Rabbinic Leadership
Rabbi Oded Mazor
Kol HaNeshama is happy to welcome Rabbi Oded Mazor, who began his tenure in the beginning
of last Fall.
We are delighted to welcome Oded and his family back to Kol HaNeshama, after a gap of
almost a decade since he was our educational coordinator and rabbinical assistant during
his rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College, where he was ordained in 2009.
Following his ordination, Oded and Ya'ala Mazor moved to Kibbutz Hanaton, where Oded has
taken a leadership role in community life in a range of areas, including the ceremonial and
educational life of the kibbutz.
He has also worked with neighboring communities in their marking of life-cycle events and
celebrations of the holidays, as well as developing partnerships with local congregations of
all streams. In addition, he provides rabbinic guidance and accompaniment to individuals
and families in their life-cycle events.
Since 2010, Oded has served as the rabbi for the elementary school of the Leo Baeck Education
Center in Haifa, and since 2015 has been the head of Leo Baeck's UK relations desk.
He teaches Jewish studies to first through tenth grades, as well as teaching at a range of
mechinot (pre-military leadership programs) in the north of Israel.
A member of the secretariat of MARAM (the association of Reform rabbis in Israel), Oded is an active member of the editorial board of the Reform Movement's new siddur (in production), and has contributed to and edited other recent liturgical work, including the festival machzor HaSimcha SheBaLev, which was a joint creation of Kehilat Kol HaNeshama and MARAM.
Oded, Ya’ala and their three children are now living in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman
Rabbi Weiman-Kelman Founded Congregation Kol HaNeshama in 1985.
The community is a center for Progressive Jewish life in Jerusalem, on the forefront of the
struggle for religious pluralism in Israel’s highly polarized society.
Rabbi Weiman-Kelman teaches prayer, liturgy, spiritual development and practical rabbinics
at the Hebrew Union College Jerusalem campus.
He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1979. His B.A. is from the University
of Wisconsin (1974).
A native New Yorker, he is married to Paula, who is a documentary filmmaker. They have
three grown children. Zohar and Benjamin live with their spouses in Tel Aviv.
Raphaela and her spouse live in New York. They have a grandson, Maayan.
