history, or Israel, you can find Daniel somewhere outside rock climbing.

Matt Austerklein is a musician, scholar, and innovator in the American cantorate. Growing up in Alexandria, Virginia, he received a rigorous training in Jewish liturgy and music from his bar mitzvah tutor and from his two cantors. He fell in love with the cantorial arts while studying abroad in Vienna, Austria, where he also studied voice with mezzo-soprano, Paulette Vineyard Herbich.

​Matt graduated summa cum laude from the College of William & Mary in Virginia with a BA in Music in 2006. Already while in college he led his first full High Holy Days as musical prayer leader. He went on to receive a Master of Sacred Music and cantorial ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2011.

​Matt has served with distinction as Cantor of Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County in Bethesda, Maryland, and at Beth El Congregation in Akron, Ohio. Over his past decade as a congregational cantor, he has cultivated diverse skills to support Jewish communities, including pastoral care, teaching Jewish text and traditions, communal song leading, music education with guitar, event programming, playwriting, fundraising, choral directing, and strategic planning. He serves as an ongoing mentor to new and student cantors, and currently serves on the Cantorial Coaching Faculty of Hebrew College.