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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Culture Why I Fell Out of Love With Kabbalah
This is not a review of the new anthology by Daniel Horwitz, “A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader”; it’s about something I realized when I saw the book on my editor’s bookshelf — that I’m not in love with Kabbalah anymore. Horwitz’s anthology, part of a series from the Jewish Publication Society, is only somewhat…
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Opinion From Donald Trump to Israel and Europe, Why This Lurch to the Right?
To quote Donald Trump, “What the hell is going on?” The global rise of right-wing populism — in the United States, across Europe and now in Israel — is clearly the leading news story of 2016. Each week, Trump says something outrageous that hasn’t been said by a mainstream politician in half a century. And…
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Opinion On Airport Security, America Should Take a Lesson from Israel
Airport security is back in the news this year, with passengers and the Transportation Security Administration alike anticipating longer lines than ever as the summer travel season begins. Yet for all the handwringing and occasional proposing of solutions, few are addressing the central issue: that the system itself is ineffective, inefficient and just plain dumb….
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Opinion Why Is the Left Silent About Gaza Tunnels?
The recent discovery of yet another Hamas tunnel from Gaza into Israel elicited shock and condemnation throughout the Jewish world. Not. Actually, though widely reported in Israel, and sporadically here in the United States, you could hear a pin drop in much of the progressive world, especially among those organizations pressing Israel to pursue peace…
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Opinion How To Listen to Beyonce When You’re a White American Jew
Some of the most compelling popular art of the past year has come not only from an African-American perspective, but also from a relatively confrontational one — in the best sense. I’m thinking here of Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Ta-Nehisi Coates’s masterful “Between the World and Me,” Beyonce’s “Formation” video, and now the…
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Music A Jewish Tribute to Prince, Holy Unifier of Spirit and Sex
We get older when those we love — first parents, then peers and friends — pass away. Death becomes real, not an abstraction. Not only can it happen anytime; it does happen anytime. I think that’s true when celebrities pass also. This year, Prince and David Bowie; not long ago, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston….
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Opinion I’m Seeking Freedom From the Organized Jewish Community This Passover
Preparing this column, I thought of many “profound” things to say about Passover. I’m a rabbi, after all, as well as an ex-lawyer, writer, speaker, teacher — I know how to gab. And the holiday is a goldmine of inspiration: themes of liberation, kinesthetic rituals, DIY Jewish observances, fascinating texts and histories. But everything I…
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Culture Why This Is An Off Year for New Haggadot — and That’s Not a Bad Thing
Just a few years ago, my annual review of new Haggadahs marveled at the novelty of a Haggadah app, a DIY Haggadah website, and other new-media ways in which 21st century Jews were remixing this 3rd century hodgepodge of texts. Now, as with new media and old media in general, the novelties have taken over….
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