A native of Westbury, New York, Rabbi Weber studied music (tuba performance) at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY and philosophy and electronic music composition at SUNY Albany, earning a BA with various distinctions in 1976. He earned both a Masters in Hebrew Literature (1981) and rabbinic ordination (1982) from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, having studied there and at its Jerusalem campus. Honoris Causa Doctor of Divinity degrees were bestowed by HUC-JIR in 2007 and The Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2010. He and Jessica have been married since 1975. In 1993 Doug migrated (what he calls his “sect change”) from the Reform movement and joined The Rabbinical Assembly. He served congregations in Staunton/Harrisonburg VA, Elyria OH, Auburn ME, Boulder, CO and Rutland, VT from 2005 becoming Rabbi Emeritus in 2017. He helped found (playing tuba and euphonium) Rutland Jewish Center’s Klezmer Band and is currently Tubist with the Denver Rock Orchestra and often plays euphonium at Festo Festo and at HEA whenever Eitan convenes the House Band for festive events.
Rabbi Weber was (to the best of his knowledge) the creator of the now wide-spread practice of concluding Yom Kippur with “Shofar-In-The-Round” as well as several jokes that have entered the canon. In 1993, Rabbi Weber initiated discussions with the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards about whether or not a bat kohen can participate in duchaning. Fun-Fact: Doug was a childhood friend of Howard Stern. Doug is also a fairly decent curler (as in Men With Brooms).
Rabbi Weber was Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Castleton University from 2007 through Spring semester, 2020, where he taught courses including Comparative Religion, The Western Faiths, Introduction to Philosophy, Religion and Violence and his favorite, an Honors course in Cosmology, co-taught with an Astronomy Professor. He taught similar courses at the College of Saint Joseph in Rutland from 2008 until it became financially insolvent and closed in 2019.
After Spring semester 2020, facing the specter of teaching only “virtually” in Zoom Hell, Doug and Jessica (a public school Music Teacher) decided it was time fully to retire and be nearer to some of their grown children and grandchildren. Said offspring include Dr. Zach Weber, (Chair of Philosophy Program at Otago University in New Zealand, married to Dr. Vickie MacKnight) and their sons Oskar, Edgar and Felix; Taliah (an architect married to Dr. Mitch Ohriner, Professor of Music Theory at Denver U.) and their sons Nadav and Zev; and Eli (an engineer married to Dr. Aleah Sommers, a research Glaciologist at Dartmouth) their daughter, “Sunny” and twin sons, Yofi and Pele. (So many “Doctors” but not one of them can do a thing to help if you’re sick!) He and Jessica relocated to Centennial, in December, 2020 and became HEA members when pandemic restrictions began to loosen.
