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
-
News Renewing Ecstatic Spirituality to the Beat of a Drum
“As opposed to the dense and demanding discourse of scholarship, students crave instant gratification,” complained outgoing Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Ismar Schorsch in his fiery farewell address last May. “The way to the heart is not through the circuitous and arduous route of the mind but the rhythmic beat of the drums.” Although framed in…
-
Culture The Hidden and The Manifest
Scholars, like artists, need community — people who see the world in ways similar enough to be supportive but different enough to provoke thought, controversy and inspiration. For me, Rabbi Jill Hammer has long played all those roles. When we teach together, she always seems to “get it,” and to come up with insights or…
-
Opinion In Jerusalem, Fundamentalism on the March
‘Good morning, Iran/the loudspeaker calls/How we feared/that this day would come.” So sang Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen eight years ago, reacting to the growing strength of the ultra-Orthodox parties in Israel, and fearing that, demographics being what they are, things would only get worse. Well, they have. Today, Jewish moderates in Israel and America…
-
Culture Two Lawyers, Three Opinions
Lawyers: Are they good for the Jews? It doesn’t take a statistician to observe that there are a lot of Jews in the legal profession, and even more in the legal academy. But why are there so many Jews in the American legal world, and what significance, if any, do the numbers have? To address…
-
News Old Labels Feel Stiff for ‘Flexidox’
When I was growing up, in the Conservative movement, Jews were defined by the synagogues they attended, and the movements to which they belonged. We were all Jews, to be sure, but that bond was less strong than the loyalties of denomination. We were the USY team; they were the NFTY team. (I grew up…
-
Culture Dylan’s Religious Revival: Modern Times and the Timeless
What would happen if Bob Dylan released a politically potent sequel to “The Times They Are a-Changin’” complete with blistering attacks on the War on Terror, the government’s creeping encroachment upon civil liberties, and the persistence of prejudice and discrimination? Would anyone care? Probably not. Just like few have noticed Neil Young’s fierce album of…
-
News A Conversation With the Bad Boy Rabbi
Don’t tell Rabbi Niles Goldstein, the brash leader of New York’s New Shul and author of the new book “Gonzo Judaism: A Fresh Path for an Ancient Faith” (St. Martin’s Press), that the “High Holidays” are upon us. It’s not the holidays that Goldstein dislikes — it’s the phrase, which he calls “a metaphor for…
-
News Grassroots Spirituality: As Jews in the Woods Grows, It Weighs Whether to Open Its Doors
Jews in the Woods is not one of the lost tribes camping out in Appalachia. It doesn’t even take place in the woods. It is, however, a remarkable grass-roots, ever-changing community of college students and immediate post-college graduates who come together twice a year for a “full and uncompromising embrace of Shabbat,” in the words…
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
- 2
Culture How my odious cousin Roy Cohn was responsible for creating Donald Trump — and me
- 3
Fast Forward Was the viral Ta-Nehisi Coates interview a hit piece or fair play? A journalism ethics expert weighs in.
- 4
Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
In Case You Missed It
-
Forverts in English Workers Circle now offers Yiddish courses that meet twice a week
-
Fast Forward Democratic poll shows 71% of Jewish voters across 7 swing states favor Kamala Harris
-
Fast Forward As Florida braces for Hurricane Milton, this rabbi is defying an evacuation order so he can help
-
Yiddish ווי האָבן ייִדן געהיט די ייִדיש־קולטור אױף יענער זײַט „אײַזערנעם פֿאָרהאַנג“?How did Jews maintain their Yiddish culture behind the Iron Curtain?
ייִדישע ליטעראַטן, װאָס האָבן געטרײַ געדינט די קאָמוניסטישע רעזשימען, האָבן גענוצט זײערע פּריװילעגיעס כּדי אָפּצוהיטן ייִדיש.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism