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Annie Weiss (Delaney Dobson Photography)<\/p>\nAnnie Weiss (Delaney Dobson Photography)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
She decided she wanted the latter for her own three kids.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Weiss\u2019 promotional events helped the games attract more than 1,000 athletes for 2026, according to Barrie Mittica, the JCC\u2019s senior director of engagement. That was an increase of more than 300 from last year\u2019s event. Two of Weiss\u2019 children were among the participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny way I can get them to connect with their Judaism, I\u2019m happy to do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The executive director\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a Jewish institution built largely around a single event. When Weiss applied for the role, Steve Rosenberg, the Hall\u2019s 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\u2019s son was a younger athlete at the school around the same time.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t her family connections that got Weiss the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe checked every box. She\u2019s smart. She\u2019s super nice. She understood everything we wanted to do. She had a great attitude. She loved sports. She got it,\u201d Rosenberg said.<\/p>\n
Weiss also knew people in the community and spent time at Kaiserman, where the Hall is based.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted somebody people could identify beyond me,\u201d Rosenberg said.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am determined to recognize other Jewish athletes besides a baseball player, a basketball player, a soccer player,\u201d said Weiss.<\/p>\n
But Weiss also recognizes the importance of inducting those athletes, too. She\u2019s aligned with Rosenberg on the Hall\u2019s identity as a local expression of Jewish strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all celebrating Jews and their accomplishments,\u201d she said of the attendees of the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Weiss now keeps an email folder with every nomination she has received for the Hall. Often, if a nominee doesn\u2019t get in the first year, they become a part of the next year\u2019s class.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re finding Jewish athletes who maybe don\u2019t get the recognition they deserve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s event is set for Sept. 24 at Rodeph Shalom. Weiss is in the process of promoting it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019ve got it kind of down to a routine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Serving her Jewish community is important to Weiss, but she\u2019s 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\u2019s titles. Weiss reads more than 100 books a year, mostly thrillers, and aims to become known as \u201cthe neighborhood book lady,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Residents have been stopping by the store to ask Weiss when it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n