Our Rabbinic Guide
Pardess is a place where the work of soul tending and earth mending thrives – a community dedicated to both cultivating the soul and repairing the world.
Zann Jacobrown, the Pardess Jewish Community's rabbinic guide, is passionate about creating spiritually nourishing learning and ritual experiences that connect generations together in community.
Using a collaborative approach, Zann encourages and welcomes all who are interested in deepening their Jewish knowledge, spirituality and self-awareness to co-lead with her, as well as take on ritual leadership roles.
Especially close to Zann’s heart are the many B’nai Mitzvot students and families she has led through an out-of-the box rite of passage year that often includes wilderness spiritual adventures and inspiring mitzvah projects, as well as a grounding in Torah, blessings and personal growth.
In addition to her passion for Jewish ritual and her role as a Jewish guide and educator, Zann is an accomplished artist, restorative activist and architect.
Zann's Jewish art has been featured in several shows, both solo and collaborative, including a recent 6-week tour from California to British Columbia with musician and storyteller Arik Labowitz where she showcased a series of paintings inspired by storytelling luminary Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlav. Zann has also co-led several Jewish retreats; immersion experiences in First Nations’ territories on Vancouver Island and in Bali, Indonesia; and retreats and workshops on Mindful Meditation/Mindful Action.
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A graduate degree focused on conflict resolution, restorative practices and non-violence, with an emphasis on education, has been foundational to Zann’s years as a Jewish education coordinator. It has also informed her social justice work that has centered on restoring and repairing community, often between First Nations and non-Native people in and around her home on traditional Suquamish Tribal Land on Puget Sound.
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As a young mother, Zann lived for four years in a deeply connected Jewish Renewal/Spiritually Diverse village in Oregon’s coastal mountains where she co-created and co-led innovative and inspiring earth-based rituals and weekly Shabbes gatherings, studied Kabbalah and Tarot, and practiced meditation. Today she lives with her husband, Craig, daughter-in-law, Amber, and two sons, Jonah and Tobin. When not immersed in Jewish ritual, Zann loves to walk, hike and sketch—as well as hole up in her room meditating, studying and painting.