Israel Weiss

Israel Weiss was born in 1949 in Dunajská Streda

Israel Weiss was born in 1949 in Dunajská Streda, in Czechoslovakia. He is married to Tzila and lives in Givat Shmuel. His daughter Tehila was killed in a road accident.

He studied at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem and sees Rabbi Avraham Shapira as his main teacher. He received rabbinic ordination at the Harry Fischel Institute.

Weiss joined the Military Rabbinate in 1976 and served as a rabbi at battalion, brigade and division level. In 2000 he replaced Rabbi Gad Navon as Chief Military Rabbi. In that role he worked with bereaved families, set up a center for military Jewish law and headed the army's conversion court.

In January 2004 he led the identification of the bodies returned in the Har Dov prisoner exchange. During the 2005 disengagement he faced criticism from both sides. Chief of Staff Dan Halutz removed him from his post.

In 2010 he published Bedam Libi, a book about the Military Rabbinate and his army service. He later became an adviser to the Defense Ministry on bereaved families and a conversion judge.