
Jay Michaelson is a writer, poet, and teacher whose work focuses on the on the intersections between spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law. He is the author of God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (Jewish Lights, 2006) and Another Word for Sky: Poems (Lethe Press, 2007) as well as numerous articles, poems, and essays. A recent finalist for the Koret Young Writer on Jewish Themes Award, Jay is a columnist for the Forward newspaper and American Jewish Life magazine, and a contributor to Slate, the Jerusalem Post, Tikkun, and many other publications. He is also the editor of Az Yashir Moshe: A Book of Songs and Blessings and the founder and chief editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture.
In addition to his writing, Jay is currently an Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University Law School, and a Ph.D. candidate in Jewish Thought at Hebrew University, where he is writing his dissertation on the antinomian mystical heretic Jacob Frank. He holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hebrew University, as well as a J.D. from Yale and a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Columbia. His academic writing has been published in the Yale Law Journal, the Duke Law Review, and many other scholarly journals, as well as anthologies including "Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice" (2007) and the forthcoming NYU Press anthology on Judaism and sexuality (2008).
Jay has taught Kabbalah, meditation, Jewish thought, and spiritual practice at institutions including Yale University, City College, Elat Chayyim, the Skirball Center, the Wexner Summer Institute, Limmud UK, Limmud NY, Wesleyan University, Drew University, the New York University Hillel, the Burning Man festival, Easton Mountain, the Trinity School, and dozens of synagogues and community centers, where he is a frequent visiting scholar.
Jay\u2019s spiritual path has included the Elat Chayyim Jewish Meditation Advanced Training program, a six-week silent meditation retreat in 2004, a month of shamanic work in South America, and learning with spiritual teachers including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Sharon Salzberg, Rabbi David Cooper, Joseph Kramer, and Sylvia Boorstein. Jay is also the founder and executive director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality (www.nehirim.org) and a leading activist for the inclusion of sexual minorities in American religious communities. He lives in Putnam County, New York.
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