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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:
- What the Arday Coverage Established: A First Claim-Level Audit, Including the Results That Cut Against My Own Thesis
- Two Carrier Groups and a Market in Testimony: Cultural Trauma Theory and the Arday Affair
- What the Institutions Were Buying: A Demand-Side Account of the Jason Arday Appointments
- Who Is Cheap to Threaten: Legal Deterrence and the Selection of Publishers
- ‘Jason Arday: The Most Extreme Academic Plagiarism Case in Modern History | Nathan Cofnas’
- The Vanishing Author: First-Person Density in Luke Ford’s Archive, 2007 to 2026
- Four Dates and No Cause: What Changed Luke Ford’s Blogging Between Late 2023 and Late 2025
- Two Defensible Denominators: What a Standard Accusation Dictionary Says About Luke Ford’s Archive, and Why It Says the Opposite Thing Twice
- The Second Collapse: Twenty Years of Luke Ford’s Publication Threshold, Measured
- Luke Ford and the E-Personality: Twenty-Nine Years of Disinhibition, Self-Regulation, and the Price of Friction
- The Room Around the Argument: Audience Sorting at Outside the Beltway, 2003-2026
- Steven Taylor, James Joyner and the E-Personality: Aboujaoude’s Virtually You Tested on Twenty Years of Outside the Beltway
- Amy Wax and the E-Personality: A Claim-Level Analysis, 1996-2026
- After Cathy’s Table: How Digital Platforms Reshaped a Generation of Professional Writers
- Nathan Cofnas and the E-Personality: The Auditor, the Performer, and the Cambridge Investigation
- The E-Personality of the Public Intellectual
- NYT: ‘What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?’
- Another National Treasure is Falling to AI (Fiction)
- What Percentage of Philip N. Cohen’s Blog Passes the Front Page Test?
- Paul Bloom’s Small Potatoes Archive
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 conversion
The Return
Over the past 18 months, I spent less time in synagogue than at any point since I started going to shul regularly in the fall of 1993. Until September 14, I was going through my Orthodox conversion to Judaism and … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Synagogue
Tagged alexander technique teacher, conversion program, conversion to judaism, harmonious relationship, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism
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Orthodox Conversion Programs In Los Angeles Working Well
According to what I hear, all of the Orthodox conversion programs in Los Angeles boast better than a 90% success rate (when success is measured by its converts staying Sabbath-observant after becoming Jewish). I’ve not encountered an Orthodox rabbi in … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, R. David Rue, R. Gavriel Cohen, RCC
Tagged conservative conversions, conversion controversy, conversion programs, conversion to judaism, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism, orthodox rabbi, rabbi cohen
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‘Levi, Have You Seen My Lapdancers?’
I often get off the 10 Freeway at Robertson Blvd and have to pass by this den of iniquity — Skin, a strip club at 3388 Robertson. Here’s a strip club right next door to the burning heart of Modern … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged Aish HaTorah, Beth Jacob, David Klinghoffer, orthodox conversion, samson raphael hirsch, YICC
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Secular British Court Decides Who Is A Jew
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes: Every once in a while, a story comes along so jolting that it is scarcely believable. One such story appeared in The New York Times, of all places, this past Sunday, about how the Jews’ Free … Continue reading
Posted in Shmuley Boteach
Tagged jewish unity, orthodox conversion, orthodox jew, progressive jews, rabbi shmuley boteach, who is a jew
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A Miracle Of Grace
I emailed my Christian mother Sunday: "I finished my Orthodox conversion today [with the Los Angeles Beit Din]…more than 16yrs after finishing my conversion with a Reform rabbi…" She responded: "It’s a miracle of grace." Joe emails: "Welcome to the … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy, Personal
Tagged Beth Jacob, century city mall, christian mother, conversion to judaism, davening, miracle of grace, orthodox conversion, reform rabbi, sephardic temple
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Feeling Like An Outsider In Orthodox Judaism
I have a several close female friends who’ve flirted with Orthodox Judaism but not finished conversions to it. They look obviously goyish. They feel like conspicuous outsiders to the Jewish community, and they fear that they will always be viewed … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy
Tagged conversion programs, conversion to judaism, female friends, orthodox conversion, orthodox jews, orthodox judaism
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Friday Night I Crashed Your Party
"I’m bruised and battered," says Jeri*. "I need to have a talk with that young man," I say. Jeri goes to bed. She was out partying until late. "When I was here last," I whisper to Jezebel* and Rachel*, "she … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Personal, Pico/Robertson
Tagged jewish thing, liquid courage, mouthfuls, orthodox conversion, quot quot, reform temples, topless man
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Overturning The Conversion Of Emil Fackenheim’s Son
From Haaretz: Jerusalem’s rabbinic court erred and overstepped its authority last year when it retroactively declared that the converted, Canadian-Israeli son of prominent Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim was in fact a non-Jew, the court’s ombudsman ruled earlier this month. Eliezer … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy
Tagged emil fackenheim, holocaust survivor, jewish philosopher, orthodox conversion, reform rabbi, supreme court justice
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Better To Be A Flea On A Lion Than The Leader Of Mice
From my live cam chat: guest27: Hey Luke, I saw your video on why you converted to Judaism and chose Orthodoxy. I converted to non-Orthodox Judaism myself but I am seriously considering an Orthodox conversion because it also seems like … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged black hat, blues brothers, dark sun, Dennis Prager, hahaha, hebrew, hordes, jew, jewish life, Jews, lion, live cam chat, mice, norwegian, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism, orthodox rabbi, Orthodoxy, sun glasses, trough, university of amsterdam, yml
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Judaism’s Conversion Controversy
A lot of people ask me for my opinion — as a convert to Judaism — on this controversy. I don’t have one. I accept reality. I’m not trying to change it (in this instance). Some Orthodox shuls count me … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion
Tagged Conservative Judaism, conversions, converts, dins, jew, jewish history, jewish law, jewish values, loyal reader, meds, minyan, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism, orthodox rabbis, outrage, RCC, religious extremists, revocation, rsquo, torah laws
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