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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:
- After the Kings: Ben Fordham and the Remaking of 2GB Breakfast
- The Entertainer’s Exemption: John Laws and the Price of Trust
- What the Record Shows: David Marr and the Uses of Evidence
- Peopling the Emptiness: The Life of Patrick White
- Crossing Lines: Nick McKenzie and the Limits of Method
- Australian Investigative Journalist Chris Masters: The Man Who Saw In
- The Unwinder: George Packer and the Study of American Decline
- Thomas Edsall: The Reporter Who Treated Politics as a System
- Ross Douthat and the Persistence of Belief
- Joseph Kahn and the Stewardship of The New York Times
- The Institutionalist: Dean Baquet and the Remaking of American Journalism
- The Publisher Always Wins – A Jill Abramson Biography
- Howard Zinn – The Historian Who Took Sides
- Linton Besser: A Reporter and the Paper Trail
- Gerald Stone and the Making of Australian Current Affairs
- Paul Barry: A Chronicler of Australian Power
- The Dean of Revolutionary Scholarship: Gordon S. Wood, 1933-2026
- The Last Generalist: Bob Ellis and Australian Public Life
- WEHT to Investigative Journalism?
- The Genius Myth: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers
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: Marc B. Shapiro
The Historian Who Gets Me Excited About Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is tough. There are so many required rituals, it can drive you crazy if you’re not born into it. One thing that keeps me going is inspiring Torah study and my favorite teacher for the past decade is … Continue reading
Orthodox Rabbi Attacks Belief In Divine Nature Of The Zohar
This video is a trip: Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: “I have no idea who the speaker is, and if he has ever even read a page of the Zohar, but he does seem very sure of himself. I have … Continue reading
Using Slave Labor To Build Our Holy Temple In Jerusalem
Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: Regarding the Sacks siddur, I recommend that all listen to the wonderful dialogue between Rabbi Sacks and Leon Wieseltier available here. I have to say, however, that I was surprised to hear Sacks say at … Continue reading
Can We Trust R. Moses De Leon?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: “…R. Moses de Leon and the creation of the Zohar, and it is questionable if one can even speak of a single author. One essential point that must be recognized by all who investigate this … Continue reading
The Jewish Ritual Of Washing Hands Upon Waking
Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: “R. Yitzhak Abadi discusses this in Or Yitzhak, vol. 1, no. 1. He begins his responsum by pointing out that despite the fact that the Mishnah Berurah records how one is not to walk four … Continue reading
Is The World’s Most Prolific Writer Of Torah Publications A Plagiarist?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: The following page comes from R. Yehiel Michel Stern’s Ha-Torah ha-Temimah on the Book of Joshua, p. 84 no. 3, which appeared in 2009. As you can see, Stern’s comment is lifted word for word … Continue reading
Don’t Pick Your Nose In Public
I find it disconcerting how many of the elementary courtesies are ignored by many in Orthodox Judaism. For instance, picking your nose in public. It’s widespread among my Orthodox friends. Historian Marc B. Shapiro writes: …R. Eliezer Melamed – who … Continue reading
Do you think Orthodox Jews in America are more likely to be honest in business than the average Jew?
Historian Marc B. Shapiro replies to my email: “Absolutely no.”
Evidence For God’s Existence
In his third lecture on R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk for Torah in Motion, historian Marc B. Shapiro says: The best proof for me of the truth of Torah it is not at all intellectual. It’s the feeling of a … Continue reading
You cannot be a Lubavitcher and be a Zionist
In his second lecture on R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin for Torah in Motion, historian Marc B. Shapiro says: You cannot be a Lubavitcher and be a Zionist. Lubavitch was always opposed to Zionism. Practically, you can support the state. When … Continue reading