Rabbi Avraham (Avi) Weiss is the founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale – the Bayit, founder and co-founder, respectively, of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat rabbinical schools, and the International Rabbinic Fellowship. He has semichah (Orthodox rabbinical ordination) from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological Seminary (1968), and is the author of Haggadah for the Yom HaShoah Seder (Jonas, 2000); Women at Prayer: A Halakhic Analysis of Women's Prayer Groups (KTAV 1990); Spiritual Activism: A Jewish Guide to Leadership and Repairing the World (Jewish Lights, 2008); Holistic Prayer: A Guide to Jewish Spirituality (Maggid, 2014); Open Up the Iron Door: Memoirs of a Soviet Jewry Activist (Toby Press, 2015); and Journey to Open Orthodoxy (KTAV/URIM, 2019). In 2017, YCT presented him with a Festschrift (ed. Daniel R. Goodman): Black Fire on White Fire: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Avi Weiss. His thematic commentary on the Torah, Torat Ahavah – Loving Torah, is scheduled to be published (Summer 2023).