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"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
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- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
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- Marine Le Pen
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- 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
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- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
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- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
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- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
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* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
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* 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)
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* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
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* 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)
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Tag Archives: Aish HaTorah
Chabad Vs Aish Ha Torah
I notice that Aish HaTorah people seem to be very sensitive about any criticism of Aish and to personally hold it against you if you criticize the company. On the other hand, Lubavitchers are about the most selfless people around … Continue reading
Posted in Aish HaTorah, Chabad, Haredi
Tagged Aish HaTorah, ashkenazi, garden gnome, Haredi, kate frost, somebody at home
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Torah Weirdo
A few years ago in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, Aish HaTorah rabbi Aryeh Markman called me a “Torah weirdo.” I felt hurt at first but then Chaim Amalek told me he loved the phrase and so I learned … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Personal
Tagged Aish HaTorah, departmental budget, jewish month, mcgill university, month of shevat, royal victoria hospital
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Using Sex To Sell Torah
I was doing some research on Rabbi Simcha Weinberg and found some interesting comments about his late uncle Noah Weinberg, the founder of Aish HaTorah. I did not realize there was so much venom towards him. I researched these attacks … Continue reading
Posted in Aish HaTorah, Haredi, R. Noah Weinberg, R. Simcha Weinberg
Tagged Aish HaTorah, discovery seminar, haaretz, kiruv, norman lamm, professional satisfaction, ramhal, shaliach, soloveitchik, torah code
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Would You Get Spiritual Counseling From A Rabbi Who Had An Affair With A Congregant?
Around 2002, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg (brother of Rabbi Matis Weinberg) lost his job with Lincoln Square Synagogue for having an affair with a congregant. He was caught in the act. He was subsequently divorced (and I believe he married the … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, R. Simcha Weinberg
Tagged Aish HaTorah, hebrew bible, mattis weinberg, moral leader, spiritual counseling, torah judaism
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Funky Frum
I’m walking up Pico Blvd Shabbos morning and near Aish HaTorah on the other side of the street, I see a sign announcing that a store has closed and “moved to the internet.” It was FunkyFrum.com. Walking East on Pico … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Pico/Robertson
Tagged Aish HaTorah, funky frum, pico blvd, shabbos morning, spurting blood
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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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The Uninvited
D. emails: "I’ll make it simple for you, Sunny Jim. It’s because you’re a fair-dinkum obnoxious whinger who can’t see beyond himself." Tuesday night. His assignment was to draw with crayons a picture of his life today. (Similar assignment from … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, PUC
Tagged Aish HaTorah, Beth Jacob, dangerous dogs, killer dogs, savage dogs, snarling dogs
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One Holy Sabbath
The following play is inspired by real events during one Pico-Robertson Friday night in January 2008. ACT ONE Levi, about 40 years old, is the first person out of shul on this Friday night in winter. He walks rapidly, heading … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction
Tagged Aish HaTorah, christine white, conversion program, converting to judaism, cross tattoo, daven, holy sabbath, robertson blvd
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