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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:
- The Live Questions in Sociology
- What are the Live Questions in Economics Now?
- Why Do So Many University Professors Hate AI?
- I Finally Read The Novel ‘Submission’
- Had We But World Enough: On Reading Marvell at Twenty Two
- On Loving John Donne
- Iran Declines as an Empire and Survives as a Veto Power
- The Rescue Witness: How Former Performers Became the Face of the Fight Against Pornography
- Christian Smith: A Career Against Reduction
- Can’t We All Get Along?
- I Threw A Rising Curve With A Tennis Ball
- Scenes from a Documented Life: Mickey Kaus
- Scenes from a Documented Life: Eugene Volokh
- Scenes from the 155 IQ Life
- Scenes from the 105 IQ Life
- Scenes from the 75 IQ Life
- Scenes from the 85 IQ Life
- Scenes from the Passport Question
- Scenes from Human Resources
- Scenes from the Unsubscribe Economy
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: black hats
Dillon, Texas, and Science
Greg Leake emails: Hi Luke, I just looked at your “I’m Ready For Some Football!” post. I mentioned before that I’m excited because I’m headed back to Dillon in October. Not actual Dillon, of course, but someplace similar. Our new … Continue reading
Posted in Texas
Tagged black hats, college football team, dillon texas, jewish theology, orthodox jews, philosophical debates
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Learning The Social Mores Of Orthodox Judaism
Heshy Fried writes: When I lived in Dallas, the kiruv folk over there had the social process down pat, this was because they had no competition and most of the people becoming frum would probably never live anywhere else and … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
Tagged black hats, heshy, mini skirt, orthodox judaism, period sex, social mores
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She Shuckled All Night Long
Hat tip to Frum Satire: The lyrics are below: The Alte Rockers: Purim 2009: Parody of AC/DC – You Shook Me All Night Long You Shuckled (AC/Rashi, Jews in Black Hats) She was a text machine She studied kiddushin She … Continue reading
Posted in Satire
Tagged black hats, cha dodi, gates of heaven, leather boxes, purity laws, traditional prayer
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The Hasidim Conquered America
From a Jewish Press interview with Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff: Today we all wear uniforms. What is the concept of wearing a uniform? What is chassidus all about? It’s beautiful. You have a social order, you build a wall around yourself … Continue reading
Posted in Hasidim, R. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff
Tagged black hats, chassidic rebbe, rabbi aaron, rosh yeshiva, roshei yeshiva, torah jew
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Toras HaShem Is Now Young Israel Of Valley Village
Jeff emails: Did you hear that Rabbi Zvi Block is negotiating selling his shul Toras HaShem for 1.2mil $ to Yeshivas Ner Aryeh? Joe emails: “It would be an incredible power play by the right wing in the valley. Toras … Continue reading
Posted in Synagogue
Tagged aryeh, black hats, hashem, orthodox shuls, toras, yeshivas
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Modern Orthodoxy Vs Right-Wing Orthodoxy
Joe emails: You can tell the difference between Modern Orthodoxy and more Right Wing Old School Orthodoxy by looking at synagogue websites. Bnai David Judea is this high powered modern orthodox synagogue – it has women on the board, it … Continue reading
Posted in Bnai David-Judea, Haredi, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Pico/Robertson
Tagged bell curves, black hats, orthodox synagogue, synagogue websites, tons of kids, torah study
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Are You Really Sorry?
Baltimore Jewish Times editor Phil Jacobs writes: A rabbi friend called me the other day to wish me a Happy New Year. He then told me that he thought that I was being too critical of the Orthodox rabbis. “They … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy, Rabbis
Tagged baltimore jewish times, black hats, drugs and alcohol, millie vanillie, orthodox rabbis, phil jacobs
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Young Israel Of Valley Village
As I reported Friday, Beis Midrash Toras HaShem at 12422 Chandler Blvd will become Young Israel of Valley Village. A source who initially derided this report called me Sunday to say he was wrong. Rabbi Block will stay on. The … Continue reading
Posted in Shaarey Zedek
Tagged beis midrash, black hats, breakaway, chandler blvd, edelstein, hashem, Israel, magnolia blvd, minyan, niceties, rabbi aron tendler, rabbi block, regime, right wing, right wingers, Shaarey Zedek, stature, Torah, toras, Young Israel
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