Jay Michaelson

Jay Michaelson is a columnist for the ForwardZeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture (which he co-founded in 2002), and Reality Sandwich magazines, and the executive director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture & Spirituality.  He recently returned (in February 2009) from five months of silent meditation retreat in Massachusetts and Nepal.  Jay is the author of God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (2007), Another Word for Sky: Poems (2008), and Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (2009). A recent visiting professor at Boston University Law School, Jay has taught at Yale University, City College, Elat Chayyim, the Wexner Summer Institute, and many other institutions. Jay holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hebrew University, where he currently is pursuing his Ph.D., as well as a J.D. from Yale and B.A. from Columbia.

41 Articles Published | Follow:
The Lame Duck in Israel

Jerusalem has never seemed so American. By chance, my first trip since living here two…

The Gods of Drowning

In the forms of meditation practiced by many Westerners, one central practice is simply "being…

Israel, Injustice, and Philip Glass’s Call to Arms

It's become a cliché to search for Jewish influences or themes in works by Jewish…

Jewish Intelligent Design Proponents Are Jewish Uncle Toms

[Ed note: Our point/counterpoint with David Klinghoffer and Sahotra Sarkar on Ben Stein's Expelled provoked…

Kabbalah is Over, But It Wasn’t Daphne Merkin Who Killed It

Kabbalah is over. It was over before Daphne Merkin's two-year-researched, impeccably well written report on…

Mixing Heresy and High Fashion, Levi Okunov Dresses Women Up as Torahs

Last night's hottie-filled fashion show debuting Hasidic Levi Okunov's spring collection was, despite the shvitzing…

Sexual Hypocrisy Is Not A Jewish Value

When Rav would visit the city of Dardishir, he would announce, "Who will be mine…

Is “Cassandra’s Dream” About Soon-Yi?

For fans of Woody Allen, the elephant has been in the room for fifteen years…