Rabbi Hazzan Marcia Tilchin is the founder and spiritual leader of the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County (JCoOC), an emergent non-profit that aspires to build community through collaboration with houses of worship, schools, non-profits and community leaders. A signature of Marcia’s spiritual leadership and service is her passion for helping people find meaning in Judaism at every age and stage of life. A graduate of both the H.L. Miller Cantorial school (JTS) and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (AJU), Marcia served congregations in Upper Nyack, NY and Tustin, CA before launching JCoOC. As a cantorial student, Rabbi Tilchin created the Kesher Program at Camp Ramah in the Poconos for families with deaf children and/or parents. Deeply committed to interfaith collaboration and dialogue, Rabbi Tilchin is a past president of the Interfaith Council of Central Orange County, a co-founder of the Orange County Alliance for Just Change and currently sits on the directorial boards of several non-profits including Music in Common, the Interfaith Youth Alliance and the Faith Leaders Council for United to End Homelessness. JCoOC hosts the only egalitarian daily minyan in OC, coordinates pastoral support for Jewish inmates in OC’s prisons, hosts Twelve Steps and Torah, a weekly Torah study for Jews in recovery from addiction (in partnership with “Our Jewish Recovery”), and is the community convener for county-wide Jewish observances. Rabbi Tilchin was in the third cohort of Rabbi Syd Schwartz’s Clergy Leadership incubator and part of UpStart’s pilot Entrepreneurial Sprint program on the west coast.