welcome to jaymichaelson.net

Jay Michaelson is a writer, scholar, and activist whose work addresses the intersections of Judaism, sexuality, spirituality, and law.

As a writer, Jay is is the author of three books and over 200 articles, essays, and works of fiction.  He is a columnist for the Forward, the Huffington Post, Tikkun, and Reality Sandwich magazine, and the author of 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 (2008). He is also the founding editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, and a contributor to Slate, The Jerusalem Post, and other publications.

As an activist, Jay is the executive director of Nehirim, a nonprofit organization which builds community for GLBT Jews, partners, and allies.  His work in this area has been published in anthologies including Torah Queeries, The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism, and Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice, and featured in the New York Times and NPR.

As a scholar, Jay is completing his Ph.D in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and B.A. magna cum laude from Columbia, and has held teaching positions at Boston University Law School, City College of New York, and Yale University. Jay has also been a scholar-in-residence at dozens of synagogues, Hillels, and other institutions.

In February, 2009, Jay returned from five months of silent meditation retreat in Massachusetts and Nepal. He presently lives in upstate New York.  Welcome!