Jay Michaelson is the founder of Nehirim. For the last ten years, Jay has been a leading advocate for the inclusion of sexual minorities in religious communities, and his work in this area has been featured on NPR, CNN, and the New York Times. Jay is also a contributing editor to the Forward, Associate Editor of Religion Dispatches magazine, and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. In 2009, he was included on the Forward 50 list of the top-50 men and women leading the American Jewish community into the 21st century. He is the author of four books, including Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Englightenment and God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality.