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Bari Weiss (born March 25, 1984) is an American opinion writer and editor. From 2013 until 2017 she was an op-ed and book review editor at The Wall Street Journal. From 2017 to 2020, Weiss was an op-ed staff editor and writer about culture and politics at The New York Times.

Early life and education

Bari Weiss was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Lou (a carpet salesman) and Amy Weiss (a department store makeup buyer). She grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and graduated from Pittsburgh's Community Day School and Shady Side Academy. The eldest of four sisters, she attended the Tree of Life Synagogue and had her bat mitzvah ceremony there. After high school, Weiss went to Israel on a Nativ gap year program, helping build a medical clinic for Bedouin in the Negev desert, and studying at a feminist yeshiva and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Weiss is a 2007 graduate of Columbia University with a major in history. As a student, she co-founded Columbians for Academic Freedom, which in 2005 said that professors were intimidating students who expressed pro-Israel sentiments that the professors disagreed with in classroom discussions. Weiss said that she felt intimidated by Joseph Massad, professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History, in a class. A committee at Columbia charged with investigating these claims found "credible" one intimidation accusation against Professor Massad, but found "no evidence of any statements made by the faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic." In her 2019 book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism, Weiss describes this contentious period as giving her "a front row seat to leftist anti-Semitism" at the university.

While at Columbia, Weiss also founded The Current, a journal of contemporary politics, culture, and Jewish affairs, and the Columbia Coalition for Sudan in response to the war in Darfur. Following graduation, Weiss was a Wall Street Journal Bartley Fellow in 2007, and a Dorot Fellow from 2007 to 2008 in Jerusalem.

Career

In 2007, Weiss worked for Haaretz and The Forward. In Haaretz, she wrote in support of an effort to have Barnard College deny tenure to the anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj over a controversial book examining Israeli archaeology. From 2011 to 2013, Weiss was senior news and politics editor at Tablet.

2013–2017: The Wall Street Journal

Weiss was an op-ed and book review editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2013 until April 2017. She left following the departure of Pulitzer Prize winner and deputy editor Bret Stephens, for whom she had worked, and joined him at The New York Times.

2017–2020: The New York Times

In 2017, as part of an effort by The New York Times to broaden the ideological range of its opinion staff after the inauguration of President Trump, the paper hired Weiss as an op-ed staff editor and writer about culture and politics. Through her first year at the paper, she wrote opinion pieces advocating for the blending of cultural influences, something derided by what she termed the "strident left" as cultural appropriation. She criticized the organizers of the 2017 Women's March protesting the inauguration of President Trump for their "chilling ideas and associations", particularly singling out several individuals she believed to have made antisemitic or anti-Zionist statements in the past. Her article about the Chicago Dyke March, asserting that intersectionality is a "caste system, in which people are judged according to how much their particular caste has suffered throughout history," was condemned by playwright Eve Ensler, creator of the Vagina Monologues.

On June 7, 2020, the Times editorial page editor, James Bennet, resigned after more than 1,000 staffers signed a letter protesting his publication of an op-ed by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton saying that since "rioters have plunged many American cities into anarchy", soldiers should be sent as backup for the police to end the violence. Bennet later stated he had not read the op-ed beforehand. Weiss characterized the internal controversy as an ongoing "civil war" between what she called young "social justice warriors" and what she identified as older, "free speech advocate", staffers. This characterization was disputed by numerous other journalists and opinion-writers at the Times; Taylor Lorenz, a technology reporter who covers internet culture, described it as a "willful misrepresentation" that ignored the numerous older staffers who had spoken out, while Jamal Jordan, the Times' digital storytelling editor, criticized her for not listening to her black colleagues and instead dismissing their concerns as a "woke civil war".

2020: Resignation from The New York Times

Weiss announced her departure from The New York Times on July 14, 2020, publishing a resignation letter on her website in which she criticized the Times for capitulating to criticism on Twitter, and for not supporting her when she was bullied by her colleagues. Weiss wrote that consensus at the Times had become "that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else." Weiss accused her former employer of "unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge".

In her letter Weiss said, "Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions." She also wrote, "Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times, but Twitter has become its ultimate editor."

Her letter was praised by Donald Trump Jr., political commentator Ben Shapiro, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Kelly Loeffler, former Democratic presidential candidates Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson, and political commentator Bill Maher.

