Jay Michaelson Explained

Jay Michaelson (born May 5, 1971[1]) is an American writer, journalist, professor, and rabbi. He is a commentator on CNN,[2] and a columnist for Rolling Stone,[3] and other publications, having been the legal affairs columnist at The Daily Beast[4] for eight years. He is the author of ten books, and won the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship[5] and the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists Award for Opinion Writing.[6]

Legal and political writing

Since 2013, Michaelson's journalistic work has focused largely on the Supreme Court,[7] religion,[8] and LGBT issues.[9] Michaelson has won the New York Society for Professional Journalists award for opinion writing three times,[10] most recently in 2023, for his article "There are a lot of Jews in Hollywood. Let a Rabbi Explain Why.[11] In addition to covering the Supreme Court,[12] [13] he has written on climate change,[14] antisemitism,[15] voter suppression,[16] [17] judicial nominations,[18] [19] and other subjects, and has been featured on CNN,[20] MSNBC,[21] and Meet the Press.[22]

In 2013, Michaelson wrote the first long-form report on the right-wing religious exemptions movement, Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights.[23] Michaelson's work on this issue gained prominence a year later after the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case[24] and he has written many articles on religious liberty in Reuters,[25] The Washington Post[26] and other publications.

From 2004 to 2017, Michaelson was a columnist and contributing editor to The Forward[27] newspaper. In 2009, his essay entitled "How I'm Losing My Love for Israel" generated substantial controversy in the Jewish world, including responses[28] from Daniel Gordis,[29] and Jonathan Sarna,[30] and prefigured the estrangement of progressive American Jews from the government of Israel. Michaelson was listed in the Forward 50 list of the most influential American Jews in 2009.

Meditation teaching

Michaelson is an ordained rabbi, and teaches meditation in Buddhist, Jewish, and secular contexts.[31] His books on meditation and spirituality include Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment[32] and Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism.[33] From 2018-22, he was a teacher, editor[34] and podcast host at Ten Percent Happier,[35] a meditation app and podcast network. He is also a teacher of jhāna meditation in the Theravādan Buddhist lineage of Ayya Khema and Michaelson's teacher Leigh Brasington[36] and co-leads Jewish meditation retreats at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.[37]

LGBTQ Activism

Michaelson is a rabbi and openly gay. He was a professional religious LGBTQ activist from 2004 to 2013.[38] [39] He was the founder and executive director of Nehirim, an LGBTQ Jewish organization, from 2004 to 2013. His 2009 book God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality was an Amazon bestseller and Lambda Literary Award finalist,[40] and Michaelson spoke at over 100 places of worship during the 2009–15 debates about same-sex marriage. Michaelson was called one of the "Most Inspiring LGBT Religious Leaders" in 2011 by The Huffington Post[41] and one of "Our Religious Allies" by the LGBT newspaper The Advocate.[42]

In 2014, Michaelson co-directed a project at The Daily Beast entitled Quorum: Global LGBT Voices, which features TED-style talks by LGBT leaders from the Global South.[43] Other LGBTQ-focused work includes the chapter on Exodus in the Queer Bible Commentary[44] (2022)

Personal life

Michaelson married Paul Dakin in 2011.[45] They had a child when Michaelson was 46.[46]

Academic work

Michaelson holds a PhD in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he wrote his dissertation on the antinomian heretic Jacob Frank. His 2022 book on Frank, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth, was published by Oxford University Press and won the National Jewish Book Award for scholarship.[47] He is an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and a visiting fellow at the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion.[48] He previously held teaching positions at Boston University Law School and Yale University. Michaelson graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1993, and from Yale Law School in 1997.

Michaelson's academic work in religious studies includes "Queering Martin Buber: Harry Hay's Erotic Dialogical" (Shofar, 2018),[49] "Conceptualizing Jewish Antinomianism in the 'Words of the Lord' by Jacob Frank" (Modern Judaism, 2017);[50] "The Repersonalization of God: Monism and Theological Polymorphism in Zoharic and Hasidic Imagination" (Imagining the Jewish God, 2016),[51] "Queer Theology and Social Transformation Twenty Years after Jesus ACTED UP" (Theology and Sexuality, 2015),[52] and "Kabbalah and Queer Theology: Resources and Reservations" (Theology and Sexuality, 2012).[53]

Michaelson was a visiting assistant professor at Boston University Law School in 2007-08 and is the author of several legal-academic articles including "Rethinking Regulatory Reform: Toxics, Politics and Ethics" (Yale Law Journal, 1996),[54] and "On Listening to the Kulturkampf, Or, How America Overruled Bowers v. Hardwick, Even Though Romer v. Evans Didn’t" (Duke Law Journal, 2000).[55] and "Hating the Law for Christian Reasons: The Religious Roots of American Antinomianism"[56] (Jews and the Law, 2014).[57] His 1998 Stanford Environmental Law Journal article[58] [59] on geoengineering and climate change, described as "seminal" by Salon[60] was the first legal analysis of geoengineering in legal academic literature.[61]

