BIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Source link: Sari Sansar At The UN
CORA WEISS
777 United Nations Plaza Tel: 212-697-8945
New York, New York 10027 Fax: 212-682-0886
cweiss@igc.org
CORA WEISS, President, Hague Appeal for Peace, 777 United Nations Plaza
Cora Weiss, President of the Hague Appeal for Peace, has been well known as a peace activist since the early ‘60’s, when she was a co-founder of Women Strike for Peace which played a major role in bringing about the end of nuclear testing in the atmosphere. She was a leader in the anti-Vietnam war movement, organized demonstrations, including the largest one on November 15, 1969 in Washington, DC. As Co-Chair and Director of the Committee of Liaison with Families of Prisoners Detained in Vietnam, she organized the exchange of mail between families and POW’s in Vietnam which revealed and names of those alive and arranged for and accompanied some returning POW pilots. For ten years Ms Weiss was a volunteer teacher in the NY City public school system.
As a Trustee of Hampshire College, she started the campus campaign to divest stocks in companies doing business in South Africa. She has a long record of support for the United Nations, starting in the 1950’s when she hosted colonized Africans who were petitioning for the independence of their countries. She has devoted most of her life to the peace movement, the movement for the advancement of women, and the civil rights movement.
Among Ms. Weiss’ many awards are the Peace Studies Medal of Manhattan College and the George F. Kennan Award of the New Jersey Peace Action. In May of 1998 she and William Sloane Coffin were honored at The Riverside Church of New York on the 20th anniversary of their founding of the Riverside Disarmament Program which she directed for 10 years. In 1999 she was honored by the Phelps Stokes Fund for her work in the ‘50s and ‘60’s on Africa.
She is President of the International Peace Bureau, (Nobel Laureate 1910). Ms. Weiss participated in the Nobel Centennial Symposium held in Oslo, Norway in December 2001. She is also Joint-Principal of the Peace Boat’s Global University, an Advisory Board Member of Peace Child International’s Millennium Action Fund, and Honorary Patron of the Committee on Teaching About the United Nations. As President of the Hague Appeal for Peace, she is leading a campaign dedicated to the abolition of war. It seeks to re-focus our minds on the vision of a world in which violent conflict is publicly acknowledged as illegitimate, illegal, and fundamentally unjust. To implement that vision, the Hague Appeal for Peace has launched a Global Peace Education Campaign.
RECIPIENT:
Nominee, Nobel Peace Prize, 2000, 2001
Peace Caucus U.N. Award, New York City. September 1999.
Aggrey Award of the Phelps Stokes Fund for work with African students and liberation movements during anti-colonial years, New York City. June 1998.
Leadership Award, West Side Peace Action, New York City. January 1998.
Kairos Peace Award. Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, New York. November 1997
Peace Studies Medal, Manhattan College, New York. April 1997
George F. Kennan Award, New Jersey Peace Action. April 1996.
Joseph C. Wilson Award. Rochester Association for the United Nations.
October 24, 1995. 50th Anniversary of the United Nations.
Lifetime Achievement Award, Peace Action National Congress. 1992
Olive Branch Award. Juror 1991
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON 1952-1956, BA
HUNTER COLLEGE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 1956-1958
PERSONALIA: Married to Peter Weiss, Attorney; 3 children,
5 grandchildren 
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER – PAST
Alternative Security Council, Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies.
Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, New York City Board of Education.
Pacem in Terris Institute, Manhattan College, New York City.
National Abortion Rights Action League, National Advisory Committee.
Committee on Common Security.
United Nations Amendment Conference on the Nuclear Test Ban. Testified, 1991.
ACTIVITIES:
HAGUE APPEAL FOR PEACE, President, 1996-present.
INTERNATIONAL PEACE BUREAU, Geneva. President, 2000 -, Representative to U.N. with ECOSOC status.
NOBEL CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM, Oslo, Norway. December 2001. Speaker.
PEACE BOAT’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY, Tokyo. Joint-Principal, 1999-present.
PEACE ACTION, (Formerly SANE/Freeze). Chaired Commission to merge SANE and Freeze; Co-founder, SANE/Freeze; Board Member, 1986-2000; International Representative, 1988-2000; Member, Executive Committee, 1986-1994.
UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INFORMATION, NON- GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE UN, New York. Member, Executive Committee, 1997-2000; Planning Committee Annual DPI/NGO Conference, 2000.
PEACE CHILD INTERNATIONAL’S MILLENNIUM ACTION FUND,U.K. Advisory Board Member, 2000-present.
COMMITTEE ON TEACHING ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS, New York. Honorary Patron, 2000.
WOMEN’S PEACE PETITION TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS, New York. Co-initiator, 1997
NGO WORKING GROUP ON WOMEN, PEACE & SECURITY, New York. 1999 – present. Monitors Security Council Res. 1325.
CITIZEN’S MISSION ON NATO EXPANSION, London, Brussels, Moscow. Co-leader. June, 1997.
MISSION TO OSCE, Vienna and Moscow, September ’97. Re: NATO alternatives.
EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON POLITICAL DECISION-MAKING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION, U.N. DAW/PRIO, Santo Domingo. October 1996. Participant.
FIRST PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS, West Bank and Gaza Strip, January 1996. Election Observer.
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, New York. Member, 1989-present.
WOMEN’S FOREIGN POLICY GROUP. Member, 1996-present.
UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION-USA. Member, 1996-present.
WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY. Member, 1989-present.
NGO COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN. Member, 1989-present
NGO WOMEN’S FORUM ’95, FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN, Beijing, China, 1995. Delegate, International Peace Bureau, Delegate, Peace Action.
INTERLEGAL, U.S.A. Board Member and Chair, Executive Committee. 1990-1997.
US-NIS WOMEN’S CONSORTIUM. Board Member, 1993-2000.
DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY TELEVISION, New York City. Board Member, 1987-present.
GAIA WOMEN’S CENTER, Moscow. U.S. Advisory Board. WOMEN AND THE MARKET ECONOMY CONFERENCE, Moscow. Speaker. September, 1992.
"WOMEN’S PEACE PLATFORM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY", Spring 1995. Author.
SOVIET-AMERICAN WOMEN’S SUMMIT. Co-chair, 1989-1990.
WOMEN FOR MEANINGFUL SUMMITS. Member, Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 1985-1991; Summit Meeting of President Reagan and Secretary Gorbachev, Geneva, November, 1985. Delegate. Moscow Women’s Conference, June, 1987. Delegate.
"CHRISTIANITY & CRISIS". Board Member, 1991-1992.
PEACE CHILD FOUNDATION. Board Member, 1989.
HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, Amherst, Mass. Trustee, 1978-1991; Trustee Emerita, 1991-present.
THE RIVERSIDE CHURCH DISARMAMENT PROGRAM, New York. Founder and Director, 1978-1988.
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE. Director, shipment of 10,000 tons of wheat to Vietnam, 1978.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE CEREMONY, Oslo. Invited guest, 1987, 1995, 2001.
FIVE CONTINENT PEACE INITIATIVE, Stockholm. Eminent person, 1988.
DECADE FOR WOMEN. Delegate of World Council of Churches to Nairobi Conference, 1985. Third World Conference on Women.
A LEADER OF THE ONE MILLION PEOPLE ANTI-NUCLEAR DEMONSTRATION, Central Park, New York City. June 12, 1982.
WOMEN STRIKE FOR PEACE. National Board, 1961-1973.
NATIONAL MOBILIZATION TO END THE WAR IN VIETNAM. National co-chair for November 15, 1969, Washington D.C. Rally.
"CORA WEISS COMMENTS: A MICROPHONE FOR WOMEN." WRVR-FM, New York, radio commentator, 1974-1978.
COMMITTEE OF LIAISON WITH FAMILIES OF PRISONERS DETAINED IN VIETNAM. Co-chair and Director, 1969-1973
FRIENDSHIPMENT, coalition providing post-war relief and rehabilitation to Vietnam war victims. Executive Director, 1975-1978.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS FOUNDATION. Executive Director and Board Member, 1959-1963. Airlift for students from East Africa to the U.S.
GANDHI SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. Treasurer, 1960-1967.
SCHOOL VOLUNTEER, New York City. 1958-1968.
Cora Weiss, who was active for more than half a century in support of gender equality, international peace, the anti-Vietnam War movement, civil rights and nuclear disarmament, and who helped organize some of the most important mass demonstrations of the 1960s, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 91.