Political views

Weiss has been described as conservative by Haaretz, The Times of Israel, The Daily Dot, and Business Insider. In an interview with Joe Rogan, she described herself as a "left-leaning centrist". According to The Washington Post, Weiss "portrays herself as a liberal uncomfortable with the excesses of left-wing culture," and has sought to "position herself as a reasonable liberal concerned that far-left critiques stifled free speech." Vanity Fair has described Weiss as being "a provocateur", and a "liberal humanist". The Jewish Telegraphic Agency said that her writing "doesn't lend itself easily to labels."

Weiss has expressed support for Israel and Zionism in her columns. When writer Andrew Sullivan described her as an "unhinged Zionist", she responded saying she "happily plead guilty as charged." In 2018, she said she believed the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but questioned whether they should disqualify him from serving on the Supreme Court because he was 17 when he allegedly committed the assault against Christine Blasey Ford. After backlash in the press, Weiss conceded that her sound bite was glib and simplistic, and said instead that Kavanaugh's rage-filled behavior before the Senate Judiciary Committee should have disqualified him. Also in 2018, she criticized the #MeToo Movement.

Following the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Weiss was a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher in early November 2018. She said of American Jews who support President Donald Trump: "I hope this week that American Jews have woken up to the price of that bargain: They have traded policies that they like for the values that have sustained the Jewish people—and frankly, this country—forever: Welcoming the stranger; dignity for all human beings; equality under the law; respect for dissent; love of truth." In 2019, The Jerusalem Post named Weiss the seventh most influential Jew in the world.

Personal life

While attending Columbia University, she dated future Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon. From 2013 to 2016, Weiss was married to environmental engineer Jason Kass, the founder of Toilets for People, a company designing and manufacturing waterless self-contained composting toilets. Weiss prefers not to label her sexual orientation, but has stated that, despite her past heterosexual marriage, she trends towards attraction to other females. During 2018–2019, Weiss dated Nellie Bowles, the Times's tech reporter.

Works

• How to Fight Anti-Semitism, published in September 2019
• The New Seven Dirty Words. scheduled for publication 2020

Awards

• 2018: Reason Foundation’s Bastiat Prize, which honors writing that "best demonstrates the importance of freedom with originality, wit and eloquence."
• 2019: National Jewish Book Award in Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice for How to Fight Anti-Semitism

