welcome to jaymichaelson.net

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

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 magazines, and the author of three books, most recently  Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (2009). 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.

Jay is also the executive director of Nehirim, the leading national provider of community programming for GLBT Jews, partners, and allies.  His advocacy on behalf of GLBT people in religious communities has been featured in a number of scholarly and popular anthologies as well as on the New York Times, CNN, and NPR.

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

In February, 2009, Jay returned from five months of silent meditation retreat in Massachusetts and Nepal.  Last December, he was included on the “Forward 50″ list of “the men and women who are leading the American Jewish community into the 21st century,” and in June, 2010, he won the New York Society for Professional Journalists “Deadline Club” award for opinion writing.    Welcome!