Barry Weiss is an American opinion editor and writer who writes primarily about culture and politics. She was previously a column editor for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Wiki/Biography
Barry Weiss was born on Sunday, March 25, 1984 (age 37 in 2021) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. She grew up in Squirrel Hill, a residential neighborhood in the East Side of Pittsburgh. Her “bar mitzvah” ceremony was held at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. After graduating from Pittsburgh Community Day School, Barry Weiss attended Shady Side Academy in the Borough of Fox Chapel. According to Barry Weiss, she felt very nerdy and alienated in her traditional high school. After graduating from high school, Barry Weiss spent a gap year in Israel, where she worked in the Negev Desert and contributed to the construction of a Bedouin medical clinic. While in Israel, she also studied at a feminist yeshiva and Hebrew University, where Barry gravitated towards music and began working in musical theater. Later, she went to Columbia University in New York City and graduated in 2007 with a major in history. While attending Columbia University, Weiss founded a group called “Columbia Academic Freedom” with several classmates. At Columbia, Weiss also wrote for the student newspaper, The Columbia Observer, where she began to voice her views on the right of students to express their opinions without fear of intimidation from faculty. While at Columbia, she also founded a journal, The Current, which covered contemporary politics, culture, and Jewish affairs. She was a Dorot Fellow in Jerusalem from 2007 to 2008. She was also a Wall Street Journal Bartlett Fellow in 2007.
appearance
Height (approximate): 5′ 4″
Hair color: dark brown
Eye color: light brown
Family and Race
Barry Weiss was born into a Jewish family in Pittsburgh. When discussing her Jewish upbringing, she said that while growing up in Squirrel Hill, she and her family only ate bacon and went to synagogue on Yom Kippur.
Parents and siblings
Her father, Lou, was a successful carpet salesman who also wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal and was considered conservative. Barry’s mother, Amy, was considered liberal and worked as a cosmetics buyer at Kaufman’s department store before joining her husband Lou in the family business.
Bari Weiss Parents
Bari Weiss with her parents Lou and Amy and her sisters Casey (far right) and Suzy (far left)
Barry Weiss is the eldest of four sisters, the other three sisters are Casey, Suzy and another one.
Bari Weiss (second from right) and her sisters
Relationship with husband
While attending Columbia University, she met and fell in love with Kate McKinnon (future Saturday Night Live star), with whom Barry dated on and off for several years.
Kate McKinnon
In 2013, she married Jason Kass, an environmental engineer and founder of Toilet for People. They were married for three years until they separated in 2016. Speaking of her husband, Bari Weiss said:
He’s a great guy and I’m very happy with him.”
Bari Weiss ex-husband Jason Kass
Sexual Orientation
Bari Weiss has never revealed her sexuality, despite dating Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon. She said:
I’ve loved men and women. I’ve been abandoned by men and women. I’m not going to sacrifice my gender for political gain in this way. I think it’s lame and it’s not who I am.”
Profession
After graduating from Columbia University, Bari Weiss worked for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and then the Jewish newspaper Forward. In 2007, at the age of 23, Bari Weiss joined the Wall Street Journal as a junior column editor. Later, she joined the Jewish online magazine Tablet, where she served as senior news and political editor from 2011 to 2013. In 2013, Weiss returned to the Wall Street Journal as book review editor. During the 2016 US presidential election and Trump’s campaign, she realized where her true passion lay, and she moved from the book review department to the intersection of politics and culture at the Wall Street Journal. It was during this time that she realized that she was one of the most left-wing people at the Wall Street Journal. According to Bari Weiss, when she tried to draft a news story about Steve Bannon, someone told her that “she was not qualified.” When she tried to write about Melania Trump’s hypocrisy on the issue of cyberbullying, she was banned. Speaking about the morning after Trump’s victory, she said,
I sat at my desk and cried openly. I wanted people to see how I felt about this and what I thought this meant for the country. I realized I had to leave.”
In April 2017, Barry Weiss left The Wall Street Journal and joined The New York Times, following the footsteps of Pulitzer Prize-winning deputy editor Bret Stephens. In April 2017, she joined The New York Times as an editor and Times opinion writer under James Bennett.
Resigned as editor of The New York Times
On July 14, 2020, Barry Weiss posted a resignation letter on his website, announcing his departure from The New York Times.
Barry Weiss’ resignation letter
In her resignation letter, Weiss criticized the newspaper for criticizing her via Twitter. She also accused the newspaper of not coming to her rescue when a colleague bullied her. In the letter, Weiss accused her former employer of “unlawful discrimination, a toxic work environment, and unjustified termination,” she wrote:
Stories are chosen and told to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than allowing a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.”
In her resignation letter, Barry Weiss also criticized the newspaper for using Twitter to defame her reputation, writing:
Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times, but Twitter has become its ultimate editor.”
Her resignation letter was praised by public figures as diverse as Donald Trump Jr. and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
Political Views
Although described as conservative by Haaretz, The Times of Israel, The Daily Dot, and Business Insider, Bari Weiss considers herself to be “left-leaning centrist.” Her support for Israel and Zionism is reflected in her various columns, as well as when writer Andrew Sullivan described her as a “deranged Zionist,” to which she responded:
Please happily plead[s] Guilty as charged.”
In early November 2018, Bari Weiss appeared as a guest on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” where she discussed anti-Semitism and Donald Trump’s policies. She appeared on the show following the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh.
dispute
- While at Columbia, Weiss and several classmates lobbied against some professors, especially Joseph Massad, who complained that their pro-Israel views were unwelcome in some courses. Later, a committee investigating the allegations found that
There is no evidence that the faculty member made any statements that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic.”
- While working at the New York Times, she was denounced by playwright Eve Ensler and feminist activist and filmmaker Susan Celia Swan for her article on the women’s rights movement in Chicago, in which she wrote:
Intersectionality is a “caste system where people are judged based on how much their particular caste has suffered historically.”
- While at the New York Times, digital story editor Jamal Jordan criticized her for ignoring Black colleagues and dismissing their concerns as a “woke civil war.”
- Barry was criticized for describing the internal dispute as an ongoing “civil war” following the resignation of James Bennett, the editorial page editor of The New York Times, on June 7, 2020. She was criticized by fellow journalists for that characterization.
- She has also been criticized for her criticism of the #MeToo movement.
Facts/Trivia
- Squirrel Hill, where Barry grew up, is considered the home of a Jewish intellectual community where opposing viewpoints can coexist harmoniously.
- During high school, Wes served as student body president.
- Barry grew up in a busy household with neighbors coming and going, often engaging in heated debates about the Clinton impeachment or whatever the current issue was at the time, but according to Weiss, she enjoyed those debates.
- According to Barry Weiss, she was raised in a literary environment at home. Her parents asked her to keep a diary, and they would pay Barry five dollars to read and write reports. Whenever Barry made a mistake, the punishment was to write a long apology letter to the person she offended.
- In an interview, Barry revealed that she was a theater fan in college but unexpectedly became an activist, writer and lightning rod.
- She is occasionally seen drinking.
Bari Weiss Enjoying Wine
- In 2019, Barry Weiss was listed by The Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.
- In September 2019, she published her first book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism.
Barry Weiss holds a stack of her book How to Fight Anti-Semitism
- Another of Barry’s books, Seven New Dirty Words, is expected to be published in 2020.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education