Michelle Boorstein

Washington, D.C.

Religion reporter

Education: University of Wisconsin at Madison, BA in journalism and history; New York University, MA in Near Eastern studies

Michelle Boorstein's path to her dream job as a religion reporter began as a kid, trying to make sense of a kosher Jewish home that had three sets of dishes: meat, milk and Chinese food. Her career included covering a small town, where she met and profiled the president of the International Julio Iglesias Fan Club. It also included a decade with the Associated Press that took her from Providence to Phoenix to Afghanistan. Her introduction to the Post and the DMV area was as a roaming feature reporter covering outside-the-Beltway Virginia. Boorstein received her BA in journalism and history f
Latest from Michelle Boorstein

Harris and Trump vie for Jewish voters unsettled by Israel-Gaza conflict

The contest is particularly pronounced in Pennsylvania, home to about 400,000 Jews, more than four times Biden’s margin in the state in 2020.

October 14, 2024
A woman visits a new get-out-the-vote center opened by the Jewish group Pennsylvania Unites in Merion Station, Pa., on Sept. 17.

American Jews cope with the fallout a year after the Oct. 7 attacks

The events have spurred an identity crisis among some American Jews, as they increase spirituality, confront antisemitism — and purchase guns.

October 7, 2024

Amos Brown, a pastor to Kamala Harris, to offer DNC prayer

His longtime friend has a “holistic spirituality that speaks to social justice, liberation and personal salvation,” Brown said.

August 22, 2024

A new movement aims to remake evangelicals’ relationship to politics

Fifty years after the rise of the religious right, some evangelicals want to rebrand and create a public presence that adheres to faith, not a party or person.

August 4, 2024

JD Vance’s Catholic conversion is part of young conservative movement

The Republican vice-presidential nominee and Ohio senator was raised nominally evangelical, then dabbled with atheism before converting in 2019.

July 29, 2024
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18.

Trump’s close call in assassination attempt fuels talk he was ‘chosen’ by God

The former president’s supporters have said his survival is a sign of divine intervention — and his White House destiny.

July 16, 2024
Attendees pray during the second night of the Republican National Convention.

Far from the fighting, the Israel-Gaza war divides friends, families

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the conflict has roiled relationships thousands of miles away, sparking confrontations and even rifts.

July 16, 2024
Israeli forces fire a howitzer toward Gaza near the border on Oct. 27.

Church leaders call for solace, defiance in sermons after Trump attack

Less than 24 hours after the attempt to assassinate the former president, pastors across the country faced shocked and fearful worshipers Sunday morning.

July 14, 2024
Congregants at Ruthfred Free Lutheran Church on Sunday in Bethel Park, Pa. Suspected Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks is from Bethel Park.

Vatican excommunicates Archbishop Viganò for refusing to recognize Pope Francis

In a rare trial, the Vatican acted against Carlo Maria Viganò, a former ambassador to the U.S. and one of Pope Francis’s most vociferous internal critics.

July 5, 2024
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, then the Vatican's ambassador to the United States, blesses the altar at the start of mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on March 24, 2016, in Washington.

Oklahoma court rejects proposed religious public charter school

The state Supreme Court said the first-of-its-kind school, approved last year by the charter school board, violated the state and U.S. constitutions.

June 25, 2024
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, filed a lawsuit against the proposed school last fall.