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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: 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
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)
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Category Archives: Modern Orthodox
The Question MO Will Not Ask
Do you accept historicism (that everything is a product of a time and place)? If not, on what grounds? The question is simple to state. It is difficult to answer. It is the question Modern Orthodox scholarship will not ask, … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, R. Aviad Hollander, R. Shlomo Goren
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Meir Soloveitchik Could be a Real Thinker
David N. Myers and Pini Dunner, “A Haredi Attack on Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik: A Battle over the Brisker Legacy.” Jewish Quarterly Review 105, no. 1 (2015) This is Myers co-authoring with Pini Dunner, who is a complicated figure inside … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox, R. J. B. Soloveitchik, R. Meir Soloveichik
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The Coalition Will See You Now
SCENE: A Manhattan study, lined with sefarim. A RABBI sits at a desk, wearing a dark suit and kippah. A small bust of Lincoln sits prominently on the shelf. He is mid-sentence, speaking to camera. RABBI: As Lincoln said in … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox
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Platform, Pulpit, Archive: Three Models of MO Rabbinic Self-Presentation in Los Angeles
While surfing Rabbi Pini Dunner’s website, I learned: Mavericks, Mystics and False Messiahs NOW AVAILABLE! “A thoroughly engaging introduction to some of the most colorful episodes in Jewish history. A wonderfully enjoyable read.” – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks “Rabbi Pini … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Beth Jacob, Bnai David-Judea, Los Angeles, Modern Orthodox, R. Elazar Muskin, R. Jonathan Sacks, R. Kalman Topp, R. Meir Soloveichik, R. Pini Dunner, R. Yitzchak Etshalom, R. Yosef Kanefsky
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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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The Costume and the War
Raising the Cost of Simplification: Marc B. Shapiro and the Limits of Orthodox Self-Understanding The Librarian of Epistemic Defeat: Marc B. Shapiro and the Orthodox Intellectual After Sinai The Terrain Where They Still Win: Alliance Theory and the Quality of … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
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The Terrain Where They Still Win: Alliance Theory and the Quality of Life Pivot in Modern Orthodoxy
The prevailing narrative in the academic study of Modern Orthodoxy frames the community’s shift from strong epistemic truth claims to pragmatic “quality of life” arguments as intellectual maturation. Educated rabbis, confronted with biblical criticism, archaeology, and historical scholarship, are said … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox
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The Librarian of Epistemic Defeat: Marc B. Shapiro and the Orthodox Intellectual After Sinai
The first essay described what Marc B. Shapiro does. This one describes the world he does it in. That world is Modern Orthodoxy after the collapse of its strongest truth claims, a community where the most intellectually serious rabbis have … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
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Raising the Cost of Simplification: Marc B. Shapiro and the Limits of Orthodox Self-Understanding
Marc B. Shapiro has changed how a living religious tradition understands itself. His career sits at the fault line between academic history and Orthodox Jewish self-definition. His importance lies less in any single book than in the cumulative pressure his … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, R. J. J. Weinberg
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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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