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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)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Author Archives: Yisroel Pensack
Feds Dismiss Immigration Charges Against Sholom Rubashkin
The Des Moines Register reports: Federal prosecutors dismissed all immigration charges against former Postville [Iowa] meat plant manager Sholom Rubashkin today, one week after a South Dakota jury convicted him of 86 business-fraud charges. The decision spares Rubashkin a second … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged bail hearing, business fraud charges, Cedar Rapids, convicted, des moines register, Guy Cook, immigration charges, Iowa, Judge Linda Reade, meat plant, Peter Deegan Jr., postville, Sholom Rubashkin, South Dakota
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Fort Hood Massacre
The New York Times reports: WASHINGTON — A Senate committee on Thursday opened the first public hearings into the Fort Hood shootings, with several legislators asserting that the incident in which 13 people were killed was a terrorist attack by … Continue reading
Posted in FBI, Journalism, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged congressional hearings, Fort Hood, Frances Fragos Townsend, homeland security, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, Senate committee, senator joseph lieberman
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U.S. Attorney Nominee for Northern Iowa Criticized Over Agriprocessors Immigration Raid
The New York Times reports: Eleventh-hour criticism is arising over President Obama’s nomination for United States attorney in northern Iowa of a prosecutor who had a leading role in the criminal cases against hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested in a … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Immigration, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged associated press, civil rights, criminal charges, Democrat, eleventh-hour, felony identity-theft charges, Iowa, kosher, meatpacking plant, nominee, northern Iowa, postville, President Obama, prosecutor, Senator Tom Harkin, Sioux Falls, South Dakota State Penitentiary, Stephanie Rose, Supreme Court, United States attorney, victims of exploitation, Woodbury County Jail
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Yisroel Pensack: The New York Times’ Coverage of the Fort Hood Massacre — A Profile in Journalistic Courage
"Was Major [Nidal Malik] Hasan a terrorist…?" The New York Times courageously asked yesterday. Duuuhhhhh.
Posted in Articles, Journalism, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged Fort Hood Massacre, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, profile in jounalistic courage
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Sholom Rubashkin Convicted of 86 Federal Charges in Fraud Scheme Involving Postville, Iowa, Kosher Meat Plant
The Des Moines Register reports: Sioux Falls, S.D. A jury has convicted Sholom Rubashkin of 86 federal charges for his part in a massive fraud scheme at his former meat plant, Agriprocessors Inc., in Postville. Jurors declared Rubashkin guilty … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Chabad, Immigration, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged bank fraud, des moines register, federal, guilty, mail fraud, meat plant, money laundering, postville, Rabbi Shea Hecht, Sholom Rubashkin, Sioux Falls, wire fraud
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Yisroel Pensack: Yemen-Based, Anti-American Muslim Cleric Linked to Fort Hood Suspect Had Connection to 9-11 Hijackers While in U.S.
The New York Times reports: WASHINGTON — Intelligence agencies intercepted communications last year and this year between the military psychiatrist accused of shooting to death 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., and a radical cleric in Yemen known for his … Continue reading
Posted in Afghanistan, FBI, Iraq, Islam, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged 9-11, Anwar al-Awlaki, Colorado, Fort Hood, hijackers, imam, Jarret Brachman, Jihad, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, mosque, muslim, New Mexico, San Diego, Sept. 11 commission, Virginia, Yemen
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Yisroel Pensack: Britain’s Top Court Grapples with “Who Is A Jew?” and “Who Decides?”
The New York Times reports: On the surface, the court was considering a straightforward challenge to the admissions policy of a Jewish high school in London. But the case, in which arguments concluded Oct. 30, has potential repercussions for thousands … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, England, Judaism, New York Times, Orthodoxy, Religion, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged Britain's Supreme Court, british commonwealth, chief rabbi jonathan sacks, Jews' Free School, JFS, london, progressive synagogue, religious schools, who is a jew
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Yisroel Pensack: Store Video of Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Wearing “Traditional Garb”
This CNN video reportedly shows Fort Hood shooting suspect Major Nidal Malik Hasan wearing "traditional garb" while shopping in a convenience store early yesterday morning about seven hours before the shooting. A CNN producer’s narrative from 2:25 to 3:25 in … Continue reading
Posted in Islam, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged cnn, detroit free press, Fort Hood, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, muslim, shooting, suspect, video
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