Books

Notes and References

  1. Web site: "Jay Michaelson" born – Google Search. www.google.com. March 22, 2020. July 24, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220724131221/https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Jay+Michaelson%22+born. live.
  2. Web site: Trans Activist Banned from White House: CNN commentator Rabbi Jay Michaelson responds . .
  3. Jay Michaelson . 2022-07-12 . Rolling Stone . en-US . July 12, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712182215/https://www.rollingstone.com/author/jay-michaelson/ . live .
  4. Web site: Jay Michaelson – The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast. November 10, 2014. November 10, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141110042005/http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/jay-michaelson.html. live.
  5. Web site: 72nd National Jewish Book Award Winners | Jewish Book Council . January 18, 2023 .
  6. Web site: 2023 Awards Finalists – Deadline Club .
  7. Web site: Michaelson . Jay . 2022-06-23 . The Supreme Court Has Endangered the Future of Gun Control . 2022-07-12 . Intelligencer . en-us . July 12, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712183118/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/supreme-court-gun-case-endangers-the-future-of-gun-control.html . live .
  8. Web site: Michaelson . Jay . 2021-12-08 . The Supreme Court Is Ready to Make Taxpayers Fund Religious Schools . 2022-07-12 . Intelligencer . en-us . July 12, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712183110/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/supreme-court-ready-to-make-taxpayers-fund-religious-schools.html . live .
  9. Web site: Michaelson . Jay . 2022-07-07 . Why Same-Sex Marriage May Not Be Doomed at the Supreme Court . 2022-07-12 . Intelligencer . en-us . July 12, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712183117/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/07/same-sex-marriage-may-not-be-doomed-at-the-supreme-court.html . live .
  10. Web site: Congratulations to the 2014 Deadline Club Award Winners. November 10, 2014. October 30, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141030065024/http://www.deadlineclub.org/archives/3418. live.
  11. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/jews-in-hollywood-kanye-west-dave-chappelle-rabbi-explains-1234645366/
  12. News: Supreme Court Could Bury Separation of Church and State Under a Maryland Cross. Michaelson. Jay. February 27, 2019. March 7, 2019. en. February 28, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190228193107/http://www.thedailybeast.com/supreme-court-could-bury-separation-of-church-and-state-under-a-maryland-cross. live.
  13. News: Kavanaugh Doesn't Belong on the Supreme Court, But It Will Survive Him. Michaelson. Jay. October 5, 2018. March 7, 2019. en. April 1, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190401045500/https://www.thedailybeast.com/kavanaugh-doesnt-belong-on-the-supreme-court-but-it-will-survive-him. live.
  14. News: Michaelson. Jay. 2019-09-16. Why Your Carbon Footprint Is Meaningless. en. The Daily Beast. 2021-10-28. October 28, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028154042/https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-your-carbon-footprint-is-meaningless. live.
  15. News: Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Is a Moment of Reckoning for American Jews. Michaelson. Jay. October 28, 2018. March 7, 2019. en. March 23, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190323111231/https://www.thedailybeast.com/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-is-a-moment-of-reckoning-for-american-jews. live.
  16. News: Republicans Have a Secret Weapon in the Midterms: Massive Voter Suppression. Michaelson. Jay. October 12, 2018. March 7, 2019. en. March 7, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190307005021/https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-have-a-secret-weapon-in-the-midterms-voter-suppression. live.
  17. News: The Supreme Court Just Let Ohio Commit a Massive Purge of Its Voters. Michaelson. Jay. June 11, 2018. March 7, 2019. en. August 8, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200808232042/https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-supreme-court-just-let-ohio-commit-a-massive-purge-of-its-voters. live.
  18. News: He Kept Black People From Voting. GOP Wants Him as a Judge.. Michaelson. Jay. November 19, 2018. March 7, 2019. en. December 7, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181207100932/https://www.thedailybeast.com/thomas-farr-devised-ways-to-keep-blacks-from-voting-mitch-mcconnell-wants-to-make-him-a-judge. live.
  19. News: The Right Thinks Toxic Masculinity Is Just 'Being a Man'. Michaelson. Jay. October 4, 2018. March 7, 2019. en. November 9, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201109043719/https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-right-thinks-kavanaughs-toxic-masculinity-is-just-being-a-man. live.
  20. Web site: Does Donald Trump Bear Responsibility for Pittsburgh? jaymichaelson.net. October 30, 2018. en-US. March 7, 2019. March 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190308081638/https://www.jaymichaelson.net/does-donald-trump-bear-responsibility-for-pittsburgh/. live.
