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- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
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* 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)
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Category Archives: Lakewood
When The Texts Are the Costume: Coalition Warfare and Halachic Discourse in the Lakewood Boycott and the Haredi Draft Crisis
The Lakewood beit din boycott and the Haredi draft crisis in Israel are not separate phenomena. They are two expressions of the same underlying structure. Lakewood concerns control over who may enter the marriage pool. The draft crisis concerns control … Continue reading
Posted in Lakewood, Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
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The Costume and the War: Halachic Dispute as Coalition Warfare in the 2025 Lakewood Boycott
The academic study of Orthodox Judaism has developed a sophisticated language for describing internal change. It can map ideological shifts, note sociological pressures, and gesture at “political factors.” What it does not do is cross the line into naming certain … Continue reading
Influencers Investigate Haredi Jews For Welfare Abuse
Inspired by Nick Shirley‘s investigation of Somali fraud in Minnesota, we now have MAGA influencers investigating Orthodox Jewish welfare fraud. Matt Forney posts: I’m starting to have a problem with influencers harassing Orthodox Jews for clout. Orthodox Jews are such … Continue reading
Decoding Lakewood’s Orthodox Jews
Per Alliance Theory: Lakewood functions as a high-density processing plant for the Orthodox soul. In David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, it represents the final stage of institutional capture, where the alliance no longer needs to negotiate with the surrounding environment because … Continue reading
Decoding Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood
Written with AI: Through Alliance Theory, Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG) is best understood as a sovereignty-concentration engine whose purpose is to preserve, reproduce, and enforce ultra-Orthodox authority at scale by maximizing scholarship density, dependency, and boundary clarity. BMG is not … Continue reading
NJ.com: ‘3 more Lakewood houses raided in multi-million dollar welfare fraud investigation’
I had a Jewish girlfriend who was warned by cops in Los Angeles to keep her dog on a leash. When she thought they were gone, she let her dog off the leash. The police came back and wrote her … Continue reading
How Benefits Fraud Scam Spread So Widely In Orthodox Town
Similar scams are going on in many Orthodox communities. There’s no connection, in my experience, between Jewish observance and honesty. In much of the world, the word “Jew” is synonymous with dishonesty in business. Judaism is a system of dual … Continue reading
Shlomo Rechnitz & The 8th Principle Of The Jewish Faith
Marc B. Shapiro writes: The assumption of R. Navarra is also found in, of all places, Shlomo Rechnitz’s famous (or infamous, depending your perspective) speech on the Lakewood school situation. In this incredibly courageous speech, delivered, as it were, in … Continue reading
Posted in Lakewood, Shlomo Rechnitz, Torah
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VIDEO: A Path-Breaking Speech by R’ Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz About Serious Issues Facing Lakewood
Yair Hoffman writes: Every so often a speech comes along that not only has a remarkable impact upon its audience, but it changes the trajectory of where that society is heading. Churchill gave such a speech in May of 1940 … Continue reading
Posted in Lakewood, Orthodoxy, Shlomo Rechnitz
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The Victory Of The Orthodox Jewish Extremists
In his fourth lecture on the Steipler for Torah in Motion, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “Why are so many extremist figures leaders in our era? Rav Ahron Kotler, the Steipler, Rav Shach. “People are looking for extremism. Moderation is … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi, Lakewood, Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
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