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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Jean Raspail: The Consul of Lost Causes
- Michel Houellebecq: A Life
- Anthony Lane: A Life
- Author Philip Gourevitch
- Joseph Telushkin: The Accountant’s Son Who Taught America Judaism
- Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph (2012)
- WP: As Christians are attacked in Israel, government shows little concern
- Life as a Haredi Jew
- Moral Philosopher Derek Parfit
- The Life of George Gilder
- Richard Posner’s Legal Pragmatism
- The MLA: A History
- The Great Delusions in History Theory
- Allan Bloom: The Teacher Who Wanted Your Soul
- The Great Delusions in Literary Theory
- William K. Wimsatt Jr.: The Judge of Evidence
- Larissa MacFarquhar: The Woman Who Slows Judgment Down
- Stanley Fish: A Biography
- Hortense Spillers: The Grammar Lesson
- Paul Gilroy: A Biography
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Author Archives: Luke Ford
Decoding Marc Gafni
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Marc Gafni is best understood as a charismatic boundary-dissolver whose authority outpaced institutional constraint, producing exactly the failure pattern Alliance Theory predicts when personal loyalty replaces system loyalty. This is a structural analysis, not a … Continue reading
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Decoding R. Ari Kahn
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Rabbi Ari Kahn is best understood as an internal sovereignty defender through intellectual depth whose role is to keep Orthodox commitment serious, demanding, and non-therapeutic for people who are already inside the alliance but at … Continue reading
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Decoding R. Avi Weiss
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Rabbi Avi Weiss is best understood as a boundary-redefinition entrepreneur who attempted to rebuild Orthodox legitimacy by changing how authority is earned, exercised, and justified, rather than by abandoning Orthodoxy outright. He did not try … Continue reading
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Decoding Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld is best understood as a boundary-reframing challenger whose project is to redefine what counts as legitimate Orthodox authority by shifting the balance from inherited enforcement to moral credibility and pastoral inclusion. He … Continue reading
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Decoding R. Shlomo Riskin
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is best understood as a jurisdiction-expanding institutional entrepreneur whose life’s work was to reconfigure where Orthodox authority could legitimately operate without surrendering halakhic sovereignty. He did not soften Orthodoxy. He moved its … Continue reading
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Decoding R. Sharon Brous
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Rabbi Sharon Brous is best understood as a moral realignment entrepreneur whose role is to rebuild Jewish belonging for people who have exited, or are on the verge of exiting, mainstream Jewish institutions because those … Continue reading
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Decoding Rabbi Samuel Ohana
Rabbi Samuel Ohana leads the Beth Din of California. He has served the community for several decades and specializes in marriage, divorce, and conversions. His court is one of the bodies in California recognized by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel … Continue reading
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What are the most popular ways to get ahead in status in Orthodox Judaism via methods that are immoral or illegal?
ChatGPT says: In any tight, status-driven religious community, there are well-known ways to climb that are officially condemned but quietly understood. Orthodox Judaism is not unique here. The difference is that the moral language is very strong, so the gap … Continue reading
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Rabbi Meyer May (Jewish LA Power Broker)
Rabbi Meyer May is the past president of the Rabbinical Council of California and remains a prominent figure in the city. He spent nearly fifty years as the executive director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and now holds a leadership … Continue reading
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Decoding Rabbi Nissim Davidi (RCC Kashrut)
Rabbi Nissim Davidi serves as the Kashrut Administrator for the Rabbinical Council of California. He oversees the certification of hundreds of establishments and products in the region. His work involves ensuring that local restaurants and caterers adhere to strict halakhic … Continue reading
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