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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)
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- 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)
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Category Archives: Judaism
The Hero System of Literary Critic Robert Alter
Robert Alter (b. 1935) gives part of a working morning to the word “and.” In the Hebrew of Genesis the verses run on the conjunction vav. And the earth welter and waste. And darkness over the deep. And God said. … Continue reading
‘A Big Misunderstanding’
David Pinsof writes: I spend a lot of time with intellectuals—writers, thinkers, social scientists, etc. If I had to sum up their worldview in one sentence, I could hardly do better than this one: “Everything that’s wrong in the world … Continue reading
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Lawrence Grossman and the Institutional Record of American Judaism
Lawrence Grossman stands among the scholar-editors who shaped the documentary record of postwar American Judaism from inside the institutions they studied. A native New Yorker, he earned his rabbinical ordination along with BA and MHL degrees from Yeshiva University and … Continue reading
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The Market For Chastisement
One thing that surprised me in my journey into Judaism was how user-friendly it was. From the outside, Orthodox Judaism looked intimidating. From the inside, it was sweet. While my conversion was not easy, that was largely due to my … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, R. Avigdor Miller
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‘Jewish Studies Draws a Line on Tablet’
This 2022 article by Mari Cohen says The Association for Jewish Studies paused its advertising relationship with Tablet after members complained. The AJS statement noted that some members felt direct harm from views Tablet had promulgated. The specific grievances included … Continue reading
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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
Decoding Jewish New Testament Scholar Amy Jill-Levine
Per Alliance Theory: Amy-Jill Levine functions as a high-status neutral arbiter who manages the inflation of moral threats between competing religious coalitions. According to the framework of David Pinsof, humans use moral language and scholarship to coordinate alliances and attack … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Amy Jill-Levine, Anti-Semitism, Bible, Christianity, Judaism
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Orthodox Judaism’s Leading Apologists
From age eight to eleven, living at Avondale College in Australia, I had to read thirty to forty pages of Christian apologetics every day but the Sabbath and then type a one-page summary to show my father I had understood … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Judaism, Marc B. Shapiro, R. J. B. Soloveitchik, R. Natan Slifkin
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Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism by Aaron W. Hughes (2014)
Aaron W. Hughes’s book, Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism, presents a critique of Jewish philosophy that aligns closely with David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory. Hughes argues that “Jewish philosophy” is not a neutral quest for truth but a form … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, Philosophy
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The Rise & Fall Of Rabbinic Judaism
ChatGPT says: Alliance Theory would see rabbinic, Talmud-centered Judaism not mainly as a theological development but as one of the most successful long-run alliance-engineering projects in history, followed by partial fragmentation under modernity. Rise. After the destruction of the Second … Continue reading
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