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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:
- Ten Years of Talmud Postings: What the Job Market Bought, 2016 to 2026
- Cofnas, Lynn, and the Control Case
- The Arday Affair and the Coalition Test
- What the Arday Coverage Established: A First Claim-Level Audit, Including the Results That Cut Against My Own Thesis
- Two Carrier Groups and a Market in Testimony: Cultural Trauma Theory and the Arday Affair
- What the Institutions Were Buying: A Demand-Side Account of the Jason Arday Appointments
- Who Is Cheap to Threaten: Legal Deterrence and the Selection of Publishers
- ‘Jason Arday: The Most Extreme Academic Plagiarism Case in Modern History | Nathan Cofnas’
- The Vanishing Author: First-Person Density in Luke Ford’s Archive, 2007 to 2026
- Four Dates and No Cause: What Changed Luke Ford’s Blogging Between Late 2023 and Late 2025
- Two Defensible Denominators: What a Standard Accusation Dictionary Says About Luke Ford’s Archive, and Why It Says the Opposite Thing Twice
- The Second Collapse: Twenty Years of Luke Ford’s Publication Threshold, Measured
- Luke Ford and the E-Personality: Twenty-Nine Years of Disinhibition, Self-Regulation, and the Price of Friction
- The Room Around the Argument: Audience Sorting at Outside the Beltway, 2003-2026
- Steven Taylor, James Joyner and the E-Personality: Aboujaoude’s Virtually You Tested on Twenty Years of Outside the Beltway
- Amy Wax and the E-Personality: A Claim-Level Analysis, 1996-2026
- After Cathy’s Table: How Digital Platforms Reshaped a Generation of Professional Writers
- Nathan Cofnas and the E-Personality: The Auditor, the Performer, and the Cambridge Investigation
- The E-Personality of the Public Intellectual
- NYT: ‘What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?’
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: Hasidim
Reason & Religion
Jeff emails: The Litvaks were not more “rational” than the Chassidim, in fact, the Gra and R. Haim were major league Kabbalists, the Gra wrote more on Kabbala than he did on Talmud, and we have R. Haim Brisker’s kavvanot … Continue reading
Posted in Hasidim
Tagged chassidim, halacha, jewish tradition, kabbala, mendelsohnn, rambam
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Hasidim Don’t Study Torah On Christmas Eve
In a lecture for Torah in Motion on Christmas Eve, 2009, Professor Marc B. Shapiro says: This has got to be the strangest thing that Hasidim do and they do a lot of strange things. Some of you might have … Continue reading
Posted in Benyamin Cohen, Christianity, Hasidim, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged Benyamin Cohen, Marc B. Shapiro, slate magazine, study torah, torah in motion, word christmas
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Making God Look Bad To The World
In his fifth lecture on Rabbi Joseph Elijah Henkin (the leading posek in America during the 1940s and 1950s) for Torah in Motion, Rabbi Marc B. Shapiro says: Rav Henkin says Jews must be careful about how they speak about … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, Hasidim, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged David Kelsey, haredi world, Marc B. Shapiro, noahide laws, orthodox jews, orthodox world, pearl gluck, rabbi joseph, torah in motion, traditional judaism
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The Hasidim Conquered America
From a Jewish Press interview with Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff: Today we all wear uniforms. What is the concept of wearing a uniform? What is chassidus all about? It’s beautiful. You have a social order, you build a wall around yourself … Continue reading
Posted in Hasidim, R. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff
Tagged black hats, chassidic rebbe, rabbi aaron, rosh yeshiva, roshei yeshiva, torah jew
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The Story Of The Hasidic Actors Guild
Yisrael Lifschutz writes: HAG: The Story of the Hassidic Actors Guild is a serio-comic (HAG logo "Pay Us For Payos") hybrid of fact and fiction focusing on the life of Ysrael "Izzi" Lifschutz who has served as an actor and/or … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi, Hasidim, Hollywood
Tagged basketball hall of fame, jcc of manhattan, jcc on the palisades, jewish film festival, kaplan jcc, sports hall of fame
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Yisroel Pensack: San Francisco Orthodox Shul Plans $4.5 Million Building Renovation and Partial Redesign
Congregation Chevra Thilim, which describes itself as "San Francisco’s oldest Orthodox congregation," has launched a $4.5 million fundraising drive to renovate, partially redesign and upgrade its large sanctuary and social hall. The project also includes plans for new classrooms as … Continue reading
Posted in Brooklyn, Chabad, Conservative Judaism, Hasidim, Orthodoxy, San Francisco, Synagogue, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged Beth Sholom, Congegation Chevra Thilim, fundraising, redesign, renovation, upgrade
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Lonely Hasidic Men
Where will they find solace? Will the Torah be enough? The New York Times reports: In July and August, many families there head for bungalow colonies in the Catskills, leaving behind men who work all week and reunite with their … Continue reading
Posted in Hasidim, New York
Tagged borough park, bungalow colonies, lively family, rabbi shlomo, weekday nights, york times reports
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Celebrating Lag B’Omer With Bonfires
"How is that good for Los Angeles?" I thought when I was reading a press release for a Lag B’Omer bonfire Monday night. "We have bad air pollution in LA and bonfires will only add to it. What will the … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi, Hasidim, Hirhurim, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
Tagged air pollution, bonfires, chasam sofer, chopped liver, goyim, jerusalem post, lag b omer, lag baomer, unnecessary pollution
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Rav Soloveitchik Predicted There Would Never Be Hasidic Judaism In America
During World War II, there were fewer than 100 Satmar families in the United States. Now the Satmar are the most numerous Hasidic group, about 125,000 presently. In a lecture on the Satmar Rav for Torah in Motion, historian Marc … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi, Hasidim, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged chaim herzog, judaism in america, lubavitcher rebbe, Marc B. Shapiro, rav soloveitchik, reb moshe, torah in motion, torah scholar
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Hasidic Rabbi Convicted Of Molesting His Daughter
The New York Daily News reports: A Hasidic rabbi who defended himself against charges of molesting his daughter over a seven-year period was convicted on all counts Wednesday by a jury in Brooklyn Federal Court. The victim, now 27, was … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Hasidim
Tagged brooklyn federal court, hasidic rabbi, john gleeson, new york daily news, sex crimes, u s marshals
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