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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:
- Philosopher Derek Parfit
- George Gilder’s Individualist Delusion
- Richard Posner’s Legal Pragmatism
- The MLA: A History
- The Great Delusions in History Theory
- Allan Bloom: The Teacher Who Wanted Your Soul
- The Great Delusions in Literary Theory
- William K. Wimsatt Jr.: The Judge of Evidence
- Larissa MacFarquhar: The Woman Who Slows Judgment Down
- Stanley Fish: A Biography
- Hortense Spillers: The Grammar Lesson
- Paul Gilroy: A Biography
- Walter Benn Michaels: A Biography
- Harvey Cox: The Theologian Who Bet on the City
- Love is Love
- The Great Delusion About The Great Books Curriculum
- Renee DiResta and the Information Wars
- Brandy Zadrozny: The Librarian Who Went to War
- Lee Edelman: The Man Who Said No to the Future
- Henry Louis Gates Jr.: The Man Who Rebuilt the Archive
BEST POSTS:
* American Epistemics (1-19-26)
* The Most Socially Toxic Inconvenient Truths (1-18-26)
* The Luke Ford Genre (1-18-26)
* The Filkins Pivot: Legacy Prestige and the Fracturing of the Chattering Class (1-16-26)
* Decoding The Trump Doctrine (1-4-26)
* If Tatiana Schlossberg were “Tatiana Smith” (12-30-25)
* ‘I’m So Trained’: How The Credential Society Burned Down the Palisades (12-28-25)
* Status Closure and The Lost Generation (12-25-25)
* The Bondi Massacre (12-15-25)
* Sydney Jews Learn That Their Aussie Social Contract Has Become A Suicide Pact (12-15-25)
* Terror in Sydney: Analyzing the “Chanukah by the Sea” Massacre (12-14-25)
* Decoding Nick Fuentes (11-2-25)
* The Landscape of Emotional Sobriety (10-29-30)
* The Rise & Fall Of Air Supply (10-19-25)
* No Kings, No Results: How Elite Pride Replaced Real Progress (10-19-25)
* You Are An Important Soldier In A Great War (9-7-25)
* The Revolt Of The Masses (8-31-25)
* The Covenant of Ashwood (8-24-25)
* If you can’t trust central bankers, then who can you trust? (8-23-25)
* Why Is The Elite Media Singing From The Same Hymnal About The Trump-Putin Summit? (8-17-25)
* Why Do Smart News Operations Sound So Uniformly Dumb So Often? (8-16-25)
* Nobody Is Coming (8-10-25)
* When Elites Restrict Our Speech, It’s Because They Love Truth, Freedom & Democracy (8-3-25)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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