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 What Does Meditation Have To Do With Fighting ISIS Terror?
What does a meditation retreat have to do with the attacks in Paris? I asked myself this question as my co-teachers and I sat down to plan the details of the upcoming Elat Chayyim Meditation Retreat, a week of silence, meditation and davening that takes place around Christmas. It felt incongruous to mull over the…
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Opinion Are Jews Who Support Republicans Duped — Or Deliberately Blind?
Recent polls have indicated a slow trickle of American Jews joining the Republican Party. How extreme, insane and ignorant does the party have to become before these people wake up? Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that FiveThirtyEight and other “big data” sites are correct, and that neither Ben Carson nor Donald Trump will…
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Opinion Do Endless Denominational Turf Wars Even Matter Anymore?
A few small corners of the Jewish world are outraged at the October 30 resolution by the Rabbinical Council of America that its Orthodox members and institutions may not ordain women as rabbis, or hire women to serve as rabbis — and by the subsequent November 2 edict by the ultra-Orthodox Agudath Israel that “Open…
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Opinion A Lawsuit Cannot Stop the ‘Facebook Intifada.’ You Might.
A consortium of pro-Israel organizations has filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, seeking to force the social media giant to censor “incitement” and stop linking “terrorists” with one another. This is a 20th-century solution to a 21st-century problem, and will not work. Fortunately, there is a better way. There is no question that social media…
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Opinion Why Is Chabad Helping Christian Extremists?
As readers of this column know, I have long praised Chabad Lubavitch’s spirituality, its outreach tactics and its mystical roots. But over the past several years, Chabad leaders have begun propping up far-right Christian extremists — not mere cultural conservatives, or right-wing politicians, but the extreme fringe that opposes human rights and, in some cases,…
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Opinion Who Is To Blame for the Bloodshed and Despair in Israel? Everyone.
Just when the Israeli-Palestinian political situation seems like it can’t get any worse, it gets worse. And everyone is to blame. First blame lies with the Palestinian murderers who are stabbing innocent people on the streets of Israel. While these actions are the predictable results of Israeli policies, they are also inexcusable, ghastly and horrible….
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Opinion Why Ben Carson’s Rant About Gun Control and the Holocaust Is So Dangerous
Many Jews, when they heard Ben Carson’s recent remark that if Jews had owned guns, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened, probably said to themselves (to use the vernacular): “WTF?” Those familiar with Carson’s long history of bizarre, ignorant and just plain weird pronouncements were likely less surprised, but have probably chalked it up to just…
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Opinion Why Judaism is Most Meaningful in Times of Grief
When life is full of ease, spirituality is like cotton candy: fluffy, airy and unserious. It’s easy to mock the privileged, entitled yuppies in their yoga clothes, or the perpetually processing privileged New Agers at their endless, fruitless seminars. Not to mention the reactionary flocks in churches and synagogues, with their absurd, prescientific beliefs. And…
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