  21. Web site: Gays under attack over Ebola. MSNBC. February 21, 2020. November 12, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201112033333/https://www.msnbc.com/ronan-farrow-daily/watch/gays-under-attack-over-ebola-351937091634. live.
  22. Web site: Prayer Breakfast Dispute: Christianity and the Crusades. NBC News. April 16, 2020. March 4, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304202500/http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/meet-the-press/prayer-breakfast-dispute-christianity-and-the-crusades-395920963698. live.
  23. Web site: Redefining Religious Liberty The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights. November 10, 2014. November 10, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141110044021/http://www.politicalresearch.org/resources/reports/full-reports/redefining-religious-liberty/. live.
  24. Web site: Why corporations don't deserve religious freedom. https://web.archive.org/web/20140327220153/http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/03/24/why-corporations-dont-deserve-religious-freedom/. dead. March 27, 2014. Reuters. March 24, 2014.
  25. Web site: Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision puts faith in compromise. https://web.archive.org/web/20140707105521/http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/06/30/supreme-courts-hobby-lobby-decision-puts-faith-in-compromise/. dead. July 7, 2014. Reuters. June 30, 2014.
  26. News: A 'religious freedom' proposal that I can agree with (COMMENTARY). Jay Michaelson – Religion News Service. April 6, 2015. Washington Post. October 2, 2015. October 4, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151004120135/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/a-religious-freedom-proposal-that-i-can-agree-with-commentary/2015/04/06/695b7132-dc9d-11e4-b6d7-b9bc8acf16f7_story.html. live.
  27. Web site: Jay Michaelson. March 13, 2016. The Forward. October 28, 2009. October 16, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091016165606/http://www.forward.com/authors/jay-michaelson/. live.
  28. Web site: Where Is the Love for Israel?. October 21, 2009. The Forward. October 28, 2009. October 26, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091026154341/http://www.forward.com/articles/117305/. live.
  29. Web site: No Right to Exhaustion. Daniel Gordis. October 12, 2009. The Forward. October 28, 2009. October 17, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091017064339/http://www.forward.com/articles/116597/. live.
  30. Web site: After Utopia, Loving Israel. Jonathan D. Sarna. September 30, 2009. The Forward. October 28, 2009. October 5, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091005020012/http://www.forward.com/articles/115588/. live.
  31. In Silicon Valley, Meditation Is No Fad. It Could Make Your Career. Noah Shachtman. June 18, 2013. WIRED. March 8, 2017. January 20, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170120034305/https://www.wired.com/2013/06/meditation-mindfulness-silicon-valley/. live.
  32. Web site: Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment by Jay Michaelson . 2022-07-12 . www.publishersweekly.com.
  33. Web site: Everything is God .
  34. Web site: Meditation and Pride . 2022-07-12 . Ten Percent Happier . en-US . July 12, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712183821/https://www.tenpercent.com/meditationweeklyblog/meditationandpride . live .
  35. Web site: 10% Happier. March 7, 2019. March 27, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190327074819/https://www.10percenthappier.com/blog. live.
  36. Book: Michaelson, Jay . Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment . North Atlantic Books . 2013 . 9781583947159 . 244.
  37. Web site: 2019-10-11 . Why a Jewish Meditation Retreat? . 2022-07-12 . Hazon . en-US . April 11, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210411001450/https://hazon.org/why-a-jewish-meditation-retreat/ . live .
  38. News: Rock. Ben. 'God vs. Gay?' author comes to Nashville. August 21, 2012. Out & About Newspaper. May 1, 2012. July 24, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220724131257/https://www.thecamsites.com/30-dirty-sex-talk-examples-guaranteed-to-make-him-crazy/#.UDQCskLlf0c. live.
  39. Web site: Jay Michaelson . 2022-07-12 . LGBTQ Religious Archives Network . July 24, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220724131229/https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/jay-michaelson . live .
  40. Web site: 24th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists And Winners. Reese. Jenn. April 16, 2012. Lambda Literary. March 7, 2019. February 16, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190216145507/http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/24th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists/. live.
  41. News: Inspiring LGBT Religious Leaders. October 20, 2011. The Huffington Post. Raushenbush. Rev Paul Brandeis. February 21, 2020. July 5, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170705214903/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/lgbt-religious-leaders-most-inspiring_n_1022043.html. live.
  42. Web site: An Easter Treat Christians on Your Side - Advocate.com. April 6, 2012. October 2, 2015. October 4, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151004124840/http://www.advocate.com/news/news-features/2012/04/06/easter-treat-christians-your-side. live.
