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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:
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: A Life Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
- Strange Bedfellows in the Academy: Alliance Theory and the Straussian Schism
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
- Tournier on Cinema Paradiso and Desmond Ford
- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- A Place For You
- 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
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- * 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)
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* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
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Category Archives: Chabad
The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Chabad Authority
Chabad-Lubavitch does not frame its internal struggles as contests for power. It frames them as questions of fidelity, mission, and continuity. But the same structure appears here as everywhere else in this series. High-status actors deploy moral languages that justify … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad
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Why Is Chabad In The News?
Chabad is taking a beating lately from people who know little about it. My first instinct, as someone who admires Chabad, is to call this evil and senseless. But first instincts are often lazy. Let me use my second and … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Tucker Carlson
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Why Is Tucker Attacking Chabad?
Why is Chabad getting called a Jewish supremacist cult? Doesn’t every group think it is best? I have a personal bias here. I love Chabad. Most Lubavitchers I know are happy, healthy, energetic people. On the other hand, some people … Continue reading
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Decoding The Rogatchover
Per Alliance Theory: Joseph Rosen, known as the Rogatchover Gaon, was not merely an intellectual outlier; he was a strategic solution to the problem of fragmented rabbinic authority during a period of massive ideological and geographic displacement. His role was … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Rogachover
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Decoding Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum
Per Alliance Theory: Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum did not just lead a community; he constructed a social fortress. Using Alliance Theory and Niche Construction provides a clear lens to see how he turned a shattered population into a global demographic power. … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Modern Orthodox, Satmar
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Code of Silence Documentary About Sexual Abuse Inside Orthodox Judaism (2014)
YT: “CODE OF SILENCE, a one-hour COMPASS special, follows the parallel journeys of a fervently Orthodox Jewish father and his now-secular son, after the son breaks the code of silence in Melbourne’s Orthodox community and goes public with his story … Continue reading
Modern Orthodoxy’s Affordability Crisis
The affordability crisis in Los Angeles is dismantling the traditional Modern Orthodox middle-class lifestyle with the methodical efficiency of a structural force rather than a cultural choice. In Pico-Robertson and Hancock Park, home prices have escalated so rapidly that price-to-income … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Los Angeles, Modern Orthodox
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Decoding Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
ChatGPT says: Per Alliance Theory: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is a celebrity-broker and attention arbitrageur whose core function is to convert mass media visibility into personal authority while remaining only loosely accountable to any single Jewish alliance. He is not a … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Shmuley Boteach
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Decoding Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of Satmar
Written with AI: Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of Satmar represents the “Sovereign Enclave” model of alliance coordination. In David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory framework, Satmar does not just seek to influence the social marketplace; it seeks to exit it entirely and build … Continue reading
Decoding The Differences Between Chabad & Aish HaTorah
Aish HaTorah and Chabad are both Orthodox outreach movements, but they solve different alliance problems and recruit different kinds of defectors. This is not a difference of style or personality. It is a difference of strategy, and the distinction cascades … Continue reading
Posted in Aish HaTorah, Chabad
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