Rabbi Rachel Weiss

Rabbi Weiss is known for her commitment to Jewish life that is creative, connective, and deep. She brings her warmth and energy to life cycle officiation and pastoral counseling, is an innovative teacher of Torah and a passionate spiritual leader. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Weiss was an Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman scholar, and the recipient of the Berger Prize in Practical Rabbinics. She holds a certificate in Congregational Life and has taken leadership roles within the Reconstructionist movement. Rabbi Weiss is a member of the Clergy Leadership Incubator cohort 4, in which she is working to integrate adaptive leadership, design thinking and innovation into the congregation. She regularly speaks in the Chicagoland community in Interfaith programming, at community social justice actions, and at trainings and communal observances within Jewish and secular spaces.

Rabbi Weiss previously served Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York City’s LGBTQS synagogue, as their associate rabbi. In 2014, she was named one of the New York Pride Guide’s “45 Under 45” for her leadership. As a rabbinic fellow at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, she developed a multi-denominational rabbinic fellowship to bring rabbinical students from all backgrounds to study social justice and community organizing. She is a member of the faculty of Camp Havaya, the Reconstructionist Summer Camp in the Poconos.

Prior to becoming a rabbi, Rabbi Weiss served as the Director of Nuestro Center in Highwood, IL, providing social work services to recently immigrated Latino families through Family Service of South Lake County. A fluent Spanish speaker, she is a graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa where she earned a B.A. in Spanish with an interdisciplinary concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies.