March 4, 2026
The Central Conference of American Rabbis is in mourning in the wake of the tragic and untimely death of our teacher, our colleague, and our friend, Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, PhD, ז״ל. A prolific scholar whose life and learning were her students’ greatest texts, Rabbi Dr. Weiss shaped a generation of Reform rabbis as Professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College in New York. She would go on to assume a transformative and pioneering leadership role, becoming the first woman to ordain rabbis and cantors at our Reform Movement’s flagship seminary. As Provost, Head of Seminary Programs, and Rabbinical School Director, Rabbi Dr. Weiss guided rabbinical education into a new era with creativity and rigor.
With the Women of Reform Judaism, Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, PhD, and URJ Press under the leadership of Rabbi Hara Person, Rabbi Dr. Weiss oversaw a mammoth project that became a significant contribution to the Jewish canon: The Torah: A Women’s Commentary (CCAR Press, 2008), winner of the National Jewish Book Council’s 2008 Jewish Book of the Year Award. Later, she marshaled scholarship and relationships to speak to divisive moments in American life with two volumes of American Values, Religious Voices.
Reform rabbis will miss Rabbi Dr. Weiss’s menschlichkeit, brilliance, compassion, wisdom, integrity, eagerness to learn, and so much more. A rabbi’s rabbi, she was a generous teacher, mentor, and friend who truly loved her students and was invested in their successes. The loss to our Reform Movement is enormous. The grief of those who were ordained by her and of her faculty and staff colleagues is tremendous.
Andrea’s CCAR family extends deepest sympathy to her beloved husband Alan Tauber, to their children Rebecca and Ilan, to her father Marty Weiss; to her siblings Mitch, Laura, and Robert (Catherine Corrigan), and to her wide circle of friends and colleagues.
The memory of Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, PhD, ז״ל, will always be a blessing.
Rabbi David A. Lyon, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis
A Personal Note from Rabbi Hara Person
If you are lucky, you may encounter someone who winds up impacting you in ways that are unimaginable in the moment. Rabbi Dr. Andrea Weiss was one such person for me. Andrea was invited in by Rabbi Dr. Tamara Eskenazi to work on The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, a project I had the privilege to oversee. Andrea, then a young scholar who did not yet have tenure, came in first as the Assistant Editor, and then ultimately became the Associate Editor. Through that long and often involved process of creating the book, Andrea became a dear friend and colleague. I came to admire her tenacity, her incredible drive, her high level of organization and astonishing attention to detail, and her subtle sense of humor. It was a huge honor to work with Andrea and Tamara, and the sense of pride and accomplishment we all felt when the book was not just done, but lauded and celebrated, was tremendous. The book was the initial glue that connected us, but our relationship as personal friends and professional colleagues continued on as we moved through our careers, both becoming “firsts” as women in our fields, figuring out how to balance parenting with professional responsibilities, and sharing our successes and challenges. Like so many in our rabbinic community and beyond, I will deeply miss my friend and colleague Rabbi Dr. Andrea Weiss, and am profoundly grateful for all the ways that she generously shared her bountiful gifts with us.