Her death, at a hospital, was confirmed by her son, Daniel Weiss.
In 1961, Ms. Weiss was raising her children in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx when she was told about Women Strike for Peace, a new group organizing demonstrations against nuclear weapons testing.
Would Ms. Weiss be interested in joining the Riverdale chapter?
She was. With other women across the country, she soon found herself reading up on the deadly ingredients of an atomic bomb and sending off her children’s baby teeth to be tested for radioactive isotopes resulting from nuclear fission.
Many of the teeth were found to have elevated levels of strontium-90, a carcinogenic element associated with nuclear testing that had also been detected in food. That finding boosted the group’s visibility, attracting attention to its campaign to ban nuclear tests. By October 1963, President John F. Kennedy had signed an agreement with Britain and the Soviet Union to prohibit atomic testing in the atmosphere, space and under water.
“I believe in civil society, and my experience of Women Strike for Peace led to that strong belief, because we managed to get things done,” Ms. Weiss said in an interview for this obituary in 2021. “I don’t know if we ever woke up in the morning and said we didn’t know how to go further. I think we just kept plowing.”
As a result of her involvement in Women Strike for Peace, Ms. Weiss was propelled into the convulsive world of social justice activism and eventually onto a global stage. By the late 1960s, the group had shifted its focus to opposing the Vietnam War.
At one protest in front of the Pentagon, women held up posters reading, “Not Our Sons, Not Your Sons,” while Ms. Weiss and others banged on the doors of the Defense Department headquarters with their high heels. At another demonstration, in New York, she joined a long line of women lying on Park Avenue with signs on their chests bearing the names of Vietnamese dead.
Within a few years, Ms. Weiss had become co-chairwoman of the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and had helped organize one of the largest antiwar protests in the United States.
On Nov. 15, 1969, hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered in Washington, demanding that the United States withdraw its troops from Vietnam. Coretta Scott King spoke. Mary Travers, of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, sang. And Senator George S. McGovern, Democrat of South Dakota and a future presidential nominee, walked with Senator Charles E. Goodell, Republican of New York.
By Natalie Schachar
Dec. 8, 2025
(continued from left column)
The rally concluded with some protesters burning flags and police officers firing tear gas. Still, the day was hailed as significant in helping to turn public opinion against the war.
Soon after, Ms. Weiss flew to Hanoi to meet with the North Vietnamese Women’s Union, proposing to carry back mail from prisoners of war. The trip led to the creation of the Committee of Liaison With Families of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam. Ms. Weiss served as co-chairwoman of the organization, which eventually ferried thousands of letters and packages back and forth.
She also helped organize a major antinuclear demonstration in Central Park in Manhattan on June 12, 1982, drawing a crowd of about a million.
“She was courageous and brave and patriotic,” Darren Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation, said in an interview, “and demonstrated that one can have love of country and still challenge America to be better.”
For her part, Ms. Weiss told the Columbia Center for Oral History in 2014, “I wasn’t making a revolution, I was just working hard and long.”
Cora Rubin was born on Oct. 2, 1934, in Manhattan, the daughter of Vera D. Rubin, an anthropologist specializing in Caribbean studies whose work on marijuana use in Jamaica landed her on an early cover of High Times, the magazine about cannabis culture. Her father, Samuel Rubin, owned a cosmetics company.
When Cora was young, the family moved to Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., in Westchester County. Raised in a liberal Jewish household, she was exposed to animated political discussions with guests like Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady, who would drop by to chat and help with fund-raising. (Ms. Roosevelt would often spend time at her Hudson Valley retreat in Hyde Park, N.Y.)
“We talked community politics, what was happening in Croton, in the community,” Ms. Weiss recalled. “Antisemitism was rife, racism was rife, the war was rife.”
She became an activist early on, helping her mother roll bandages for the Red Cross, taking coffee and doughnuts to young men preparing to go to the front lines of World War II, and knitting clothes for relief efforts. Those experiences inspired her interest in bringing an end to war, she said.
After graduating from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, she met a newspaper editor leading an effort to recall Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the crusading anti-Communist who was attacking the loyalty of political opponents. She helped set up the Madison headquarters for a campaign called “Joe Must Go” and began going door to door to gather signatures for a petition.
It was an early lesson in the frustrations of grass-roots political organizing. Despite getting enough signatures, the recall effort floundered when many were deemed illegible.
