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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:
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- A Place For You
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
- Tournier on Cinema Paradiso and Desmond Ford
- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
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: New York
Jacob Bernstein and the Chronicling of American Elites
Jacob Bernstein (b. August 22, 1978) is an American journalist and documentary filmmaker who writes long-form features for The New York Times. He was born in New York City, the elder son of the investigative journalist Carl Bernstein (b. 1944) … Continue reading
Posted in New York, New York Times
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The Hero System of Zohran Mamdani
Just after midnight on January 1, 2026, in the abandoned City Hall subway station under Lower Manhattan, Zohran Mamdani (b. 1991) takes the oath of office on the Quran. He uses two copies, his grandfather’s and one that belonged to … Continue reading
Posted in New York
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Moral Grammars of American Elite Life: Four Cities and Four Accounts of Legitimate Influence
From a distance, American elite life looks like one culture. Up close it splits into rival moral orders, and the clearest fault lines run between cities. New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington each reward a different virtue, punish … Continue reading
Posted in Elites, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C.
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The Archipelago: High-Status Social Cliques in New York, 2026
New York in 2026 has no ruling class. It has a federation of rival enclaves, each one a court, each one convinced its own currency of prestige is the true gold standard. Finance has money. Fashion has taste. Technology has … Continue reading
Posted in New York
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for New York’s Master Institutions
New York’s high-status actors do not compete for power by admitting they want it. They compete by invoking moral languages that frame their authority as necessary for growth, justice, safety, or stability. This is the central insight of David Pinsof‘s … Continue reading
Posted in New York
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Decoding The Rise Of Zohran Mamdani
Unlike my friends who are 100% convinced that Zohran Mamdani will be a terrible mayor, I think there’s a decent chance that Mamdani will be a good mayor (about 10%) and a solid chance he’ll be an average mayor (20%). … Continue reading
NYT: In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush With Public Money
The New York Times reported Sep. 11, 2022: The Hasidic Jewish community has long operated one of New York’s largest private schools on its own terms, resisting any outside scrutiny of how its students are faring. But in 2019, the … Continue reading
Decoding The Orthodox Jews Of Williamsburg
Per Alliance Theory: Williamsburg is a high-intensity, ideologically consolidated Hasidic alliance built to preserve total identity inside a hostile-modern environment. Through David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, it differs from Borough Park by being less pluralistic and more doctrinally unified. The Monopoly … Continue reading
Decoding Borough Park’s Orthodox Jews
Per Alliance Theory: Borough Park is a multi-polar federation of alliances that operates as a high-density “safe harbor” within a secular megacity. In David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, it is the ultimate example of parallel sovereignty—where dozens of competing and cooperating … Continue reading
How do members of Manhattan’s elite Orthodox shuls see each other?
Per Alliance Theory: Upper East Side Modern Orthodox elites Examples: Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ) Congregation Ramaz Park East Synagogue Self-view Establishment Orthodoxy. Cultured, educated, donor-class, historically central. Torah with dignity, restraint, and social polish. How they view the downtown/right-leaning MO … Continue reading