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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:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
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)
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Author Archives: Yisroel Pensack
Rubashkin Acquitted in Iowa Child Labor Trial
The Des Moines Register reports: Waterloo, Ia. – Former Agriprocessors Inc. executive Sholom Rubashkin was found not guilty Monday of all 67 misdemeanor child labor charges against him… State prosecutors alleged Rubashkin allowed minors to labor up to 90 hours … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Immigration, Kashrut, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged acquitted, child labor, des moines register, false documents, Guatemalans, Iowa, kosher slaughterhouse, Mexicans, minors, misdemeanor charges, not guilty, Quentin Hart, Sholom Rubashkin, under-age laborers, Waterloo
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Yisroel Pensack: Some Thoughts on the Sentencing Hearing of Sholom Rubashkin
A sentencing hearing in the financial fraud case of former Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse manager and Lubavitcher chassid Sholom Rubashkin is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Wednesday) in federal court in Iowa. There is a concept in Judaism that each Shabbat “blesses,” … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Chabad, Ethics, Fraud, Judaism, Kashrut, Torah, Truth, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged animal slaughter, chillul Hashem, conduit for blessing, confession, egypt, federal court, Iowa, lubavitcher, lubavitcher rebbe, Pesach sheni, Rashi, sacrificing animals, second Passover, sentencing hearing, shabbat, Sholom Rubashkin, wages, weights and measures, yom kippur
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Yisroel Pensack: Nazi-era Luftwaffe Nurse, Founder of Chile-based Anti-Semitic Religious Sect and Convicted Child Abuser, Dies In Prison; Was Under Investigation in 1985 Disappearance of Jewish Penn State University Math Professor
The New York Times reports: A former Nazi-era German soldier who founded a secretive German cult in southern Chile, where he sexually abused about 25 children, died of heart failure at a prison hospital early Saturday, Chilean officials said. He … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Anti-Semitism, Crime, Cults, Germany, Nazi, Predators, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged 20-year sentence, Boris Weisfeiler, Chile, Colonia Dignidad, died in prison, disappearance, drowned, executed, German cult, held captive, kidnapped, luftwaffe, mystery, Nazi-era German soldier, never charged, Paul Schaefer, Pennsylvania State University, Russian-born Jew, sexual abuse of minors, tortured, Villa Baviera
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Yisroel Pensack: Today’s Self-Appointed Chareidi Tznius Police Lack Support in Halacha
In 2001, “The Edah Journal” ran what it said was the first publication in English of a 1920 responsum (opinion on Jewish law) regarding women’s electoral rights by Rav BenZion Meir Hai Uziel, who was Sephardic chief rabbi of Jaffa … Continue reading
Posted in Women, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged Edah Journal, entering a shop, halachah, inconceivable issues, licentiousness, prohibited, R. BenZion Meir Hai Uziel, responsum, Sephardic chief rabbi, tznius police, walking in the street, women's suffrage
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Yisroel Pensack: ‘Global Warming’ Rears Its Pretty White Face over the U.S. East Coast
Just in time to punctuate the ending of the much-hyped global conference on climate change in Copenhagen, the Great Weatherman in the Sky sent a season’s greetings reality check message to the eastern United States, including the nation’s capital. The … Continue reading
Posted in New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged biggest snowstorm in years, blizzard-like conditions, climate change, copenhagen, eastern United States, global warming, Great Weatherman in the Sky, Mid-Atlantic States, nation's capital, pretty white face, snow blankets East Coast, two feet of snow
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Swiss Vote to Ban New Minarets
The New York Times reports: Switzerland’s political right on Sunday scored a surprising victory in a referendum on banning construction of minarets, denting the nation’s cherished image as a bastion of tolerance and threatening to set it at odds with … Continue reading
Posted in Islam, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged ban, kosovo, minarets, mosques, muslims, referendum, S.V.P., Swiss People's Party, Switzerland, Turkey
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Yisroel Pensack: The National Football League’s Headless Head Injury Committee
The New York Times reports: In the latest indication that the National Football League will redirect its approach to players’ concussions, the co-chairmen of the league’s committee on brain injuries resigned from the group Tuesday, the league announced. Dr. Ira … Continue reading
Posted in New York Times, Sports, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged co-chairmen, cognitive decline, Commissioner Roger Goodell, committee on brain injuries, concussions, Congress, dementia, Dr. David Viano, Dr. Elliot Pellman, Dr. Ira Casson, football players, N.F.L., National Footbal League, scientists
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Judge Denies Rubashkin Bail Bid
The Des Moines Register reports: A federal judge has denied Sholom Rubashkin’s request to be released on bail until he is sentenced on 86 financial fraud convictions. Chief Judge Linda Reade ruled that Rubashkin, the former vice president of Agriprocessors, … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Orthodoxy, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged 86 financial fraud convictions, bail, des moines register, escape risk, flee the country, Hosam Amara, Judge Linda Reade, kosher slaughterhouse, Linn County Correctional Facility, northeast iowa, postville, sentencing, Sholom Rubashkin
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