References

1. ^ Izadi, Elahe; Barr, Jeremy (July 14, 2020). "Bari Weiss resigns from New York Times, says 'Twitter has become its ultimate editor'". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
2. ^ Peretz, Evgenia (April 24, 2019). "Mad About Bari Weiss: The New York Times Provocateur the Left Loves to Hate". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
3. ^ Tabachnick, Toby (October 27, 2017). "Times opinion editor, 'Burgh native Bari Weiss, talks "news, Jews and views"". Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. Vol. 60, no. 43. p. 1,16. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
4. Steinberg, Jessica (November 5, 2002). "Israel programs see huge decrease". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
5. ^ Roth, Jordan (May 26, 2005). "An academic freedom fighter". The Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 319478492.
6. Alex Chadwick and Mike Pesca (April 1, 2005). Analysis: Columbia University Deals With Recent Charges of Anti-Semitism on Campus. NPR.
7. Hentoff, Nat (April 5, 2005). "Columbia Whitewashes Itself". The Village Voice. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
8. Arenson, Karen W. (March 31, 2005). "Columbia Panel Clears Professors Of Anti-Semitism". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
9. Weiss, Bari (2019). How to Fight Anti-Semitism. Crown/Archetype. ISBN 9780593136058. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
10. ^ Moon, Deborah (March 25, 2019). "Bari Weiss: A Moderate in an Era of Extremes". Arizona Jewish Life.
11. "Bari Weiss: A moderate in an era of extremes". Oregon Jewish Life. February 25, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
12. "Bari Weiss". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
13. Kramer, Jane (April 7, 2008). "The Petition". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
14. "Facts in the air". Haaretz. November 28, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
15. "By Bari Weiss". The New York Times. 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
16. Steed, Edward (December 20, 2017). "On the Front Lines of the GOP's Civil War". Esquire. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
17. ^ Lee, Edmund (July 14, 2020). "Bari Weiss Resigns From New York Times Opinion Post". The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
18. Weiss, Bari (August 30, 2017). "Opinion | Three Cheers for Cultural Appropriation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
19. Weiss, Bari (August 1, 2017). "Opinion | When Progressives Embrace Hate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
20. Weiss, Bari (June 27, 2017). "Opinion | I'm Glad the Dyke March Banned Jewish Stars". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
21. "Opinion | On 'Intersectionality'". The New York Times. July 3, 2017. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
22. ^ Beauchamp, Zack (June 5, 2020). "The New York Times staff revolt over Tom Cotton's op-ed, explained". Vox. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
23. Klar, Rebecca (June 7, 2020). "NYT editorial page director resigns after Tom Cotton op-ed controversy". TheHill. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
24. ^ Weiss, Bari. "Resignation Letter". bariweiss.com. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
25. Darcy, Oliver (July 14, 2020). "Controversial opinion writer Bari Weiss resigns from The New York Times, blasting paper for". CNN Business. Cable News Network.Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
26. Flood, Brian (July 14, 2020). "Trump Jr., Ted Cruz among conservatives celebrating Bari Weiss' 'stunning' NY Times resignation letter". Fox News. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
27. Relman, Oma Seddiq, Eliza. "Donald Trump Jr., Ted Cruz, and other top Republicans praise New York Times editor Bari Weiss' resignation letter slamming the paper". Business Insider. Retrieved July 15, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
28. Sobel, Ariel (July 14, 2020). "Andrew Yang, Donald Trump Jr., and NY Times Staff React to Bari Weiss' Resignation". jewishjournal.com. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
29. Miller, Judith (July 14, 2020). "The Illiberal Liberal Media". City Journal. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
30. Saad, Nardine (July 14, 2020). "Journalist Bari Weiss skewers New York Times in her resignation letter". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
31. "Conservative, Jewish NY Times columnists slam Israel for BDS 'paranoia'". The Times of Israel. October 10, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
32. Cagle, Tess (May 19, 2018). "Conservative columnist says the NRA has Trump 'grabbed by the p***y'". The Daily Dot. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
33. ^ Relman, Eliza (September 19, 2018). "New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss slammed for questioning whether sexual assault should disqualify Kavanaugh from Supreme Court". Business Insider. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
34. Landau, Noa (October 10, 2018). "Leading Conservative NYT Columnists Slam Israel Over Detention of U.S. Student". Haaretz. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
35. JRE Clips. "Joe Rogan on the "MAGA" Kids Controversy". Retrieved January 22, 2019.
36. Selk, Avi (March 10, 2018). "A New York Times columnist blamed a far-left 'mob' for her woes. But maybe she deserves them". The Washington Post.
37. Barr, Elahe Izadi and Jeremy (July 14, 2020). "Opinion writer Weiss resigns from New York Times, says 'Twitter has become its ultimate editor'". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 14, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
38. Dolsten, Josefin (February 2, 2018). "How New York Times editor Bari Weiss found herself at the center of the #MeToo debate". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
39. Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss. "Opinion | Why Is Israel Scared of This Young American?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
40. French, David (March 8, 2018). "The Sliming of Bari Weiss". National Review. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
41. "Weiss to Maher: U.S. Jews Traded Trump Their Values for Israel - After Pittsburgh We Know It's Not Worth It". Haaretz. November 5, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
42. Edmunds, Donna Rachel (July 14, 2020). "Bari Weiss resigns from 'New York Times,' citing culture of groupthink". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
43. "Bari Weiss on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
44. Arnold, Amanda (April 2019). "The Only Good Takeaway From That Bari Weiss Profile". The Cut. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
45. "Forward 50 – Bari Weiss: The commentator the left loves to hate". The Forward. December 20, 2019. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
46. ^ Spiro, Amy (February 28, 2019). "Jewish 'New York Times' writer to pen book on antisemitism Bari Weiss signed a two-book deal with Crown Publishing". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
47. "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved January 21, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
48. "Jewish Book Council announces 2019 National Jewish Book Awards Winners". The Jerusalem Post |. Retrieved January 21, 2020.

External links

• Articles by Bari Weiss at Tablet
• Articles by Bari Weiss at The New York Times

• 1984 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American non-fiction writers
• American political commentators
• American political writers
• American Jews
• American Zionists
• The New York Times people
• The Wall Street Journal people
• Columbia University alumni
• Shady Side Academy alumni
• Writers from Pittsburgh
• Bisexual women
• Bisexual writers
• LGBT writers from the United States
• LGBT Jews
• Jewish American journalists
• Writers on antisemitism