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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:
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
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- Robert Oscar Lopez: The Inconvenient Witness
- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
- The Pervert’s Progress: Costin Vlad Alamariu and the Making of Bronze Age Pervert
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
- Strange Bedfellows in the Academy: Alliance Theory and the Straussian Schism
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- 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
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- A Place For You
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 shul
Dancing Leads To Kissing
Jewish life has many ecstatic moments and this ecstasy often leads to inappropriate kissing. I remember there was this girl I liked. I dug her so much that I read a couple of books by her mom. I was really … Continue reading
Posted in David Suissa, Personal
Tagged dance around the room, minyan, orthodox shul, simchat torah, social graces, suissa
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The Beth Am Library Minyan
Joe emails: I always wondered why no orthodox shul can come up with a substitute for this type of experience. The Beth Am Library Minyan was at a level of spiritual “truthiness” akin to a Hasidic service – the people … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Am, Orthodoxy
Tagged audience participation, intellectual feast, leadership participation, orthodox shul, torah law, torah service
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Shaarei Tefillah Fight On Purim
On Purim, community activist Max Kessler circulated a petition at Shaarei Tefila (a Modern Orthodox shul in Hancock Park) to keep the rabbi. President Aaron Kin took this as an affront, and ordered Max Kessler to stop circulating the petition. … Continue reading
Posted in Aaron Kin, R. Nochum Kosovsky, Shaarei Tefila
Tagged affront, Hancock Park, klu klux klan, max kessler, orthodox jews, orthodox shul, Purim, rabbi meir kahane, rabbi president, shul, soviet jewry, wide shoulders
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What Is Your Shul’s Vision?
What is Shalhevet’s vision? It is the one Orthodox high school school in Los Angeles where boys and girls receive the identical education. Its mixture of Lawrence Kohlberg and Orthodox Judaism is highly un-Orthodox. I’ve never met a Shalhevet student … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Jacob, Bnai David-Judea, YICC
Tagged Beth Jacob, lawrence kohlberg, orthodox judaism, orthodox shul, simon wiesenthal center, YICC
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Rabbi Kalmann Topp’s Quaint Vision For Beth Jacob — Torah!
The vision thing. It seems like Rabbi Topp at Beth Jacob has it. He teaches two serious Torah classes during the week and a serious parsha shiur on Shabbos morning. He seems to have a vision for Beth Jacob — … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Jacob, R. Kalman Topp
Tagged Beth Jacob, kalmann, orthodox shul, shiur, torah classes
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Pico-Robertson In The 1960s
It was populated with faux yeshivas to get Orthodox Jews out of the Vietnam draft. By 1980, there were only two Orthodox synagogues in the community — Young Israel of South Beverly Hills and Beth Jacob. There wasn’t a kosher … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Jacob, Bnai David-Judea, Hancock Park, Haredi, Harkham Hillel, Pico/Robertson, R. Kalman Topp, YICC
Tagged Abner Weiss, Beth Jacob, orthodox shul, orthodox synagogues, rabbi maurice lamm, vietnam draft, YICC, Young Israel
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Rabbi Gabe Elias Knows The Pulse Of Mogen David
Rabbi Elias at Mogen David is a canny operator. He thinks things out many steps ahead of the pack. He’s skilled at anticipating underhanded behavior. He can read it from a mile away. He can out-maneuver you if he wants … Continue reading
Posted in Gabe Elias, Mogen David, Pico/Robertson
Tagged Beth Jacob, Mogen David, muskat, orthodox shul, orthodox shuls, sephardic minyan
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The Role Of Women In Orthodox Judaism
In his second class on Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel for Torah in Motion, Dr. Marc B. Shapiro says: Rav Kook opposed women voting. He says the role of the woman is not to be in the public sphere. The Mercaz … Continue reading
Posted in Feminism, Israel, Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
Tagged haredi world, Marc B. Shapiro, mercaz harav, orthodox judaism, orthodox shul, public sphere, torah in motion, women wearing skirts
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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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