Jay Michaelson

Dr. Jay Michaelson (born 1971) is a writer, teacher, and scholar in the USA. His work involves spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law.^[1] He is a contributing editor to The Forward,^[2] associate editor of Religion Dispatches, and a featured blogger for the Huffington Post^[3] He has written four books, God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality (2011), Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (2009), God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (2006) and Another Word for Sky: Poems (2007). Michaelson has been a leading voice in "New Jewish Culture," alternative Jewish spirituality, and LGBT activism. He is openly gay and Jewish and often works in the intersecting fields of LGBT people and Jewish traditions.^[4] He has written 200 articles for The Daily Beast, Salon, The Jerusalem Post, Slate, Tikkun, Zeek, Reality Sandwich,^[5] and other publications.

Michaelson has held teaching positions at Boston University, Yale University, and New York City College with a focus on religion, law, and ethics. His 1998 Stanford Environmental Law Journal article^[6][7]] on geoengineering and climate change was described as "seminal" by Salon Magazine^[8] and he is regarded as an early advocate of the policy.^[9]

Michaelson has been noted as an innovator and occasional gadfly in the American Jewish community, and was listed in the Forward 50 list of influential American Jews in 2009. He founded Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture in 2002 and Nehirim, an LGBT Jewish organization, in 2004. In 2009, Michaelson's essay entitled "How I'm Losing My Love for Israel" generated substantial controversy in the Jewish world, eliciting responses from Daniel Gordis,^[10] Jonathan Sarna,^[11] and others.^[12]

Works

God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice.^[13] Michaelson's first book, God In Your Body, discusses an embodied path to spirituality, culling from mystical and traditional Jewish traditions, as well as Buddhism and meditation.^[14]

Another Word for Sky. Michaelson's first book of poetry reflects on many of the issues explored in his previous work, including spirituality, mysticism, materialism, and sexuality.^[15] One reviewer stated that "Michaelson sustains an intimate tonality that frames even obtuse sketches of people and place, but always with economy and concrete imagery."^[16]

Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism. Michaelson's third book is regarded as the first work of theology of the so-called "New Jewish Culture".^[17]

God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality. Michaelson's fourth book argues that the preponderance of Christian and Jewish values support, rather than oppose, full equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender persons.^[18] It is a finalist for a 2012 Lambda Literary Award.^[19]

Organizations

Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture. Jay Michaelson was the founding editor of Zeek^[20] which he founded in 2002.

Nehirim. Nehirim^[21] is a national LGBT Jewish organization.^[22]

References