press

Gashmius Magazine · February 26, 2024

"This story, and many of the stories in this book, reveal how complicated heresy is when G-d is a complete unity (everything is G-d! Even the profane, even cruelty or anger)."

Forward · January 23, 2024

"What unites these very different characters from Jay Michaelson’s debut short story collection, The Secret That Is Not a Secret: Ten Heretical Tales, is their inability to reconcile their own innermost desires with the prevailing norms of romance in their respective communities."

Circling · December 11, 2023

"We found Jay’s work through two different avenues, Krystiana by discovering a collection of his poetry in a bookstore and loving it, and Lynnette by helping to produce a prior book release event of his in New York. We were honored to have him join us for a rich and meandering conversation on the touchstones, both physical and spiritual, that help him create the life he wants. "

Nerdwallet · August 11, 2021

"‘Anxiety is a physical, somatic thing that’s taking place — not a reasonable reaction to epidemiological data,’ says Jay Michaelson, an editor at mindfulness meditation app Ten Percent Happier."

MSNBC · October 15, 2020

"Jay Michaelson joins Katy Tur to discuss the 'dark money' funding the Federalist Society."

The Guardian · April 8, 2020

"There’s a myth about meditation that if you’re doing it right, you should feel bliss and calm and quiet in the mind,” says the meditation instructor Jay Michaelson. “Then, when you don’t experience that, you think you’re doing it wrong."

State of Belief · February 15, 2020

"Dr. Jay Michaelson joins Rev. Welton Gaddy to talk about his new book, Enlightenment by Trial and Error."

Jewschool · February 4, 2020

"Jay Michaelson is a rare commodity: an expert seeker. His expertise is well documented in the work he has produced in several contiguous but certainly wide ranging realms of thought."

ABC News · March 15, 2020

"Meditation and mindfulness can be valuable allies in times like this," wrote Dr. Jay Michaelson, editor of wisdom content for "Ten Percent Happier." "

Psychology Today · June 29, 2020

"As Jay Michaelson asked me to think about how anxiety shows up in my body, I started visualizing a great tension in my neck and shoulders."

Today · March 19, 2020

"In a discussion with meditation teacher Jay Michaelson and Harvard anxiety specialist Dr. Luna Marques, Dan Harris goes over actionable tips on how to deal with anxiety, especially from the lack of information around what the future holds."

SCOTUSblog · June 26, 2019

"This morning the court issued an opinion in Kisor v. Wilkie. The court voted unanimously to send the case of veteran James Kisor back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which had upheld a decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to retroactively deny Kisor benefits."

Sierra · November 26, 2019

"Writing for The Daily Beast, columnist Jay Michaelson recently opined, 'Individual behavior change isn’t action—it’s distraction. . . . It shifts the blame from the actual causes of climate change to fake ones, and shifts attention away from meaningful actions to meaningless, psychological ones. '"

Unorthodox · November 7, 2019

"Liel Leibovitz and author and teacher Jay Michaelson discuss faith, politics, and life in this unedited conversation."

Publisher's Weekly · December 2, 2019

"Rabbi and columnist Michaelson (God vs. Gay) brings together 35 essays in this contemplative and gratifying collection . . . together the pieces present what he calls a “postmodern heretical hedonist travelogue” that dwells deeply on the nature of spiritual realization and responsibility."

Judaism Unbound · November 22, 2019

"Jay Michaelson, who works as a columnist for The Daily Beast and as an editor for Ten Percent Happier, joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg about spirituality, heresy, and the prefix “un,” all through the lens of his new book, Enlightenment by Trial and Error."

New York Times · January 16, 2019

"Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the two newest conservative justices, have previously taken a dim view of federal officials who exceed limits on their power, The Daily Beast’s Jay Michaelson explains. "

Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News · November 27, 2018

"In certain gay subcultures, Harry Hay’s philosophy is well-known and actively practiced, and yet there’s very little awareness there of its close relationship to Buber’s."

MSNBC · April 4, 2018

"Jay Michaelson talks with MSNBC's Katy Tur about whether EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is "too corrupt to fire.""

Moment · March 22, 2018

"Jay participates in a symposium on "What is the meaning of 'God' today?""

Haaretz · July 24, 2017

"Michaelson accused AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israeli lobby which supports the legislation, of exaggerating its importance, thereby provoking a harsh response from the left that he says was not in keeping with the language of the draft law."

Vox · September 21, 2017

"This is significant because, as Michaelson notes, we have a tendency to think of the history of Judaism — and, particularly, of the Jewish God — as static: a god who has been worshipped in the same way by the same people through millennia. "

Times of Israel · January 25, 2016

"As a spiritual Jewish environmentalist, I have been thinking all day about Jay Michaelson’s recent piece in “The Forward,” “Why Most Jewish Environmentalism is Useless.” "

Jerusalem Post · December 17, 2015

"Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson, a Jewish scholar, activist and cultural commentator, has undergone many changes and transitions throughout his life."

Wisdom Daily · October 28, 2015

"Have you ever picked up a book knowing that its arrival in your life at precisely this moment was a gift? That was my sense when I held Jay Michaelson's The Gate of Tears, subtitled "Sadness and the Spiritual Path." As I delved into the book (out this month in paperback), that sense only deepened."

State of Belief Radio · October 3, 2015

"Jay has an exciting new perspective to share in his latest work The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path, which has been called, “A Stunning antidote to the plethora of ‘get happy’ guides.” "

Huffington Post · August 12, 2015

"Prosecutorial misconduct is a reality. So is the lack of any meaningful legal recourse for its victims. Over at The Daily Beast, Jay Michaelson uses the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri to draw attention to this pressing and increasingly well-documented problem."

Interfaith Voices · July 2, 2015

"Will the landmark decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide spark a showdown between gay rights and religious freedom? A Rabbi Jay Michaelson and a conservative Christian weigh in."

The Nation · April 17, 2012

"Mark Jordan and Jay Michaelson seek hope for gay religious practice in heretical churches and the Hebrew Bible."

National Public Radio · April 2, 2015

"JAY MICHAELSON: This turns RFRA's logic on its head - so not just a case where I want to practice my private religious practice. But I, as someone who wants to restrict the rights of others, should be allowed to do so."

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