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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:
- 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)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
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)
Tag Archives: orthodox community
Is ‘Trauma’ Goyisha Thinking?
As I review the entire corpus of Judaic literature in my head, I can’t find much about trauma. I wonder if trauma is goyisha thinking (outside of Torah and hence has no validity)? I remember moving to the United States … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Jews, Marc B. Shapiro, Personal
Tagged average gpa, mongers, moving to the united states, orthodox community, pyschologists, religious issue, sexual abuse, Torah, validity
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Keeping The Shalhevet Dream Alive
Here’s an email making its way around the Los Angeles Orthodox community regarding Shalhevet. A source says: “The Ponzi scheme known as Jewish education has begun to collapse under its own weight. Costs have spiraled and even financially successful families … Continue reading
Posted in Shalhevet
Tagged cheder, jewish day schools, jewish education, orthodox community, ponzi scheme
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The Rookie
There’s one genre of movies that always turns me on — underdog sports dramas. I love them. I watched The Rookie (about Jim Morris) tonight (about four years after I watched it the first time). I was struck about how … Continue reading
Posted in Hollywood, Personal
Tagged anxieties, movie themes, orthodox community, own two feet, self image
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What Animates Rabbi Gershon Bess?
He’s the most powerful Orthodox rabbi in Los Angeles. The yeshiva and kollel communities look to him for guidance. He is the power behind the RCC. What does he want? What is his vision? He strikes me as a man … Continue reading
Posted in R. Gershon Bess, R. Yehuda Bukspan
Tagged bess, David Rue, gershon, Kollel, orthodox community, orthodox rabbi, rabbi elyashiv, RCC
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Conformity In Orthodox Judaism
Should I stay or should I go? If I go, there will be trouble. If I stay, I will be troubled. Damn phone’s not ringing. I don’t care. So you want me to repress my feelings? Just shove them right … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Rabbis, YICC
Tagged dishonorable discharge, jewish sabbath, orthodox community, orthodox judaism, orthodox shul, rabbinical council of california, true jew
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Paying For Jewish Day Schools
From Hirhurim: OU Plans to Foster Major Savings in Non-Academic Yeshiva Expenses (link): With the encouragement and participation of a growing number of yeshivot and day schools across North America, the Orthodox Union is quickly moving ahead with a two-pronged … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Orthodox Union, Orthodoxy
Tagged academic areas, insurance savings, jewish day schools, jewish education, orthodox community, Orthodox Union, parosh, plan health insurance, prong approach, revenue enhancement, school tuition, yeshivot
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Divorce Protest In Los Angeles
Rebecca Spence writes for the Forward: Los Angeles — On the day known as Ta’anit Esther — when observant Jews fast before Purim — more than 150 members of Los Angeles’s close-knit Orthodox community gathered for a protest rally outside … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Jacob, Divorce, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy, R. Steven Weil, R. Yosef Kanefsky
Tagged chained women, jewish divorce, orthodox community, protest rally, rebecca spence, thorny subject
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Seeking Jewish Intellectual Leadership
David Klinghoffer writes on HirHurim: Yes, R. Sacks comes closest to the sort of outlook and impact I had in mind. There’s no one quite like him in the Jewish world–not in Israel or America. But he’s singular in another … Continue reading
Posted in David Klinghoffer
Tagged David Klinghoffer, intellectual leadership, jewish context, laymen, neuhaus, orthodox community
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The Secret Lives Of Hasidic Jews
From WCBSTV.com: NEW YORK (CBS) ? The overwhelming majority of men and women in New York’s Hasidic Jewish community are strictly pious and scrupulous in their religious observances. But in the course of a three-month investigation CBS 2 HD found … Continue reading
Posted in Hasidim
Tagged hasidic jews, majority of men, orthodox community, religious observances, religious world, williamsburg brooklyn
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I Return To Therapy
I left therapy because of financial issues in late 2001. I went back tonight. All the drama surrounding my latest shul expulsion has been dragging me down. I feel like the world is coming down on my head. I’m only … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy, Personal
Tagged Amy Klein, Hancock Park, male therapist, orthodox community, orthodox judaism, shul
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