- https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback
"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)
Category Archives: Orthodox Union
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
Comments Off on The Sophisticated Silence: Sinai, Taboo Enforcement, and the Architecture of Modern Orthodox Theology
Decoding Rabbi Alan Kalinsky (West Coast Director Of The Orthodox Union)
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, Rabbi Alan Kalinsky is best understood as a regional alliance governor whose core function is to keep Orthodoxy operational, coherent, and connected across a vast, low-density, high-variance territory. He is not a visionary ideologue or … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodox Union
Comments Off on Decoding Rabbi Alan Kalinsky (West Coast Director Of The Orthodox Union)
Decoding The Orthodox Union
ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, the Orthodox Union is best understood as a central coordination hub for an Orthodox Jewish alliance whose purpose is to manage diversity, sustain cohesion, and defend collective legitimacy in a pluralistic world. The OU does … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodox Union
Comments Off on Decoding The Orthodox Union
In Rare Unity, Orthodox and Liberal Denominations Are Critical of Trump Refugee Ban
JTA: Two large groups representing Orthodox Jews responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring migrants from seven mostly Muslim countries and refugees from around the world by warning against policies that would place any limits on immigration based on … Continue reading
Posted in Jews, Orthodox Union
Comments Off on In Rare Unity, Orthodox and Liberal Denominations Are Critical of Trump Refugee Ban
US Orthodox Jewish groups reject Trump call to bar Muslims
Jewish groups have universally lined up against Donald Trump on repeated occasions. In other words, they’re siding with the coalition of the fringe (homosexuals, blacks, trannies, latinos, Muslims, etc) against America’s white Christian core. Regular Jews, however, tend to be … Continue reading
Posted in ADL, Donald Trump, Islam, Orthodox Union, RCA
Comments Off on US Orthodox Jewish groups reject Trump call to bar Muslims
JTA: For Jewish groups, Syrian refugees are a reminder — not a threat
I don’t know a single Jew in my real life who wants more Muslims in America. I suspect most Jews in America and in the West don’t want more Muslims around. Yet Jewish elites through the major Jewish organizations keep … Continue reading
Posted in ADL, Immigration, Islam, Orthodox Union
Comments Off on JTA: For Jewish groups, Syrian refugees are a reminder — not a threat
Jewish Groups Push For More Islamic Immigration
Nathan Guttman writes for the Forward: Since the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, Republican presidential candidates, led by Donald Trump, have mainstreamed everything from proposals for registering Muslims nationwide to … Continue reading
Posted in ADL, Immigration, Islam, Orthodox Union
Comments Off on Jewish Groups Push For More Islamic Immigration
Orthodox Union says let Syrian refugees in as House votes for constraints
I heard one Jew gripe about the below: “Think of all the federal security money OU congregations will get after a couple of isolated incidents. Also incidents are good for Kiruv!” WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Orthodox Union joined an array … Continue reading
Posted in Immigration, Islam, Orthodox Union, Syria
Comments Off on Orthodox Union says let Syrian refugees in as House votes for constraints
Orthodox Union In-Fighting
A source says: “There was a huge fight that ended last year. Rabbi Steven Burg was supposed to be rising to a leadership role but was aligned with the losers and had to depart for the Museum of Tolerance. Rabbi … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodox Union, R. Steven Weil
Comments Off on Orthodox Union In-Fighting
The Rebbe Vs The Organized Jewish Community
I sometimes think, and here I must gulp before I can summon the courage to express my shameful thought, and I am sure I must be wrong here and I should not even say this out loud, but between you … Continue reading
Posted in Agudath Israel, Chabad, Haredi, Hasidim, Jews, Orthodox Union
Comments Off on The Rebbe Vs The Organized Jewish Community
