Message from Sam Weiss

Dear JRC,

I am thrilled to be serving as your rabbinic intern this summer. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to learn with and from such a vibrant and thoughtful community, and am looking forward to getting to know many of you in the coming weeks. I have so enjoyed my initial meetings with the leadership team and have heard wonderful things about Durham-Chapel Hill, Judea Reform and all of you.

As a rising fifth-year rabbinical student, I find myself in a moment of tremendous transition and change. I share this because I suspect that I am not alone in this respect. During a year of radical uncertainty and unprecedented upheavals, I imagine that many of us have found ourselves wondering what’s next, struggling to adapt to an unpredictable “new normal.” I come to you with sincere curiosity about what it means to be a rabbi, and with a true desire to understand the rapidly changing needs, desires, hopes and fears of the Jewish people.

Though the questions and challenges that face us are complex, I am confident that we can do better approaching them together than apart. I thank you for inviting me into your sacred community, particularly during this trying time.

Although our time together will be primarily virtual, I am delighted to share that I will be spending two Shabbatot (July 9-10 and 23-24) in Durham. Whether we meet in person or over Zoom, I am hopeful that we will have the chance to pray and study together in depth and with joy.

In the meantime, I invite you to reach out via email (sam.myles.weiss@gmail.com). It will be a great pleasure to connect—please do not hesitate to be in touch.

Sincerely,

Sam Weiss

Biography:

Sam Weiss is a fifth-year rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. He grew up in Andover, MA and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Rhetoric. During his time at HUC-JIR, Sam has worked in a variety of educational and pastoral capacities. At the URJ Kutz Camp for teen leaders, he designed and taught an immersive text-study experience that centered around Machloket L’shem Shamayim, the rabbinic concept of “Disagreement for the Sake of Heaven.” In New York City, he has delivered sermons across denominational divides, from Beth Am-The People’s Temple in Washington Heights (Reform) to The Stanton Street Shul in the Lower East Side (Modern Orthodox). Sam worked has worked as a pastoral caregiver at the Bellevue Hospital Center and at Dorot, an interfaith social service agency that works to reduce social isolation among older adults. Most recently, Sam served as the rabbinic intern at Temple Emanuel in Andover, MA and was selected to participate in the 2021 seminarian cohort of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics. Sam is committed to a Judaism that is at once thoughtful and heartfelt, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to learn and pray with the JRC community this summer. Sam lives in the East Village with his fiancée Erin. They have no pets but are considering purchasing a Roomba.