Jay Michaelson

Background

About Jay Michaelson

Dr. Jay Michaelson is a bestselling writer, journalist, rabbi, and professor. Jay just won the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists "Deadline Club" award for opinion writing. He is a columnist for Rolling Stone and a regular commentator on CNN. From 2013-2021, he was a weekly columnist for the Daily Beast for several years, and before that was a columnist for the Forward, the largest-circulation Jewish newspaper in America. His journalism focuses on law, religion, the Supreme Court, LGBTQ issues, and climate change. Jay is an ordained rabbi and teaches meditation in a Theravadan Buddhist lineage. He is also an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary. In a past career, Jay was a professional LGBTQ activist for ten years, founding two nonprofits, writing a bestselling book on religion and sexuality, and working for the largest LGBTQ funding foundation in the world. Jay holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, a B.A. from Columbia, and an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence, as well as nondenominational rabbinic ordination. He has held academic positions at Brown University, Boston University Law School, City College of New York, and Yale University.