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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:
- Scott Pelley and the End of the Network-News Tradition
- Eric Schulzke: A Life Across the Academy, the Newsroom, and the Prison Gate
- Rob Stutzman: A Life in the California Political Trade
- Catherine Seipp and the Network That Replaced the Newsroom
- NYT: ‘Why Does No One Care About the World Cup This Year?’
- Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists
- Autumn Gold: Secrecy, Time, and the Recovery of Truth
- Eric Longabardi: An Investigative Journalist Between Two Media Orders
- Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas
- The Workplace City: John L. Smith and the Lives Behind Las Vegas
- The Man on the Floor: Peter Berg and the Cinema of Competence
- Who Governs: The Work of Taylor Sheridan
- Ben Mezrich: Mythographer of Disruption
- The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility
- Carl von Clausewitz: An Intellectual Biography
- The Translator: David Klinghoffer and the Argument Against Materialism
- The Norm Explainers
- Show Me How It Travels
- The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth
- Richard B. Spencer: The Man Who Branded the Alt-Right
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* American Epistemics (1-19-26)
* The Most Socially Toxic Inconvenient Truths (1-18-26)
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* 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)
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Category Archives: Haredi
Should Jewish Women Cover Their Faces When They Go Outside?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: A long time ago I was asked to deal with the so-called Jewish Taliban women, who completely cover their faces when they go out. I know that everyone has downplayed their significance and referred to … Continue reading
Should A Religious Jew Save The Life Of A Non-Religious Jew?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro blogs: Here is another responsum, by R. Israel David Harfenes, Nishmat Shabbat, vol. 5 no. 500:4. The author is asked if you can violate Shabbat to save the lives of irreligious Jews who came from the … Continue reading
How Do The Haredim Feel About The Non-Haredim?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro blogs: One of the leaders of the extremist haredim is R. Moshe Sternbuch. Here is the first page of a responsum he wrote (Teshuvot ve-Hanhagot, vol. 1, no. 816) in which he states that if a … Continue reading
What Would A Haredi Israel Look Like?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro blogs: I can’t speak about the haredi man on the street, but examination of the writings of the haredi leadership – and in the haredi world that is what really matters – shows that time and … Continue reading
Pearl Reich – The Hasidic Hottie
Gothamist posts: A 30-year-old mother of four, aspiring model, and former member of Brooklyn’s Hasidic community is fighting for a divorce from her allegedly abusive husband and for custody of her children. “It was an arranged marriage,” Pearlperry Reich tells … Continue reading
The World Of Chabad-Lite
Chabad is an elite religion. It has long prided itself as the most intellectual of the Hasidim, the group most devoted to Torah study. Over the past 40 years, Chabad has devoted itself to outreach and it is easy to … Continue reading
Jews Running Scams
I don’t think Jews are any more dishonest than other people, but I have found pockets of Jewish life (from secular to Orthodox) that are cool with running scams. Jews who are the most invested in the greater society are … Continue reading
A Photo Of A Teenage Rebbe Swimming Topless
In his second lecture on R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: “I am in possession of a lengthy autobiography of an important rosh yeshiva who is no longer alive. This autobiography … Continue reading
Can You Be Modern Orthodox And Accept Da’as Torah?
According to Wikipedia: Da’as Torah (or Da’at Torah, Da’as Toyreh) (Hebrew: דעת תורה, literally “Knowledge of Torah”), is a concept in Haredi Judaism according to which Jews should seek the input of rabbinic scholars not just on matters of Jewish … Continue reading
Israel’s Haredi Welfare State
In his first lecture on R. Joseph Mesas for Torah in Motion, professor Marc B. Shapiro says: The Talmud says explicitly that if you don’t work, if all you do is study, it will lead to thievery. “This society of … Continue reading