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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Culture Live-Blogging Jewishly in a Weird Evangelical Christian World
The Jewish community has long fretted over the so-called “December Dilemma,” in which Jewish kids are teased for not having Christmas trees and gifts from Santa. To paraphrase Kyle from “South Park,” it’s hard to be a Jew on Christmas, especially in a Christian-dominated society. Which is why you may be surprised to learn that…
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Fast Forward 6 Reasons ‘Pinkwashing’ Israel on Gay Rights Is So Wrong
Pinkwashing just won’t die. No matter how many times the tactic is called out, its proponents just keep on doing it, blithely unaware of how transparently ridiculous it is — or how offensive. So, let’s look closely at one recent example: last week’s full-page ad in the New York Times proclaiming “Hamas, ISIS, and Iran…
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Opinion Enough With the Menorah Selfies Already!
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman A friend of mine on Facebook joked, “Can you fulfill pirsumei nisa (the commandment to publicize the Hanukkah miracle) by posting pictures of your menorah online?” It’s a fun, quasi-halachic question that juxtaposes an ancient commandment with contemporary technology. But it’s also a reflection of how much amateur photography has become…
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Opinion Israel Never Would’ve Killed ‘The Interview’ — So Why Did We?
As a liberal, I generally find American culture to be on testosterone overload. On average, we are a macho, gun-toting, exceptionalist nation that prizes its cowboys and cops. Generally speaking, this is more true the more conservative a place you’re in, but it permeates the culture, with its exhortation to “man up” and its denigration…
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Opinion Coming to Terms With Death of the Jewish Mainstream
Reading a Jewish newspaper — and writing for one — is often an exercise in masochism. Of course, the Forward has inspiring pieces on the gefilte fish revival and the first female-majority Forward 50. But when you look at the “hard news” and follow the trend lines, it’s easy to feel despair. If you’re a…
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Opinion The Laws That Killed Eric Garner
My hands are quaking with rage right now, but I will choose to write rationally. I can’t believe this has happened again, and happened here, in my own backyard. “This” being a grand jury failing even to indict a white police officer for killing an unarmed black man. Not even a trial. Not even a…
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Opinion Ferguson Shows an Unjust System Cannot Produce Justice
“Set yourself judges and officers in all your gates,” says Deuteronomy 16:18, two verses before the Torah’s famous injunction, “justice, justice, shall you pursue.” Biblical commentators have observed that the two commandments are related: Because the judges are appointed by the Israelites themselves, they are responsible to the community, and can dispense justice fairly. The…
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Opinion I Admit It — I’m Binational-Curious
For at least a generation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the oddest in the world. No one knew how to solve it, yet everyone knew what the solution was: two states, the 1967 lines with land swaps, a creative solution on Jerusalem. Within a couple of years, this consensus has begun to collapse. In short, the…
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