About Jay Michaelson
Jay Michaelson is a writer, scholar, and actvist whose work focuses on the intersections of spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law.
Background. Jay has both an academic background and a personal commitment to spiritual practice. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hebrew University, and a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Columbia, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought at Hebrew University. In 2008-09, he spent five months on silent meditation retreat in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition, in America and Nepal, and has sat one-, two-, and six-week retreats in that tradition for seven years. In the Jewish tradition, Jay has learned and taught Kabbalah since 1993, completed the Elat Chayyim Jewish Meditation Advanced Training program, spent two years at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and has been a practicing halachic Jew for three decades.
Writing. Jay is the author of three books, Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (2009), Another Word for Sky: Poems (2007), and God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (2006) over 200 essays, articles, poems and short stories. He is a columnist for the Forward, Huffington Post, and Zeek, Tikkun, Hadassah, and Reality Sandwch magazines. He is the editor of Az Yashir Moshe: A Book of Songs and Blessings and was the founding editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, recognized as a leading institution of the “New Jewish Culture.” His writing has been anthologized in volumes including Torah Queeries, Signs of the Apocalypse: Rapture, The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism, Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice, and Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer (2004).
Legal/Academic Work. Jay has been a visiting professor at Boston University Law School (2007-08), and has held teaching positions at Yale University and City College of New York. Academic articles have been published in the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Duke Law Journal, Stanford Environmental Law Journal, the Journal of Law in Society, and the Yale Law Journal. Jay is a former clerk to Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a recent Golieb Fellow in legal history at NYU Law School, a recipient of several prizes and awards for his legal writing and scholarship, and for eight years was founder and general counsel of Wasabi Systems, a venture-funded software company.
Other Teaching. Outside the academy, Jay is a frequent scholar in residence and teacher at institutions including Elat Chayyim, the Skirball Center, the Wexner Summer Institute, Limmud UK, Limmud NY, Wesleyan University, Lehigh University, Drew University, the New York University Hillel, Burning Man, Easton Mountain, and numerous synagogues and community centers. In this work, Jay brings together scholarly rigor with a personal commitment to spiritual practice and personal growth. He is a former assistant principal of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Prozdor School, and has written over twenty curricula on Jewish life and practice.
Activism. Jay is the founder and executive director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality, a nonprofit organization which builds community for GLBT Jews, partners, and allies. An outspoken advocate on behalf of sexual minorities in religious communities, his work in this area has been published in anthologies including Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer (2004), Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice (2007), and Jews and Sex (2008), and featured in the New York Times and NPR. Jay also co-founded the Tibet Oral History Project, which records and preserves the testimonies of Tibetan victims of the Chinese Occupation, and writes widely on issues of environmental protection.
Other. Jay is a proud participant in the Burning Man, Radical Faerie, Body Electric, and other radical artistic/cultural communities. He has performed at CBGB, preached at the New York State Legislature, and currently lives in Putnam County, New York.