Ruach

Rabbi Adina Allen

Rabbi Adina Allen is a national media contributor, popular speaker, and award-winning educator who teaches about creativity as a vital tool for Jewish learning, spiritual connection and social change. As co-founder and Creative Director of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), Adina has worked with thousands of Jewish organizational and communal leaders, educators, and clergy across the country to access and activate their inherent creativity. Adina is the author of The Place of All Possibility: Cultivating Creativity Through Ancient Jewish Wisdom (Ayin, 2024). She and her family live in Berkeley, California.

Yosef Rosen

Yosef Rosen is a Jewish educator, community organizer, DJ, and scholar of Jewish mysticism and magic. He serves as the Director of Jewish Life & Learning at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, where he designs immersive learning experiences that nurture Jewish creativity and community. Yosef earned his doctorate in Jewish Studies at UC Berkeley and has taught in a plurality of educational contexts, including the university, communal adult-ed, a pluralistic Jewish high school, and in rabbinic schools to emerging Jewish leaders.

Sam Landsman

Sam Landsman is a musician and song leader based in Seattle, WA. Sam started and leads the Jconnect Band, a community band focusing on Jewish music and communal singing. Jconnect is a 20s/30s program through Hillel UW. Sam also leads the undergraduate Shabbat Song and Prayer Circle with Rabbi Lauren Kurland, Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel UW, and the student music interns. Sam has released two albums – Transport (2015) and Learning By Doing (2021). Sam is a proud alum of University of Washington and UC Berkeley.

Rachel Stern

Rachel Stern (heartshapedyoga.com) guides people of all ages to honor their physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being in ways that are fun and accessible.  Her offerings invite participants on a journey of self-discovery through thematic embodiment of our personal stories and the stories of our cultures.  As a yoga teacher, life-coach, Jewish educator, and puberty educator, she partners with clients to create a safe container for compassionate curiosity, authentic expression, and radical self-approval.

Debbie Plawner

Debbie Plawner is the creator of The Oracolor Wheel, a spiritual framework that brings Torah’s wisdom to life through the language of color. For the past five years, she has guided people in using the Wheel to navigate change, restore balance, and reconnect with their inner values. At the Ruach Retreat, she will lead an embodied experience of the Wheel—a 20-foot walking meditation and workshop that helps participants tune into their energy and discover how to return to balance and harmony. Her forthcoming Illuminated Paths deck and guidebook (2026) deepen this work through contemplation and creative inquiry, bringing Torah’s light vividly into daily life.

Aaron Kahn

Aaron Kahn is a contemporary trumpet soloist, educator, and creative entrepreneur based in Portland, Oregon. His work bridges classical virtuosity, improvisation, contemplative practice, systems thinking, and metamodernism, exploring music as a vehicle for connection, healing, and collective imagination, liberation, and societal growth.

He has performed widely as a soloist and collaborator across the West Coast, appearing with ensembles and organizations ranging from the Oregon State Legislature, where he performed John Williams’ With Malice Toward None at the Opening Ceremony of the 2025 legislative session, to the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (2026). In December 2025, he will also serve as an official performer for the Wednesday Evening Programs at The Esalen Institute, one of the most internationally renowned centers for spiritual, intellectual, and creative growth in the world. He was also a member of the 2nd Art/Lab cohort, an incubator for contemporary Jewish artists in Oregon, led by Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem and Rabbi Joshua Rose.

Aaron is currently preparing his debut album, Pardes (פַּרְדֵּס), an album of contemporary trumpet works, featuring compositions by Denmark’s leading composer Poul Ruders, Israeli-Ukrainian internationally renowned composer Anna Segal, PNW-based visionary composer Justin Ralls, and experimental music pioneer David Rosenboom. His creative practice often draws from his training in Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, Daoist studies, and forays into multiple epistemologies, uniting technical mastery with expansive awareness.

As an educator, Aaron teaches throughout the Portland area as a private instructor, guest artist, and school clinician, emphasizing artistry, mindfulness, and peak performance psychology. He has served as a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Oregon and a collaborator with educational innovators including DesignWorlds for Learning and DesignWorlds for College and Careers.

Aaron is a 2025 Fellow in the Anti-Defamation League’s Glass Leadership Institute, joining a national cohort of emerging Jewish leaders dedicated to social justice and civic responsibility. He holds degrees from the University of Oregon and California Institute of the Arts, and has studied with leading artists including Brian McWhorter (UO), Mark Gould (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), and Håkan Hardenberger (international trumpet soloist), He has also trained with master improvisors Wadada Leo Smith, Art Lande, Marco Blaauw, Peter Evans, and Markus Stockhausen. You can find out more about Aaron and his work at: www.aaronkahncreator.com