Professional Team
Since moving here from Chicago in 2021, Tamy has seen a tremendous growth spurt here at OC Hillel. Joining our team the year students were able to be back on campus, OC Hillel has gone from 15 students at a Shabbat dinner to 85 students in less than 3 years. Most days you can find Tamy and our Hillel dog, Joey at Chapman’s bagel break, UCI’s Chillel, or CSUF morning conversations. When she is not meeting with students, she is either meeting with our amazing staff, loyal donors, or university faculty and administrators. A colleague commented “You just got here and you know more people than I do and I’ve lived here for years” We are so lucky to have a people person like Tamy.
Tamy has a Master’s degree in Social Service from the University of Chicago. Before COVID, Tamy had been living and studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem for two and a half years. She is a strategic, creative Jewish communal professional with over 25 years of experience, including a strong background in development and community outreach.
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When Tamy isn’t living and breathing Hillel, she is usually talking to her two sons or at the dog park with Joey. Tamy loves to study Judaic texts, listen to all types of music, dance, and take yoga classes. Tamy is excited to share her passion for Judaism and Israel with the Orange County community.
This is Rabbi Daniel’s seventh year with OC Hillel in his mission to help students discover the relevance, beauty, and value within Judaism, Jewish identity, and Israel. He teaches several classes a week, holds space for any and all conversation about Judaism and Israel, and can always be seen at one of the local OC coffee shops meeting with students. On a Friday night you will always find him and his wife Shaina’s apartment full of students (and yes Daniel and Shaina met at Hillel!). In addition to his work with local Orange County college students, Daniel is also responsible for OC Hillel’s growing community of graduate students, alumni, and local Jewish professionals.
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Daniel grew up in San Diego before moving to Israel for several years to study in a variety of Yeshivots in Jerusalem before ultimately receiving his rabbinical degree from YPS. He attended UCLA for undergrad double majoring in Cognitive Science and Jewish Studies and subsequently stayed at UCLA for an MA in Jewish History.
Rabbi Daniel is adjunct faculty at UCI teaching courses in Jewish Texts and Jewish Philosophy and is also the rabbinic fellow at Temple Beth Tikvah. When not excitedly talking about Talmud, Jewish history, or Israel you can spot Daniel somewhere outside hiking, biking or rock climbing.
Ilya Rake is thrilled to join Hillel as the new Student Engagement Coordinator. Ilya is a 2022 graduate of Ithaca College where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Cinema & Photography. He also earned a minor in Jewish Studies. While at Ithaca College, Ilya interned in Student Engagement at Ithaca College Hillel and he was an active member of AEPi. Prior to that, he lived in Israel for six months and worked at Jewish overnight camps and religious schools in assistant roles through college and high school.
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Ilya has moved to Orange County from LA, where he worked in production on a one-woman comedy series, an episodic TV series, The Game Show Network, and a variety of independent productions. Prior to moving to LA, he launched a digital media company during the height of the pandemic.
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Ilya was born in Moscow, Russia but grew up in the Philadelphia area. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, tennis, golf, gaming, producing indies and hanging with his cat, MJ. He loves to cook, and makes matzah ball soup from scratch! Ilya is excited to use his digital media acumen and people skills to grow awareness for and student participation in Hillel.
We are excited to welcome Lee Oren to OC Hillel. She was born and raised in Netanya, Israel, and grew up in religious schools. This is Lee’s third shlichut to the States with the Jewish Agency. She was a counselor at Ramah Wisconsin during the summers of 2019 and 2021. As the shlichut in 2019, Lee realized she wanted to study more about American Judaism. When she returned to Israel, she took many courses on the intersection of Judaism and the diaspora. Lee has a BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with an emphasis in political science and education majors
Lee has played the French horn and trumpet since the 4th grade. She served in the IDF orchestra in Israel.
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In her spare time while living in Israel, Lee used to teach wave surfing and SUP. Plus she taught Latin dancing. She can’t wait to teach us surfing, SUP, and of course Latin dancing!