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"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
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- * 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)
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* 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: Los Angeles
Rabbis Who Built Orthodox Judaism In Los Angeles
Per Alliance Theory: Rabbi Elazar Muskin Long-term coalition manager. Excelled at holding a broad donor-professional alliance together without splintering. High trust, low drama, strong institutional continuity. Rabbi Marvin Hier Alliance entrepreneur. Mapped Orthodoxy onto global Jewish politics, media, and power. … Continue reading
Posted in Los Angeles, Orthodoxy, Rabbis
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How LA’s Elite Private Schools View Each Other
Per Alliance Theory: The “Blue Chip” Academic Powerhouses Harvard‑Westlake School (Studio City / Beverly Hills) and Brentwood School are widely seen as the academic and social gold standard. They are known for intense college prep, competitive admissions, and Ivy League … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Los Angeles
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LAT: LAFD tried to protect Bass from ‘reputational harm’ stemming from after-action report
The Los Angeles Times reports: Shortly before releasing an after-action report on the Palisades fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a confidential memo detailing plans to protect Mayor Karen Bass and others from “reputational harm” in connection with the … Continue reading
Posted in Los Angeles
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Modern Orthodoxy’s Affordability Crisis
The affordability crisis in Los Angeles is dismantling the traditional Modern Orthodox middle-class lifestyle with the methodical efficiency of a structural force rather than a cultural choice. In Pico-Robertson and Hancock Park, home prices have escalated so rapidly that price-to-income … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Los Angeles, Modern Orthodox
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Decoding Rabbi Yehuda Bukspan
Written with AI: Rabbi Yehuda Bukspan in Los Angeles is a frontline coalition manager operating in one of the most volatile Orthodox ecosystems in North America. Los Angeles Orthodoxy is unusually fragmented. Modern Orthodox professionals, Persian Jews, Israelis, Haredi enclaves, … Continue reading
Posted in Los Angeles, R. Yehuda Bukspan
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Decoding Nithya Raman
Nithya Raman, the City Councilmember for District 4, is currently the most significant challenger to LA mayor Karen Bass from the left. She entered the race just before the February deadline. Though she previously endorsed Bass, Raman now positions herself … Continue reading
Posted in Los Angeles
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Decoding LA Mayor Karen Bass
Written with AI: Karen Bass is not best understood as an ideologue or visionary reformer. She is a coalition manager whose primary skill is alliance maintenance under stress. Her rise comes from solving a very specific coordination problem inside the … Continue reading
Posted in Karen Bass, Los Angeles
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LA is Weak as a Post-18 Orthodox Alliance Hub
Most graduates of Orthodox day schools in Los Angeles leave town. Why? Orthodox high school graduates leave LA because LA is weak as a post-18 alliance hub, while Israel and NYC are strong ones. Young adults migrate toward places that … Continue reading
Posted in Los Angeles, Orthodoxy
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Decoding Bais Yaakov of Los Angeles
Per Alliance Theory: Bais Yaakov of Los Angeles is a high-boundary retention institution whose purpose is to lock in Orthodox female identity by making defection socially, morally, and aspirationally unnecessary. Its core function is not academics in the conventional sense. … Continue reading
Posted in Los Angeles, Orthodoxy
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LAT: Bass helped Raman win reelection. Now Raman wants to unseat her. Some call it ‘a betrayal’
The Los Angeles Times reports: Raman’s entry into the race, hours before the filing deadline, shocked the city’s political elite and infuriated the mayor’s supporters. Some observers called it a betrayal of Shakespearean proportions. Raman’s name had appeared on a … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Blacks, Los Angeles
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