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
-
Opinion Jared Fogle Facing Prison Rape? That’s Not Jewish Justice.
Jared Fogle, Subway pitchman turned child sex offender, will now be heading to jail for five to twelve years. It’s conventional wisdom that he, like other sex offenders, will be sexually assaulted while he’s there – and many people are happy to think so. A New York Post’s front page headline, for example, taunted him…
-
Israel News Jerusalem Pride Organizer: ‘It Was Horrible’
“I felt like he was looking right at me. I could see his eyes. It was horrible.” That’s what Tom Canning, Director of Development at the Jerusalem Open House and one of the organizers of the Jerusalem Pride March, saw last Thursday on King George Street in Jerusalem. “He” was Yishai Schlissel, who stabbed seven…
-
Opinion Why We Should Ignore the Nuts on Both Sides of Iran Deal Debate
Insiders say that mainstream American Jewish organizations are coalescing around opposition to the P5+1 Iran nuclear deal and will work hard to get 13 Democratic senators to give Republicans a veto-proof majority to reject it. Ultimately this would be a self-defeating strategy. But however one feels about the agreement, there are ways to have a…
-
Opinion The Ultra-Orthodox Hatred Behind the Stabbing at Jerusalem Gay Pride
If a community’s respected religious leaders preach, over and over again, that gay people deserve to be killed, isn’t it inevitable that someone will try to kill them? That’s one of the lessons from today’s stabbing of six people at the Jerusalem Pride Parade. Of course, it was also the lesson ten years ago at…
-
Opinion Why U. of California Should Dump ‘Three D’ Definition of Anti-Semitism
Pity the University of California. The UC system is the latest (and perhaps largest) organization being pulled in different directions by competing supporters of Israeli and/or Palestinian causes. At issue? Whether the UC system — which in the past few years has seen outrageous instances of anti-Semitism and (separately) contentious anti-Israel activities and resolutions —…
-
Opinion 4 Reasons Why Sheldon Adelson Anti-BDS Campaign Will Backfire
And so, the great irony of Israel continues: Those who hold themselves out as Israel’s staunchest defenders are often, in fact, its worst enemies. Case in point, the Adelson/Saban donors’ conference, rumored to have raised $50 million for on-campus Israel advocacy, in a campaign they have ridiculously dubbed the “Campus Maccabees.” Unfortunately, the Campus Maccabees…
-
Opinion The Profoundly Jewish Lesson of the Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Ruling
One of the key points in today’s Supreme Court decision overturning state bans on same-sex marriage is that religious and civil marriage, like church and state, are separate. And yet, the court’s opinion, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, is itself prophetic in its tone. For the 80% of American Jews who support same-sex marriage, it…
-
Opinion Jewish Response to Dylann Roof? Dump Delusion of ‘Moderate’ GOP
What can be done to prevent another horrific massacre like the one that took place in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. Actually, there is a lot that can be done — but the Republican Party is on the wrong side of every issue that matters. Thus, while it’s all well and good to “come…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
