Beth Shalom Welcomes New Rabbi

Dunwoody’s Congregation Beth Shalom President Fred Rich welcomed Rabbi K’vod Wieder to begin July 1 as Rabbi Mark Zimmerman moves to his emeritus role after 38 years.

Rabbi Wieder grew up in California, 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.

Rich stated, “After interviewing many candidates, our search committee invited Rabbi Wieder here for a visitation. He led services Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Everyone loved him! After he left, our congregational survey showed an incredible response! We’re so excited that he will join our kehilla. He is working well with Rabbi Zimmerman and planning the transition.”

Prior to entering the rabbinate, K’vod worked for Chochmat HaLev – a Jewish meditation center in Berkeley, Calif., 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, 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.

After he left, our congregational survey showed an incredible response! We’re so excited that he will join our kehilla.

Concurrent with his years of study at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University in Los Angeles, Wieder 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 Wieder 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 Eighth-Grade Tzedakah Philanthropic program, innovating their Small Groups initiative, “Can We Talk? Building Relationships Through Disagreement,” 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, Wieder 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.

Rabbi Wieder is married to Ilana Rogel Wieder, a playwright, actor, director, yoga teacher, and author of Jewish children’s books. Their children are Levi, Aiden, and Aviv.

Earlier this year, Ilana published her Havdalah picture book, “Shira The Singing Puppy,” which she has presented at bookstores, JCC’s, and synagogues in California, Houston, and Pittsburgh. She also has a master’s in fine arts, writes and directs plays, and played the role of Strawberry Shortcake in the animated series. Ilana was born in Latvia and grew up in Israel and Southern California.

I have heard legends of ‘Southern hospitality,’ and they are all true.

Wieder told the AJT, “Besides my visit to the synagogue in February and later in May, I have never been to Atlanta. I have heard legends of ‘Southern hospitality,’ and they are all true. I’ve experienced genuine warmth since I’ve spent time here. And I’ve been delighted by the pluralism I’ve experienced in Atlanta and positive recognition of the presence of the Jewish community. I love hiking and being outdoors and have always had a relationship to magic and illusion – professionally when I was younger and now, I love to weave it through my sharing of Torah and spirituality.”

Rabbi Wieder is a self-proclaimed “Deadhead,” drawn to improvisational live music in the tradition of the Grateful Dead, but also into directions of jazz and world music.

Wieder said, “At Congregation Beth Shalom, I am looking forward to continuing to build and deepen the caring community that already exists. I want our synagogue to be a place where people feel like they can grow personally, Jewishly, and spiritually. In this first year, I want to focus on getting to know each other as individuals and families, with an eye towards what inspires us and makes life worth living.”