Rabbi Jay Michaelson is a contributing columnist for the Forward and for Rolling Stone. He is the author of 10 books, and won the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists award for opinion writing.
Jay MichaelsonContributing Columnist
By Jay Michaelson
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Opinion 50 Things To Fear From the Trump Administration
Looking toward 2017 can be overwhelming. The coming Trump administration presents so many potential risks, it’s hard to know which to feel anxious about. When I feel overwhelmed, I find that it helps to make lists. Here, then, in a rough order of danger, but also grouped by category, are 50 things for American Jews…
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49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think You Want It Darker
The musical year of 2016 was bookended by dark valedictories: David Bowie’s “Blackstar” and Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker.” Both Bowie and Cohen knew that their ends were near, and both passed on to the next realm just as their last brilliant works were released. Cohen’s final album — in particular its haunting title…
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Opinion Three Reasons Why the Electoral College Must Reject Trump
A month ago, the Electoral College blocking Donald Trump was a Democratic pipe dream. Now, the electors who will convene across the country on December 19 have a sacred duty to withhold their votes from Trump, and three constitutional reasons to do so. Such an action would be unprecedented, and our shared religious, ethical and…
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Opinion Sorry, Jews. Steve Bannon Is Not an Anti-Semite, and This Story Is Not About Us.
We’ve got Steve Bannon wrong. Among American Jewish progressives, the consensus is that Bannon, Donald Trump’s “strategic adviser,” is anti-Semitic. The website he managed, Breitbart.com, called itself “the platform for the alt-right,” and the “alt-right” contains within it some extreme anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and so forth. And besides, according to court documents, Bannon didn’t want his…
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Letters More Shortsightedness From Orthodox Groups on Betsy DeVos
Rabbi Nathan Diament’s response to my column about Betsy DeVos perfectly reflects the short-sightedness of the Orthodox Union’s approach to this issue. The column in question was roughly 1,200 words long. Only 64 of those words addressed Orthodox organizations. Yet from Rabbi Diament’s response, you’d think the whole piece was an attack on them. In…
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Opinion Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education? That’s a Tragedy for All American Jews.
For generations of American Jews, public education has been the gateway to American life. It was certainly true for my parents, the children of immigrants; public school taught them not just facts and figures, but alao how to be American — and how to be proud of being American. Which is why the nomination of…
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Opinion To Survive Trump, All Progressives Need To Become Sabras
Before Sabra was a brand of hummus, it was a nickname for Israelis, who were said to be like the Sabra cactus: tough outside, but tender inside. In the age of Donald Trump, all progressives must learn to be Sabras. We, like a generation of Israelis who lived with perpetual war, must learn to be…
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Opinion They Went Low With Donald Trump and Steve Bannon — We Should Go Lower
“When they go low, we go high,” said Michelle Obama. Look how well that turned out. For the next four years, progressives must take a lesson from conservatives: When they go low, we must go lower, fiercer, harder, smarter. We must fight unrelentingly to save the country (and planet) we once knew. The same zeal,…
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Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
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Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
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Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
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Opinion Pro-Palestinian protests enriched Jewish life on my campus. Trump’s actions will do the opposite.
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Culture Jews thought Trump wanted to fight antisemitism. Why did he cut all of their grants?
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Opinion Trump’s followers see a savior, but Jewish historians know a false messiah when they see one
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Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
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Opinion This Passover, let’s retire the word ‘Zionist’ once and for all
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