Avi Weiss
American Modern Orthodox rabbi and founder of the Open Orthodox movement
Avraham Haim Yosef Weiss (Hebrew: אברהם חיים יוסף הכהן ווייס; born June 24, 1944) is an American Open Orthodox ordained rabbi, author, teacher, lecturer, and activist who led the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in The Bronx, New York until 2015. He is the founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah for men and Yeshivat Maharat for women, rabbinical seminaries that are tied to Open Orthodoxy, a breakaway movement that Weiss originated, which is to the left of Modern Orthodox Judaism and to the right of Conservative Judaism. He is co-founder of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, a rabbinical association that is a liberal alternative to the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, and founder of the grassroots organization Coalition for Jewish Concerns – Amcha.
Semikhah (rabbinical ordination) of women by Weiss' movement has been a source of friction within Orthodox Judaism.
Early life and career
Weiss was born to Moshe and Miriam Weiss. His sister is Tova Reich. Weiss received his semikhah (rabbinical ordination) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University in 1968.
In 2013, Newsweek ranked Weiss the 10th most prominent rabbi in the United States, climbing from number 11 in 2012 and number 12 in 2011, after being ranked number 18 in 2010.
On June 29, 2015, Weiss resigned from the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) in protest over their decision to not accept graduates of his rabbinical seminary into the organization.
Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR) was founded in 1971 in a boiler room of the Whitehall Building off the Henry Hudson Parkway by former members of the Hebrew Institute of University Heights in the Bronx who had moved to Riverdale.
The public source identifies “Avi Weiss” as american Modern Orthodox rabbi and founder of the Open Orthodox movement. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Weiss, American and Modern.
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This entry incorporates text from “Avi Weiss” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.