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 The Jewish Leadership We Need
I’ve been part of a dozen Jewish leadership initiatives. Some have been excellent, others were gigantic wastes of time and money. But I wonder if we should move beyond “leadership” in the Jewish community, to value those idiosyncratic and introverted traits that don’t make for good leaders, traits that leaders themselves may not possess.** Recently…
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Opinion Is Jewish Reaction to Jerusalem Passport Case Opportunistic — or Delusional?
This week’s institutional Jewish responses to the Supreme Court case of Zivotofsky v. Kerry ranged from horrifying to opportunistic to deluded. This is the case, you will recall, of whether a Jerusalem-born American can list “Israel” as his country of birth on his U.S passport. Congress had passed a law mandating that, but the Bush…
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Opinion Why Caitlyn Jenner Is an American Triumph — and Challenge to Observant Jews
In ultra-Orthodox circles, Western culture, and the non-Orthodox Jews who embrace it, are often referred to as “Greek.” Though seemingly frozen in time, this epithet is actually quite apt. It points to the deeper meaning of debates surrounding religion in American life – and why progressives are winning them. Where Haredim say “Greek,” conservative Christians…
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Opinion Why Jewish Fundamentalism Is More Brazen Than Ever — and Not Just on the Plane
There’s a Hasidic man arguing with the gate agent at the Phoenix airport. He’s claiming that he can’t be seated next to a woman because of his religion – even though Hasidic men have sat next to women on airplanes and buses and in shared taxis for decades, until they gained enough political power in…
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Culture The Nakedness of the Bible
The Jews and the Bible By Jean-Christophe Attias, translated by Patrick Camiller Stanford University Press, 256 pages, $22.95 The greatest irony of the Bible is that it stands for the opposite of irony — certitude, transcendence, holiness — yet it is filled with nothing but irony. A truly bizarre anthology of contradictory texts is regarded…
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Opinion Shavuot, a Holiday To Celebrate Complexity and Nuance
Shavuot gets no respect. Lacking the colorful observances of Passover and Sukkot, and the gravitas of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it’s probably the least observed of the major Jewish holidays. Nota bene to atheists who think that religion is about ideas and beliefs rather than myth, culture, ritual and community. In a certain way,…
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Opinion A ‘Fight of the Century’ Over ‘Pinkwashing’ and Israel
The Internet is still recovering from Mayweather vs. Pacquaio, but I’ve been fantasizing about a different “fight of the century” starring two outspoken LGBT agitators: Lucas versus Spade. I’ve just read two extreme position statements on Israel/Palestine, both from within the LGBT community. One, from the right, was directed at me in an op-ed by…
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Opinion Why Birthright Next Was Doomed From the Start
Well, I hate to say I told you so. The news that Birthright Next is apparently winding down – its leadership is leaving, its flagship program is shutting down — has come as a surprise to many. But not to those who have followed the program closely, and watched its revolving door of talented staff…
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