  43. Web site: Quorum: Global LGBT Voices – Alice Nkom. October 2, 2015. October 4, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151004084142/http://quorum.thedailybeast.com/. live.
  44. Book: The Queer Bible Commentary, Second Edition . 9780334060789 . West . Mona . Shore-Goss . Robert . September 30, 2022 . SCM Press .
  45. Web site: The Philolexian Foundation: A Report from the Committee on Self-Aggrandizement . 2024-07-30 . Columbia University.
  46. Web site: Michaelson . Jay . 2024-07-30 . JD Vance's weird ideas about parenthood: a Jewish critique . 2024-07-30 . The Forward . en.
  47. Web site: 72nd National Jewish Book Award Winners | Jewish Book Council . January 18, 2023 .
  48. Web site: Resource Speakers Jay Michaelson - CLGS . April 24, 2014 . 2022-07-12 . en-US . May 17, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210517091955/https://www.clgs.org/multimedia-speaker/jay-michaelson/ . live .
  49. Jay Michaelson, "Queering Martin Buber: Harry Hay's Erotic Dialogical". Shofar. 36. 3. 31–59. 10.5703/shofar.36.3.0031. 10.5703/shofar.36.3.0031. 2018. Jay Michaelson.
  50. Conceptualizing Jewish Antinomianism in the "Words of the Lord" by Jacob Frank. Modern Judaism – A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience. 37. 3. 338–362. 10.1093/mj/kjx031. 2017. Michaelson. Jay.
  51. The Repersonalization of God: Monism and Theological Polymorphism in Zoharic and Hasidic Imagination. Imagining the Jewish God (Graven Images). Michaelson. Jay. January 2016 . March 7, 2019. July 24, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220724131257/https://www.academia.edu/36154891. live.
  52. Queer Theology and Social Transformation Twenty Years after Jesus ACTED UP. Theology & Sexuality. 21. 3. 189–197. 10.1080/13558358.2015.1222675. 2015. Michaelson. Jay. 151477639.
  53. Kabbalah and Queer Theology . 10.1179/1355835813Z.0000000003 . 2012 . Michaelson . Jay . Theology & Sexuality . 18 . 42–59 . 142104995 .
  54. Web site: Yale Law Journal – Archive. October 2, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151004042353/http://www.yale.edu/yalelj/105/105-7.html. October 4, 2015. dead.
  55. Web site: Duke Law Journal. October 2, 2015. September 20, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150920010330/http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol49/iss6/. live.
  56. Hating the Law for Christian Reasons: The Religious Roots of American Antinomianism . 2150722 . 10.2139/ssrn.2150722 . 2012 . Michaelson . Jay .
  57. Web site: Jews and the Law|Hardcover .
  58. http://elj.stanford.edu/elj/public/archives/author.shtml#m Stanford Environmental Law Journal
  59. Online : http://www.metatronics.net/lit/geo2.html
  60. Web site: Elizabeth Svoboda. The sun blotted out from the sky. Salon. April 2, 2008. October 28, 2009. May 24, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090524142857/http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/04/02/geoengineering/. live.
  61. Web site: Graeme Wood. July 1, 2009. Re-Engineering the Earth. The Atlantic. March 8, 2017. January 4, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100104003432/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/climate-engineering. live.
  62. Web site: God in Your Body. www.goodreads.com. March 7, 2019. July 24, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220724131300/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181897.God_in_Your_Body. live.
  63. Web site: Another Word for Sky. www.jewishbookcouncil.org. March 7, 2019. March 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190308081439/https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/another-word-for-sky. live.
  64. Web site: Everything Is God. www.shambhala.com. March 7, 2019. March 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190308081610/https://www.shambhala.com/everything-is-god-578.html. live.
  65. Web site: God vs. Gay?. www.goodreads.com. March 7, 2019. July 24, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220724131305/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10397126-god-vs-gay. live.
  66. Web site: Evolving Dharma. North Atlantic Books. en-US. March 7, 2019. December 28, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191228131117/https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/evolving-dharma/. live.
  67. Web site: Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment by Jay Michaelson . 2022-07-12 . www.publishersweekly.com.
  68. Web site: The Gate of Tears by Jay Michaelson. Ben Yehuda Press. en-US. March 7, 2019. March 8, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190308081016/https://benyehudapress.com/books/the-gate-of-tears/. live.
  69. Web site: Is: Heretical Jewish Blessings and Poems | jaymichaelson.net . November 8, 2017 .
  70. Web site: Enlightenment by Trial and Error. Ben Yehuda Press. en-US. November 28, 2019. November 28, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191128180447/https://benyehudapress.com/books/jewish-enlightenment/. live.
  71. Book: The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth . 2022 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-765102-5 . Oxford, New York . July 12, 2022 . July 12, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220712182216/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-heresy-of-jacob-frank-9780197651025?cc=us&lang=en& . live .

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