Rabbi Jay Michaelson is a contributing columnist for the Forward and the writer of Both/And with Jay Michaelson. 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 Will Bill Clinton’s Spiritual Masterpiece Humanize Hillary for America?
Love him or hate him, former President Bill Clinton delivered a masterpiece of oration last night, a “Checkers” speech for the 21st century. He also reminded us why the spiritual is political and the political is spiritual. Clinton’s job was clear: humanize his wife, Hillary Clinton. Other people could talk about policy, or the threat…
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Opinion The Inconvenient Truths Stalking Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Convention
It’s hard to be a cheerleader when the world’s about to end. That’s how the Democratic National Convention feels right now. Everyone knows that Donald Trump’s post-convention boost is temporary. But still, to see a perfectly qualified, mainstream candidate — too mainstream for many — losing to a white supremacist demagogue with no knowledge of…
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Opinion 4 Ways President Donald Trump Would Be Israel’s Worst Nightmare
Despite grave reservations, many Jews — including, apparently, the billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson — are supporting Donald Trump because of Israel. They should do the opposite. A Trump presidency would constitute an existential threat to the Jewish state, destabilizing the region at precisely the time Israel yearns for stability. Let’s put aside a few…
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Opinion After Nice, We Should Fight Islamic State Terror With Ruthless Progressivism
Will this season of death ever stop? Nice, Dhaka, Istanbul, Orlando, Brussels, San Bernadino, Paris – and those are just the mass murders in cities we know. Over 1200 people have died in ISIS-inspired attacks around the world, not counting those in Iraq and Syria. It is practically impossible to defend against an endless, global…
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Opinion What Can Jews Do About Police Violence After Shootings — and Dallas?
“Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” The ground this week is not East of Eden, where Cain slew Abel; it is St. Paul, Minnesota, where Philando Castile was gunned down while reaching for his ID. It is Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Alton Sterling was shot at point-blank range, already immobilized and…
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Opinion Reclaiming a Star-Spangled Progressive Patriotism in the Age of Donald Trump
It’s July 4 weekend, and we’re all watching the fireworks together: my partner and I, and a few hundred strangers. And it occurs to me: What I love about America is not what the loudest America-lovers love. In fact, I have a sense that it’s the opposite. I love the threads of American multiculturalism, the…
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Opinion Is Donald Trump-Style Populism Just Human Nature?
For most liberal American Jews, it has been an article of faith that things are gradually, in fits and starts, getting better. “Progress” is not irreversible, and there are inevitably backlashes to every advance. But in general, the combination of American optimism and secularized Jewish messianism has long held sway in our community. What, then,…
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Opinion Decoding an Anti-Semitic Meme Donald Trump Supporters Took From Anime
In the week since my column on Donald Trump was published, I’ve been avalanched by several hundred anti-Semitic tweets. Pictures of me in a gas chamber, pictures of Trump saying “you’re fired” next to a death camp oven and hundreds of hate tweets calling me a kike, a traitor, a rat and far worse. Others…
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