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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 conversion
Thank God For Texas
Greg Leake emails: Hi Luke, I have to agree with your family in respect to your beard. Soon you’ll be an Alexander Technique teacher, and naturally an inviting presence would seemingly be part of a realistic sales technique. You know, … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged alexander technique teacher, dillon texas, friday night lights, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism, realistic sales
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First Time In An Orthodox Shul
Jane emails: “Do you have any advice for me before I go walking into an Orthodox synagogue?” * Know that in Orthodox Judaism, men and women pray separately. The more Orthodox the community, the more men and women are separated, … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy
Tagged open toed shoes, orthodox conversion, orthodox rabbis, orthodox shul, orthodox synagogue, prospective converts, shabbat shalom
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Racism In The Orthodox Community
Bill McCaulley writes: Dear Mr. Ford: I would wish to respond to a posting concerning racism among Orthodox Jews. I came upon the post recently I realize my reply is not timely, but I am greatly intrigued by the subject. … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy, Race
Tagged chabad rabbi, jewish observance, lashon hara, orthodox conversion, rabbi akiva, talmud torah
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God Hates Sodomy
This week’s Torah portion is Haazinu (the end of Deuteronomy). On Torah Talk, Rabbi Rabbs discusses Rosh Hashanah, the parsha, and the Ten Commandments of Luke Ford: * You shall laugh at Christianity, and compare believing in Jesus to believing … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, R. Rabbs, Torah
Tagged Dennis Prager, jacob milgrom, observant jews, orthodox conversion, torah portion, torah studies
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Sex Under False Pretenses
Here’s a hilarious story from Israel: “A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape by deception after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.” Oy, what will the goyim think? Oy, did … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Sex
Tagged false pretenses, fellow jew, luke ford, moslem women, orthodox conversion, orthodox jew, orthodox shul, rape by deception
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A Convert Laments
I’m tired of all this Jewish lamenting over the latest conversion bill. I’m a convert to Orthodox Judaism and a well respected one at that! Like Jewish philosopher Jacob Stein, you’d be hard-pressed to find any Orthodox Jew who has … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Haredi, Orthodoxy
Tagged american jews, conversion program, jewish identity, Jewish Journal, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism, panties in a knot, second intifada, statue of jesus
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Marrying A Convert
It does not make sense to me why somebody Orthodox from birth would want to marry a convert or a baal teshuva (penitent). I figure the more you have in common, the better. There tends to be a naive wide-eyed … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy
Tagged baal teshuva, heshy, jews in america, orthodox conversion, orthodox jew, orthodox judaism, yom tov
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Rahm Emmanuel Holds A Bar Mitzvah Celebration For His Son On A Sunday
I know that Rahm Emanuel speaks Hebrew, belongs to an Orthodox synagogue and visits Israel. His wife, Amy Rule, apparently did not receive an Orthodox conversion. Rabbi Asher Lopatin writes to the Failed Messiah blog in November 2008: Please read … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy, Rahm Emanuel
Tagged agudas achim congregation, amy rule, jewish tradition, orthodox conversion, orthodox synagogue, Rahm Emanuel, rahm emmanuel, torah reading
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Technical Difficulties
Friday. 4 pm. All over my blog in the widgets section, I’m getting this: “Warning: call_user_func_array() [function.call-user-func-array]: First argument is expected to be a valid callback, ‘shortcode_unautop’ was given in /home/lukef0rd/lukeford.net/blog/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 166” Anyone have a suggestion? [email protected]. This … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged array function, orthodox conversion, orthodox judaism, orthodox shuls, plug ins, shul
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Finding An Orthodox Wife
A young man converting to Judaism tells me: “The problem I have is that most orthodox women (90% +???) won’t recognize a ger (a convert to Judaism) unless he has an RCA-approved conversion.” I don’t think that’s true. Unless you … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Marriage, Orthodoxy, R. David Rue, R. Michael Melchior
Tagged conversion status, conversion to judaism, converting to judaism, orthodox conversion, orthodox women, rabbi michael
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