Our Rabbi

 Rabbi K’vod Wieder

K’vod Wieder grew up in Los Angeles and Orange County. After receiving a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology in 1993 from University of California, Santa Cruz, K’vod knew that he wanted to create opportunities for others to realize their own Divine nature and communities dedicated to fostering spiritual awareness. He received a Masters in Counseling at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in 1995 and after nine months of Judaic learning in Israel, realized he wanted to dedicate his life to the Jewish community.

For the next 10 years (1997-2006), K’vod worked as the assistant director for Chochmat HaLev, a Jewish meditation center in Berkeley, CA, created a county-wide Jewish teen program in Sonoma County, created a Jewish spiritual counseling practice that included classes and retreats in Jewish meditation and spirituality, worked as a program director for the Jewish Federation of Sonoma County, and directed a local and national Jewish teen philanthropy program for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. He also offered classes and meditation retreats through the Aleph for Jewish Renewal Kallah, Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality, and local synagogues and JCC’s.

In those ten years, he organized three national Jewish meditation conferences for Chochmat HaLev, helped over 15 communities establish Jewish teen philanthropy programs through bringing together federations, philanthropists, BJE’s, and synagogues, organized the first ever national Jewish Teen Philanthropy Conference in partnership with the Jewish Funders Network, and received the Etz Chaim Educators Award from the North American Alliance of Informal Jewish Education.

He began Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies in 2006 becoming ordained in 2012. Concurrent with his rabbinic studies, K’vod wrote K-6 curriculum for Kehillat Israel in the Pacific Palisades, was the program director for Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Connecticut, participated in a community organizing fellowship with the Jewish Funds for Justice, and served as a rabbinic intern at Congregation B’nai Israel and Temple Beth El of South Orange County.

In 2012, Temple Beth El of South Orange County 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. In his tenure at Temple Beth El, K’vod organized a county-wide Jewish teen conference, created the 8th Grade Tzedakah Philanthropic program, the Small Groups initiative, Can We Talk?!: Building Relationships Through Disagreement,  and the Center for Meditation and Jewish Spirituality. This programming center has added unique programs to the wider Orange County community including the Soul Spark Shabbat and Jerusalem Shabbat worship services, weekly online Meditation and Spiritual Practice sessions, an annual Jewish meditation weekend retreat, and brought nationally renown scholars to the community.

In 2021, K’vod partnered with his good friend Rabbi Marcia Tilchin and the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County to create the Jewish Burial and Comfort Society of OC, has taught an Advanced Learning Institute class, led Sundays in Silence and Spirit, a monthly meditation group at the Merage JCC, and created beautiful High Holiday services with Rabbi Marcia at Temple Beth El.

In July, 2026, K’vod became the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom.

Besides providing a warm and comforting  presence and availability to all those seeking clarity and spirituality in their lives, Rabbi K’vod makes Judaism authentic and accessible to people from a wide variety of backgrounds and knowledge levels.

K’vod is married to Ilana Rogel Wieder, a playwright, actor, director, yoga teacher, and author of Jewish children picture books. His children are Levi, Aiden, and Aviv.