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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 jews
Orthodox Jews Don’t Tend To Be Friends With Non-Jews
[Heshy Fried posts: “I don’t look at non-Jews as evil. I guess I just stick with my own (although my own include people who converted to Judaism – reform, conservative and orthodox) out of comfort and Judaism being central to … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
Tagged existence, Judaism, orthodox jews
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Big Love
This is my favorite TV series ever about religion. It captures how fallible people try to live their religious principles, even when they are unpopular. From my Seventh-Day Adventist past to my Orthodox Jewish present, I identify with this series. … Continue reading
Posted in TV
Tagged favorite tv, heavenly father, orthodox jews, religious principles, three wives
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Orthodox Bludgers
Elliot Resnick writes an important Op/Ed in this week’s Jewish Press: Acquaintances of mine have told me point-blank – without a trace of embarrassment in their voices – that they live in Section 8 housing and buy groceries with food … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Ethics, Orthodoxy
Tagged anonymous donors, charity recipients, orthodox jews, section 8 housing, talmudic sages, welfare fraud
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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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I’m Tired Of All These Public Outpourings Of Sensitivity To Gay Orthodox Jews
Why should gay Orthodox Jews get any more compassion than any other group within Orthodoxy who chooses to publicly deviate from their religion and simultaneously seek acceptance from it? Judaism unambiguously says that is it not allowed to have sex … Continue reading
Posted in Homosexuality, Personal, Sex
Tagged fellow journalists, foundational law, gay jews, orthodox jews, orthodox judaism, public actions, religion judaism, sensitive treatment, traditional jews
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Very Religious
Whenever Jews tell me they were raised “very religious”, I know that they were not raised Orthodox. They were raised in some watered-down form of Judaism whose minimal demands struck them as “very religious.” Whenever Jews tell me they are … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
Tagged jewish lives, minimal demands, Modern Orthodox, orthodox jews, orthodox rabbi, shafner
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Shaarey Zedek Overflowing
The shul has a great rabbi (the learned Jonathan Rosenberg) and an overflowing membership. It’s main problem is that its building isn’t big enough to house everybody. The right-wing breakaway a few years ago didn’t harm Shaarey Zedek. It just … Continue reading
Posted in David Rubin, R. George Lintz, Shaarey Zedek
Tagged administrative proceeding, capital management inc, illegal kickbacks, jonathan rosenberg, kickback scheme, lintz, orthodox jews, sherman oaks california
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I Sometimes Look At Women With Lust
Not all women, God forbid, just the hotties. It’s a struggle. I know it is against the Torah. Here’s what I do to minimize my looking at women with lust: * I take several cold showers a day * I … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged Alexander Technique, cold showers, financial abundance, investigative journalism, lofty ideas, orthodox jews
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