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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:
- 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
- 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
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: Orthodoxy
Dark Idealism
David Pinsof writes: RightTalkism. The idea that making the world a better place means changing how people talk. Just make people say the right things and all our problems will be solved. (HT Robin Hanson). Dark morality. When morality—the heartfelt … Continue reading
To Be Seen Learning
A man walks into the beis medrash on Shabbos morning. He wears a black Borsalino, brushed, the brim shaped the way the older baalei batim shape it. He takes a seat three rows from the mizrach wall, close enough to … Continue reading
NY Post: ‘Prominent NJ rabbi allegedly sent graphic pic, according to explosive sex-assault suit: ‘Not great. But works’’
The New York Post says: A prominent New Jersey rabbi sexually assaulted a single mom — and even sent her a pic of his genitals, admitting, “Not great. But works” — before launching a cyber-smear campaign against her, court papers … Continue reading
Orthodox Boys & The Champions League Final
Around Los Angeles this morning, hundreds of Orthodox boys had one priority — getting the score of the Champions League final from the gentile security guard. I’m used to boys wanting the Dodger score and the Lakers score, but the … Continue reading
The Silent Son
A young Orthodox man at twenty-three, raised in Pico-Robertson, schooled at a yeshiva, sitting next to his father at the Shabbos table. He has been using oxycodone for two years. He has not told his parents. He has not told … Continue reading
Posted in Addiction, Masculinity, Orthodoxy
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The Heart Attack Euphemism
Young Orthodox men, often married with children, keep dying of drug overdoses. Their families called the deaths heart attacks. The pattern shows up in LA, Brooklyn, Lakewood, and Queens. Rabbi Zvi Gluck of Amudim has reported more than sixty opioid-related … Continue reading
Prof. Kimmy Caplan – Israeli Historian Of Orthodox Judaism
In 1998, Kimmy Caplan published In God We Trust: Salaries and Income of American Orthodox Rabbis, 1881-1924 He puts the immigrant Orthodox rabbinate next to East European mitnagdic rabbis on one side and Reform rabbis and Orthodox cantors on the … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
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The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised (2011)
The book demands a Stephen Turner tacit knowledge frame. Here’s why, with the others slotting in underneath. Marc Shapiro’s argument structure runs like this. Maimonides articulates thirteen propositions as the explicit content of Jewish belief. The subsequent tradition accepts the … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
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The Varieties of Religious Experience
I know Orthodox Judaism is true from my experience of this way of life. At the same time, I welcome every challenge to Orthodox Judaism. My commitment to the mesora (tradition) is unchanged by them because my commitment does not … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
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The Sophisticated Silence: Sinai, Taboo Enforcement, and the Architecture of Modern Orthodox Theology
In 1975, the sociologist Charles S. Liebman described what he called a “silent intellectual split” within American Modern Orthodoxy. Educated rabbis and lay leaders, he observed, often held views about revelation that diverged from the literal claim embedded in Maimonides’ … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox, Orthodox Union, Orthodoxy, R. Norman Lamm, Tamar Ross, Yeshiva University
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