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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:
- 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
- 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
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
Salon: ‘Faced with Donald Trump and David Friedman, Jews must resist the toxic allure of tribalism’
The essence of Judaism and of Jewish identity is tribalism. Jews are a tribe. They are an extended family partly in-bed (to use Steve Sailer’s definition of a race). As a convert to Orthodox Judaism, let me tell you that … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism
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Jews & Racism
An Orthodox Jewish friend says to me: “We’re not racists. We’re bigots. We prefer people who are part of Judaism to those outside of it.” Luke: “But if Jews are a race, which was how Jews were referred to a … Continue reading
Posted in Blacks, Conversion, Judaism, Race
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The State Of Exception
In Judaism, life is almost always the highest value, just as self-preservation is usually the highest value of any nation state. No legal system, no constitution, is able to maintain itself in all contingencies. Sometimes a nation to survive must … Continue reading
Posted in Carl Schmitt, Judaism
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The Trump Tallis and Outsider Journalism
Rabbi Yitzhok Adlerstein writes: When a black pastor in Detroit draped a tallis around the shoulders of The Donald, Jewish tongues started clucking with disapproval. “Cultural appropriation!” “He’s an anti-Semite!” Notably, the vehemence, as best as I could tell, all … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Judaism
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Jews, Judaism & Polygamy
Comment: Polygamy was tolerated, but in general the Old Testament appears to show it in a negative light. I can’t think offhand of any examples where polygamy did not result in major dysfunction. (1) The first mention of polygamy is … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism
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What’s It Like When A Family Member Converts To Judaism?
Is it any different for those left behind if the black sheep had become Catholic or Buddhist or Muslim? Does it feel like a diss of the family? I meet a lot of people who convert to Judaism, but I … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Judaism, Personal
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One Law for Jews, Another Law for Gentiles
Most of the world is tribal and tribal morality is inevitably dual — there’s one morality for how you deal with members of the tribe and another morality for how you deal with outsiders. Judaism is tribal morality (with the … Continue reading
Tchernovitz, Bitzaron and Israel Stiefel
Jay Stiefel (jrstiefel at gmail.com) emails: Hi, Luke- I enjoyed reading your thumbnail bio about Chaim Tchernovitz, founder and publisher of Bitzaron, the international Hebrew monthly. My father, Israel Stiefel (1898-1966) was its chairman during the period that the Rav … Continue reading
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Judaism as world wisdom
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson writes: Nobody today comments on the disproportionate number of Jews in the Supreme Court or in Congress. It is commonplace to hear Yiddish in the entertainment industry, the finance industry, business and academia. That presence is … Continue reading
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100 Africans Convert To Judaism On Island Of Madagascar
As Israel gets richer, people around the world decide to become Jewish. Forward: More than 100 men and women converted to Judaism in Madagascar this month, a historic first for the large island nation off the southeast coast of Africa. … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Conversion, Judaism
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