Annie Weiss, 39, spent nearly a decade of her youth in a Louisiana town with one other Jewish family. But at 13, she moved with her parents to Cherry Hill, a heavily Jewish area with Jewish families and institutions all around.
She decided she wanted the latter for her own three kids.
Today, the mother lives in Wynnewood with her husband, Kaiserman JCC board member Daniel Weiss, and children. They belong to Main Line Reform Temple-Beth Elohim and spend much of their free time at J.
Weiss, a stay-at-home mom returning to the workforce as her kids reach elementary school age, also works daily to build up that community. She’s been the executive director of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame since November 2022. She also recently spent months promoting the Mini and Junior JCC Maccabi Games, hosted by Kaiserman on May 3.
Weiss’ promotional events helped the games attract more than 1,000 athletes for 2026, according to Barrie Mittica, the JCC’s senior director of engagement. That was an increase of more than 300 from last year’s event. Two of Weiss’ children were among the participants.
“Any way I can get them to connect with their Judaism, I’m happy to do it,” she said.
The executive director’s work with the Hall of Fame was also motivated by her desire to help others connect to their Judaism. A dancer in her youth, Weiss had worked in events before her children were born, traveling the country to promote a youth dance competition.
Her athletic and professional backgrounds attracted her to the Hall of Fame position. The Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall announces a new class each spring and inducts the class at a ceremony every fall. In recent years, the event has taken place at Congregation Rodeph Shalom and attracted hundreds of attendees.
It’s a Jewish institution built largely around a single event. When Weiss applied for the role, Steve Rosenberg, the Hall’s board chair, decided to interview her. He knew her father-in-law, and he knew of her husband from his time as a soccer player at Harriton High School. Rosenberg’s son was a younger athlete at the school around the same time.
But it wasn’t her family connections that got Weiss the job.
“She checked every box. She’s smart. She’s super nice. She understood everything we wanted to do. She had a great attitude. She loved sports. She got it,” Rosenberg said.
Weiss also knew people in the community and spent time at Kaiserman, where the Hall is based.
“I wanted somebody people could identify beyond me,” Rosenberg said.
For the mother, the part-time job is flexible. It largely consists of planning the event. (The Nominating Committee selects potential inductees and submits them to a board vote.)
But while Weiss focuses primarily on the ceremony, she does have pull, and her agenda is mainly to recognize dancing as a sport. Two years ago, the hall posthumously inducted Barbara Weisberger, the founder of the Philadelphia Ballet. Weisberger was represented at the ceremony.
“I am determined to recognize other Jewish athletes besides a baseball player, a basketball player, a soccer player,” said Weiss.
But Weiss also recognizes the importance of inducting those athletes, too. She’s aligned with Rosenberg on the Hall’s identity as a local expression of Jewish strength.
“They’re all celebrating Jews and their accomplishments,” she said of the attendees of the ceremony.
Weiss now keeps an email folder with every nomination she has received for the Hall. Often, if a nominee doesn’t get in the first year, they become a part of the next year’s class.
“We’re finding Jewish athletes who maybe don’t get the recognition they deserve,” she said.
This year’s event is set for Sept. 24 at Rodeph Shalom. Weiss is in the process of promoting it.
“Now I’ve got it kind of down to a routine,” she said.
Serving her Jewish community is important to Weiss, but she’s also returning to the workforce in another way. On May 23, she opened Chapter Two Books in Wynnewood, a bookstore featuring fiction, nonfiction and children’s titles. Weiss reads more than 100 books a year, mostly thrillers, and aims to become known as “the neighborhood book lady,” she said.
Residents have been stopping by the store to ask Weiss when it’s opening. More than 150 people registered for its opening-day event. A bulletin board outside the store for book recommendations was quickly filled up with Post-it notes.
“I want to be as involved in the Main Line community as I can. I really love this community. This area is pretty much Cherry Hill in Pennsylvania,” she said.