She met Peter Weiss, a lawyer, during her work as chairwoman of the university’s international speakers club, recruiting social justice activists to talk on campus. As head of the International Development Placement Association, a precursor to the Peace Corps, Mr. Weiss had been invited to speak. They married in 1956, the same year she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology.
Mr. Weiss died in November at 99. In addition to their son, Ms. Weiss is survived by two daughters, Judy and Tamara Weiss; five grandchildren; and a brother, Reed Rubin.
A lifelong supporter of the United Nations, Ms. Weiss was particularly proud of her work in helping to draft United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which affirmed the importance of the role of women in the peace process and in protecting their security. It was unanimously adopted in 2000.
Later in life, as president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, a coalition of antiwar groups, she became involved in global peace education.
“I’ve decided that it’s the only sustainable thing,” Ms. Weiss said. “You can march, you can protest, you can make phone calls, you can write letters. But education is the closest thing, I think, to a sustainable form of social change.”
Ash Wu contributed reporting.
Cora Weiss was a woman who changed my life at the impressionable age of 19. I was a sophomore at conservative Dartmouth College, interested in the world beyond the United States but ignorant of how to become a part of that world.
I was studying Chinese at that moment when Nixon and Mao had opened a door to closer U.S.-Chinese relations and my Chinese teacher suggested I take advantage of Dartmouth’s “semester-off” grants to do an internship in Washington. I later learned that he wrote to Cora and asked where a young, “confused” Dartmouth student might go to get a glimpse of how to work for a better world.
Cora reached out to the Indochina Resource Center, a small but vital organization in Washington, D.C. that was fighting to end the Vietnam War, and they agreed to host me in the spring of 1975. There, I met some of the most committed and effective activists from Vietnam, Laos, and the United States who were teaching the Washington establishment and the country about the atrocities that the United States was committing in the countries of Indochina.
During my work at the Center, I “met” Cora as her voice boomed over the speaker phone and she reported on a recent trip to Vietnam. Cora was a pillar of so much of the anti-war organizing in this period: trips to return POWs, humanizing the Vietnamese people for Americans, conveying the impact of the war on women and children.
My timing was impeccable as the war ended during my internship. My going away present was a May 1975 poster advertising a massive peace celebration Cora co-organized (with Don Luce) in New York City’s Central Park. Forty years later, when I had become her friend, I asked if she needed a copy of the poster and it turned out she’d been looking for one for years. I was able to make an impeccable copy for her, while the original still hangs in my family home.
In 1983, the Institute for Policy Studies hired me to lead its global economy work — and I was delighted to find that Cora and her brilliant international lawyer husband, Peter, were close allies of IPS. They showed great interest in the work I had done after graduate school at the United Nations in Geneva, and they were there to offer support and ideas for the next four decades.
Cora was a champion of the United Nations and its mission to advance peace and women’s rights. She insisted that we at IPS name our programs in positive terms to inspire people with “what we’re for”: peace, disarmament, internationalism, women’s rights, the common good.
Portside December 20, 2025: John Cavanaugh, Cora Weiss: A Champion of Peace, Internationalism, and Women’s Rights… (continued from left column)
My timing was impeccable as the war ended during my internship. My going away present was a May 1975 poster advertising a massive peace celebration Cora co-organized (with Don Luce) in New York City’s Central Park. Forty years later, when I had become her friend, I asked if she needed a copy of the poster and it turned out she’d been looking for one for years. I was able to make an impeccable copy for her, while the original still hangs in my family home.
In 1983, the Institute for Policy Studies hired me to lead its global economy work — and I was delighted to find that Cora and her brilliant international lawyer husband, Peter, were close allies of IPS. They showed great interest in the work I had done after graduate school at the United Nations in Geneva, and they were there to offer support and ideas for the next four decades.
Cora was a champion of the United Nations and its mission to advance peace and women’s rights. She insisted that we at IPS name our programs in positive terms to inspire people with “what we’re for”: peace, disarmament, internationalism, women’s rights, the common good.
She always wanted to hear about and meet the women we were bringing into IPS, and loved to talk to me about their work: Isabel Letelier, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sarah Anderson, Phyllis Bennis, Karen Dolan, Emira Woods, Lindsay Koshgarian, Kathleen Gaspard, Christine Ahn, and others.
