Cora Weiss

Cora Weiss (; October 2, 1934 – December 8, 2025) was an American human rights activist. Through her membership and subsequent leadership of Women Strike for Peace, she organised demonstrations against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons throughout the 1960s. Weiss also publicly supported gender equality, world peace and civil rights.

Early life and education Weiss was born on October 2, 1934, in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of anthropologist Vera D. Rubin and cosmetic businessman and philanthropist Samuel Rubin. The family moved to Croton-on-Hudson, Westchester County, where she was raised in a Liberal Jewish household. Her family were politically active; her mother had volunteered for the presidential campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, often visited their home, while Weiss's father went on to found the Samuel Rubin Foundation, which supported progressive movements and international cooperation. As a child, Weiss supported her mother in making bandages for the Red Cross and providing food and drink to soldiers preparing for deployment during World War II. There, she established the Madison chapter of the "Joe Must Go" campaign aiming to recall Joseph McCarthy, a senator infamous for his outspoken anti-communism. She graduated in 1956 with a degree in cultural anthropology.

Weiss travelled to Hanoi, North Vietnam, to meet with the North Vietnamese Women's Union, in order to bring back to the United States letters from prisoners of war.

On June 12, 1982, Weiss helped organise an anti-nuclear demonstration in Central Park, New York City, which drew a crowd of around one million demonstrators.

Personal life and death While at university, she met Peter Weiss, a lawyer, whom she married in 1956. She and her husband had three children; Judy, Tamara and Danny.

Weiss died in Manhattan on December 8, 2025, at the age of 91. She had been predeceased by her husband in November 2025.

Darren Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation, described Weiss as "courageous and brave and patriotic".