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 American Jews Should Have a New Goal — Recognizing Palestine
Now is not the time for despair among liberal American Jewish supporters of Israel. Neither justice nor the love of Israel can accommodate resignation. Rather, we must respond to the Middle Eastern reality with one important move: urge our own government to recognize Palestine. Here’s why. Benjamin Netanyahu’s election-eve abandonment of the two-state solution fits…
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Opinion Don’t Be Shocked by Jewish Honor for Anti-Gay Pastor Charles Stanley
Here’s why I’m not on board with the growing chorus protesting JNF’s honoring Dr. Charles Stanley, one of the most prominent evangelical leaders in the country, and the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention (membership 15 million). It’s not that he isn’t anti-gay. He is, and I assume he’d be proud to admit it….
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Culture So, Why Are Bob Dylan’s Videos So Violent Anyway?
If you’ve been watching Bob Dylan videos lately (I know it’s a select group, but if you’re reading this article, you’re probably in it), you may have noticed that a number of them are violent. Seriously violent. Gunshots, stabbing, torture violent. You may have wondered, what’s up with that? The three most violent — “Beyond…
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Culture A Haggadah for Just About Every Taste
“Who’s this year’s Cokie Roberts?” That’s what my partner asked, as I rifled through this year’s crop of new Haggadot. Each year, it seemed, brought a new edition written or edited by a celebrity: Cokie Roberts, Nathan Englander, Edgar Bronfman, Elie Wiesel. But not this year. And browsing Amazon’s best-sellers, I got a sense of…
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Opinion We Might Have Lost — But We Were Right About Bibi
Obviously, the Israeli election was a disaster for Jews everywhere who favor making peace with the Palestinians. But as much as we lost, and lost badly, we should also learn to say three words. We were right. We were right when we said that Har Homa, the East Jerusalem neighborhood, was built there to block…
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Opinion Jeb Bush’s Lurch to the Right
Two developments this week bode ominously for Jewish Republicans. First, Republican primary voters can’t stand Jeb Bush and Chris Christie. In a new poll by the Wall Street Journal, Bush had roughly equivalent negatives to Hillary Clinton. 42% of Republican voters said they couldn’t see themselves supporting him. 57% said the same of Christie. The…
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Opinion A Letter to the Israeli Voter
I am not writing this letter to the people who will most likely read it: Ashkenazi liberals, Tel Avivians and a handful of Anglo-born, National Religious folks who enjoy getting angry with leftists. I am writing to the largest sectors of Israeli society: Mizrahim, the middle class, those who are Masorti (traditional) but perhaps not…
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Opinion Bibi Shows How Fear Makes Bad Policy
It’s well understood that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was meant for domestic consumption: both in Israel, where he hopes it will bolster his chances of re-election, and in the United States, where Republicans and their shills hope it will drive Jews into the GOP’s arms. It also plays into his political…
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