A former U.S. News & World Report education reporter, who covered culture and religion as a freelancer for Houston Chronicle for nearly five years, Wecker has interviewed Mel Brooks about herring and has covered everything from origins of museum taxidermies to Zoroastrian dating. His 2017 Playboy feature told of “Infiltrating the CIA’s Secret Art Collection,” and a 2019 Washington Post Magazine feature investigated the degree to which preeminent museums flag effectively which objects aren’t real.

Since early 2023, Wecker is the U.S. news editor at the wire Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).

Wecker holds several awards:

• Honorable mention (third place) in the Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism in the web-based outlets: digital only category for “Excellence in writing about women” (2024)

• First place for excellence in commentary (for art reviews published in National Catholic Reporter) from Religion News Association (2023)

• Honorable mention (third place) in the Rockower Awards in the monthly newspapers and magazines category for “Excellence in arts news and features—reporting (movie, theater, television, books, music, etc.)” (2021)

• Second place for excellence in magazine news religion reporting from Religion News Association (2020)

• “Best humorous contribution” from Chess Journalists of America (2019-20)

• Two Vivian Awards (2018, 2019), recognizing members of the National Press Club who “demonstrate extraordinary commitment to the club”

• Seven first-, second-, and third- places and honorable mentions from the Catholic Media Association in the categories of “culture, arts and leisure column” (2015, 2017-20) and “social justice issues: dignity and rights of workers” (2017-18);

• Second-prize (2017) in enterprise religion reporting—as part of an Atlantic team—from the Religion News Association

Wecker is co-author with Brandon Withrow of the 2014 book Consider No Evil: Two Faith Traditions and the Problem of Academic Freedom in Religious Higher Education. He has published chapters in Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on the Museum Experience (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), Religion: Material Religion (1st ed., Macmillan, 2016), and Religion in Museums: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2017).

He holds a master’s in art history from George Washington University and an English degree from Yeshiva University. For more than a decade, he was a member of the National Press Club (including serving as a board of governors member, freelance committee co-chair, and membership committee chair), and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Religion News Association (RNA), and Education Writers Association (EWA).

Wecker, his wife Nachama, and their sons live in the Washington, D.C. area.