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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:
- Robert Putnam: The Man Who Counted What America Lost
- W. Bradford Wilcox: The Sociologist Who Tells America to Get Married
- Peter Moskos: The Cop Who Talks to People
- Julius Krein
- Ryan Burge: The Numbers Man in the Empty Church
- Emily Oster: The Economist in the Delivery Room
- The Most Ridiculous Story Ever Told
- Tanner Greer
- Economist Tyler Cowen
- Richard Reeves: A Life in Institutions
- Jake Adelstein: The Reporter Who Became His Story
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
- Moira Greyland
- Robert Oscar Lopez: The Inconvenient Witness
- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
- The Pervert’s Progress: Costin Vlad Alamariu and the Making of Bronze Age Pervert
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
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)
Category Archives: Education
‘Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth’
Rabbi Gil Student writes on Hirhurim: Atid published a new booklet, Teaching Toward Tomorrow: Setting an Agenda for Modern Orthodox Education, that contains essays from a symposium on the current state and future directions of Modern Orthodox education. The essays … Continue reading
Posted in Education
Tagged biblical scholarship, educational consequences, hebrew bible, intellectual consequences, orthodox judaism, Solomon Schimmel
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Touro College Opens In Los Angeles
Lindsay Kuhn writes in the Jewish Journal: "At Touro, students are not exposed to literature or films they would consider immodest or indecent, or to a campus life that challenges Orthodox values. Men and women have separate classes at Touro, … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Jewish Journal
Tagged dennis wilen, goyim, jewish calendar, Jewish Journal, webmaster dennis
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Shalhevet ‘Finally Frum’
"Frum" is Jew-speak for religious. Shalhevet’s new head of school, Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach, is getting good reviews around the Orthodox community for bringing in religious discipline. Shalhevet’s sophomore class is down to just eleven students. Shalhevet needs at least 40 … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Shalhevet
Tagged american jews, beverly hills high school, hamilton high school, religious discipline, sophomore class, YULA
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Three New Regimes at LA’s Modern Orthodox High Schools
Jane emails: "Write about the 3 new heads of school in Modern Orthodox high schools – Rabbi Glass at YULA Boys, Rabbi Lieberman at YULA Girls, and Rabbi Weinbach at Shalhevet. Find out what students have to say about R’ … Continue reading
Good News For Jewish Day Schools
Marvin Schick writes: In the best of economic times, most Jewish schools struggle to meet their obligations and they are not able to provide or forced to cut back on services and educational options that would enhance the learning experience. … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Orthodoxy
Tagged american jewry, economic downturn, glorious chapter, holocaust memorials, jewish philanthropy, torah education
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Blacks Score 20% Lower On SATs
From the WSJ: High-school students’ performance on SAT college-entrance exams stalled, and the gap widened between low-scoring minority groups and the overall population, raising questions about the quality of teaching in U.S. schools. Average scores for the class of 2008 … Continue reading
Posted in Blacks, Education
Tagged african american students, college entrance exams, high school students, level math, math scores, reading score
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The Wars of Torah
Jonathan Rosenblum writes for The Jerusalem Post: Teenage haredi girls receive a secular education that is on a par with, and likely superior to, the average student in the state education system. Increasingly, haredi women are going into hi-tech, accounting … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Israel
Tagged golan heights, high school math, Jonathan Rosenblum, sexual peccadilloes, state education system, utter indifference
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Orthodox Rabbi Advocates Free Love
I caught the Shabbos morning sermon by Shalhevet’s new moral leader Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach. He noted that the Talmud says the second temple was destroyed because of needless hatred (sinat chinam) among Jews. Rabbi Weinbach gave the familiar but impractical … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Shalhevet
Tagged love quot, milken high school, morning sermon, orthodox rabbi, rabbi weinbach, shabbos morning
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MINDsprinting Interview
I talked by phone Tuesday morning with Doug Golden, who co-founded MINDsprinting.com with his brother Steve. Luke: "How did you get involved in this?" Doug: "I was an attorney for 25 years. My brother [Steve] founded an internet company that … Continue reading
Posted in Ads, Education
Tagged brother steve, free libraries, quality curricula, rsquo, time knowledge, tuesday morning
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Los Angeles Jewish Day Schools Hurting Financially
They all seem to be running deficits of at least $1 million and all are making budgetary cutbacks. Because of the economic downturn, parents in Beverly Hills in particular are pulling their kids out of Jewish day schools and sending … Continue reading
Posted in Education
Tagged Anshe Emes, budgetary cutbacks, economic downturn, jewish day schools, male member, police detectives
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