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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:
- Robert Putnam: The Man Who Counted What America Lost
- W. Bradford Wilcox: The Sociologist Who Tells America to Get Married
- Peter Moskos: The Cop Who Talks to People
- Julius Krein
- Ryan Burge: The Numbers Man in the Empty Church
- Emily Oster: The Economist in the Delivery Room
- The Most Ridiculous Story Ever Told
- Tanner Greer
- Economist Tyler Cowen
- Richard Reeves: A Life in Institutions
- Jake Adelstein: The Reporter Who Became His Story
- 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
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: Judaism
The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day
I just picked up this new book — The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day — by Seventh-Day Adventist Sigve K. Tonstad. He’s on the Religion and Medicine faculty at Loma Linda University. I’m thinking about the title. I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Adventist, Christianity, Judaism
Tagged exodus from egypt, loma linda university, observing the sabbath, religion and medicine, sabbath keeping churches, sabbath morning, seventh day adventists
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Yisroel Pensack: Some Thoughts on the Sentencing Hearing of Sholom Rubashkin
A sentencing hearing in the financial fraud case of former Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse manager and Lubavitcher chassid Sholom Rubashkin is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Wednesday) in federal court in Iowa. There is a concept in Judaism that each Shabbat “blesses,” … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Chabad, Ethics, Fraud, Judaism, Kashrut, Torah, Truth, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged animal slaughter, chillul Hashem, conduit for blessing, confession, egypt, federal court, Iowa, lubavitcher, lubavitcher rebbe, Pesach sheni, Rashi, sacrificing animals, second Passover, sentencing hearing, shabbat, Sholom Rubashkin, wages, weights and measures, yom kippur
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They Trust The Heart, We Trust The Law
I just watched all four episodes of the BBC drama North & South, set in 19th Century England. It was very romantic and charming and traditional. Reminded me a bit of Orthodox Judaism, until these goyim started excusing each other’s … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Judaism, Personal
Tagged 19th century england, bbc drama, fornicating, goyim, orthodox judaism, religion christianity
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Christian Compassion
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Posted in Christianity, Holocaust, Judaism, Personal
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Dennis Prager’s First Column For The Jewish Journal Of Los Angeles
I feared there would be no original content in Prager’s column. He’d just rehash things he’d said thousands of times before. I was wrong. There’s an original story about his first book: We sent the manuscript to the Jewish Publication … Continue reading
Posted in Dennis Prager, Jews, Judaism
Tagged Dennis Prager, jewish book, Jewish Journal, jewish publication society, simon and schuster
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Shanda!
Joe emails: A reform jew is walking down the street and he looks in the window of the kosher deli. He does a double take as he is utterly shocked to see his reform synagogue’s pulpit rabbi eating lunch. He … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism
Tagged Kashrut, kosher deli, reform jew, reform synagogue, shanda
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Women Don’t Like Jokes About Getting Married
I’ve never known a girlfriend who enjoyed me making jokes about marrying her, making pretend offers to marry her. They never laughed. They never found it funny. As soon as you can laugh about something, it means it’s not a … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, Marriage, Personal
Tagged happiest man in the world, internalization, jewish humor, performance art, religious divide, workmen
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The Awareness Center’s First Annual Dreidel Challenge
Vicki Polin emails: Many Jewish survivors of childhood sexual abuse have a difficult time over holidays, just like Hanukkah. Unfortunately, in some homes abuse gets worst when tensions mount. For some Hanukkah can be a mixture of both good and … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Judaism, Vicki Polin
Tagged Awareness Center, childhood sexual abuse, family gatherings, incest survivor, jewish survivors, survivors of childhood sexual abuse
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Divine Truth?
From The Jerusalem Post: A niggling curiosity about colors started the whole thing. “For many years, I found myself idly wondering if the name value of colors mentioned in the Bible had any relationship to their wave frequency,” says Ben-Gurion … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism
Tagged ben gurion university, hebrew name, hebrew names, horizontal axis, jerusalem post, outrageous suggestion
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