Meet Rabbi Elana
Rabbi-Cantor Elana Rosen-Brown
Rabbi Elana is eager to share her love of teaching and learning with students of all ages. She recently celebrated her ten-year anniversary with Congregation Rodef Sholom and feels blessed to call this community home. At Congregation Rodef Sholom, Rabbi Elana leads adult learning and social justice initiatives, and strives to co-create a community that is fully inclusive of interfaith/Jew-ish/multi-heritage families. Elana serves on the boards of the Marin Interfaith Council, the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative, and on the Social Justice Leadership Team of the RAC California. She recently completed participation as a rabbinic fellow with 18Doors, Resetting the Table, and the One America Movement.
A native East Coaster, Rabbi Elana grew up in Hartford, CT, holds a B.A. in History and Education summa cum laude from Middlebury College, VT, and has studied and lived in places ranging from South Korea to New York City, and South Africa to Jerusalem. In addition to her ordinations as rabbi (2014) and cantor (2012) and master’s degrees in sacred music and Hebrew literature from HUC-JIR, Rabbi Elana recently graduated with a master’s degree in Integrative Health Studies (2024) from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). At CIIS she focused on narrative healing techniques for addressing ambiguous loss and grief as a central experience of chronic illness. She devotes a significant portion of her rabbinate to holding space for grief work. Her thesis work while in cantorial school focused on the use of music in expanding empathy, peace-building, and dialogue across differences. This work remains foundational to her worldview and spiritual practice.
During her years in rabbinical and cantorial school, Rabbi Elana served congregations in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Southern California, as well as a year of chaplaincy at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. Our relationship with the natural world and eco-spirituality is a central part of Rabbi Elana’s rabbinate. During her years in school, she received training as a wilderness spirituality guide through Torah Trek, Teva Education Center, and Adamah, and regularly creates opportunities to connect with Judaism through nature-based practice. Among other awards, Rabbi Elana is the recipient of the Tisch Fellowship led by Rabbi Larry Hoffman, which supports the work of transformational rabbis. She was a tour guide for NFTY-in-Israel for multiple summers, leading teens in multiple-narrative conversations around their relationship to Israel.
Alongside her deep love for Judaism, Rabbi Elana is a practitioner of mindfulness meditation in both the Jewish and Buddhist traditions. She is grateful to her partner Dan for the joyous home they have created together with their cats Beniko and Sherwood and their new baby Malachi (you can also call him Kai!).
Watch clergy sermons here.
