Category Archives: Sephardim

Decoding Porat Yosef – Jerusalem

Per Alliance Theory: Porat Yosef Yeshiva is the prestige restoration project of Sephardi Torah elites after centuries of status loss inside the Ashkenazi dominated yeshiva world. Start with the alliance problem. Pre-modern Sephardi Judaism produced legal giants, philosophers, communal leaders. … Continue reading

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Decoding Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel

ChatGPT says: Through Alliance Theory, the Sephardic Temple on Wilshire in Westwood is best understood as a diasporic prestige-retention institution whose core function is to preserve Sephardic Jewish identity at elite scale without forcing either strict Orthodox closure or full … Continue reading

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Who Are The Mizrahim?

Ashkenazi Jews have an average IQ around 110, Sephardim around 97 and Mizrahim around 92. Comment: The Middle Eastern Jews are better described as Mizrahi, leaving Sephardic to describe the smaller group of Jews descended from the Spanish and Portuguese … Continue reading

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How Smart Are The Sephardim?

Average IQ estimates for Ashkenazi Jews range from 105 to 120. Average Sephardi IQs are about 97 and Mizrahi Jews average 92. The average white IQ is 100, East Asian IQ is 105, Hispanic-American IQ is 90, and African-American IQ … Continue reading

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The greatest drug kingpin in history was an Orthodox Jew who attributed his business success to his careful observance of Jewish law

According to the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia entry on David Sassoon: “his business, which included a monopoly of the opium-trade, extended as far as Yokohama, Nagasaki, and other cities in Japan. Sassoon attributed his great success to the employment of his … Continue reading

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JJ: Will Israel’s achievement gap stall the start-up nation?

The Jewish Journal writes: Jewish Israeli students scored 133 points higher than Arab Israeli students on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests in 2012. And even within the Hebrew-speaking group, students from strong socioeconomic backgrounds scored 100 points … Continue reading

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Mizrahim Vs Sephardic Vs Ashkenazi Life Results In Israel

Mizrahim (Jews from Arab lands) average IQ is about 90, Sephardic average is about 97, Ashkenazi average is about 112, hence their disparate life results and lack of integration. These basic facts of life are missing from this long Mosaic … Continue reading

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Kissing Hands

About a decade ago, I saw a friend at Bnai David-Judea. I shook his hand and he immediately kissed the hand that I had just shaken. I was moved. Over the next few months, I saw some old Sephardi men … Continue reading

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The Last Of The Pure Sephardic Poskim

In a 2008 lecture for Torah in Motion on Rabbi Ben Zion Uzziel (former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel), history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: He’s one of the last of the few Sephardic poskim (deciders of Jewish law). The … Continue reading

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When In Doubt, Call Your Opponents Racists

Whenever I hear the charge of “racism” these days, I’m immediately suspicious because I’m so used to the accusation being tossed around without evidence. I’m also tired of Jews using their putative Orthodox status to lobby for non-Orthodox positions. I’m … Continue reading

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