Hebrew Union College Mourns the Loss of Rabbi Andrea Weiss, Ph.D., z”l

With deep sorrow, Hebrew Union College announced the passing of Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, Harav Channah bat Moshe v'Rut, who died on March 3, 2026. Rabbi Weiss died at her home in Pennsylvania surrounded by her family.

"Rabbi Weiss has been a transformative presence at Hebrew Union College for more than two decades," said President Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D. "Her scholarship, vision, and fierce commitment to the formation of Jewish clergy have shaped this institution in ways that will endure for generations. We are grateful beyond measure for her service and hold her and her loved ones in our hearts."

Rabbi Weiss joined the faculty in 2000 and was appointed in 2018 by former president Rabbi Aaron Panken, z"l as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost, a role she continued through June 2025. She most recently served as Head of Seminary Programs and Rabbinical School Director. In each role, she brought intellectual rigor, pastoral warmth, and a bold vision for the future of the Jewish people.

Interim Head of Seminary and Director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, Cantor Jill Abramson shared: "Andrea brought lev shalem-a whole heart to everything she did. Whether in a classroom or a hallway discussion, she has always been a model of what it means to live a life guided by scholarship and sacred purpose. We will miss her presence in these halls and hold her family in our prayers."

During her tenure, Rabbi Weiss championed several landmark initiatives, including a curricular redesign, the launch of the Virtual Pathway for Rabbinical students, the creation of the Seminary Hebrew Program, and a renewal of spiritual and professional formation as a core component of clergy studies.

We share this tribute written by her daughter Rebecca Tauber:

"Rabbi Andrea Weiss was a prominent American rabbi and global leader in the Jewish community. As provost of Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Weiss became the first-ever woman to ordain rabbis in the Reform movement and was one of very few female rabbis to ever ordain Jewish clergy.

A scholar of the Hebrew Bible, she won the American Jewish Book Award in 2011 as co-editor of The Torah: A Women's Commentary (CCAR Press, 2008), the first-ever Hebrew Bible commentary made up of scholarship by women rabbis, poets and scholars.

In 2016 and 2020, Rabbi Weiss created an interfaith public scholarship project called American Values, Religious Voices, bringing together 100 leaders across religions and denominations to write letters to the president and Congress for the first 100 days of the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, calling the project a 'national, nonpartisan campaign created from the conviction that scholars who study and teach our diverse religious traditions have something important to say about our shared American values.'

As provost, Rabbi Weiss led one of the United States' oldest Jewish institutions through a decade of transformation, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the creation of the seminary's first remote curriculum. As a professor at Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Weiss taught generations of students who would go on to lead congregations and Jewish communities across the world. She rarely turned down invitations to lead Bible study and share her scholarship, visiting synagogues and institutions across the country as a scholar in residence."

During her time at Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Weiss shaped generations of students. With each graduating class, newly ordained rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal professionals enter the world inspired by her example. Her work embodies a calling at once scholarly and spiritual: to draw out new voices from ancient words and to guide a vibrant Jewish future.

Hebrew Union College stands with her husband Alan Tauber, their children Rebecca and Ilan, and with her father Marty Weiss, her siblings Mitch, Laura, and Roger, and Roger's wife, Catherine Corrigan. We hold them in a circle of strength and prayers for comfort.

To read tributes to Rabbi Weiss, or to share yours, please click here.

Arrangements are as follows:

Funeral:

Friday, March 6, 2026, at 10 a.m. ET
Beth Am Israel
1301 Hagys Ford Road
Penn Valley, PA

To join by Zoom click here.