Jay Michaelson is a writer, teacher, and scholar in the USA. His work involves spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law. He is a columnist for The Forward

The Forward

The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...

 and a featured blogger for the Huffington Post He has written three books, 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 GLBT activism. He has written 200 articles for The Jerusalem Post, Slate

Slate (magazine)

Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...

, Tikkun

Tikkun

Tikkun/Tikun is a Hebrew word meaning "Fixing/Rectification". It has several connotations in Judaism:Traditional:*Tikkun , a book of Torah scroll text, used when learning to chant Torah portions or for correct-fixed scribal calligraphy...

, Zeek, Reality Sandwich

Reality Sandwich

Reality Sandwich is a web magazine published by Evolver LLC, a privately held company. The site is intent, as its tag line expresses it, on "evolving consciousness bite by bite"...

, and other publications.

Michaelson has held teaching positions at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, and New York City College with a focus on religion, law, and ethics. His 1996 Stanford Environmental Law Journal article on geoengineering

Geoengineering

The concept of Geoengineering refers to the deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2007 that geoengineering options, such...

 and climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 was described as "seminal" by Salon Magazine and he is regarded as an early advocate of the policy.

Michaelson has been noted as an innovator and occasional gadfly in the American Jewish community. He founded Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture in 2002 and Nehirim, an organization for GLBT Jewish culture and spirituality 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

Daniel Gordis

Daniel Gordis is President of the Shalem Foundation and Senior Vice President and Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Israel. Gordis was the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School, the first rabbinical college on the West Coast of the United States.-Biography:Daniel Gordis was born on...

, Jonathan Sarna

Jonathan Sarna

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of and the director of the Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership. He is regarded as one of the most prominent historians of American Judaism...

, and others.

Works

God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice. 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

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

and meditation.

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. 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."

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".

Organizations

Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture. Jay Michaelson is the founding editor of Zeek which he founded in 2002. The monthly online publication supplemented with the semi-annual print edition has been the premier publication for "New Jewish Culture." Zeek publishes art, essays, fiction, and poetry. While Jewish culture magazines or webzines have been on the rise in the past 5 years, Zeek was among the first.

Nehirim. Nehirim is an organization for GLBT Jewish culture and spirituality. Nehirim creates retreats and events to celebrate and explore the unique GLBT culture within the Jewish community.