- https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback
"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: reform rabbis
Gunther Plaut Was 99
The Jerusalem Post headline is: “Reform Movement mourns passing of Gunther Plaut” Well, I think more than just Reform Jews mourn the passing of this congregational rabbi and Bible scholar. One of the first Jewish books I read was Gunther … Continue reading
Posted in Dennis Prager, Reform Judaism
Tagged congregational rabbi, Dennis Prager, five books of moses, reform rabbis, rick jacobs, union for reform judaism
Comments Off on Gunther Plaut Was 99
The Synagogue In America: A Short History by Marc Lee Raphael
This is a superb new book. I just picked it up at the library and I can’t put it down. It has lots of stories about Los Angeles in general and Pico-Robertson in particular. On page 95, professor Raphael writes: … Continue reading
Posted in Blacks, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Pico/Robertson, Reform Judaism, Synagogue
Tagged ashkenazic jews, marc lee raphael, milk of human kindness, reform rabbis, sephardic congregations, sephardic jews
Comments Off on The Synagogue In America: A Short History by Marc Lee Raphael
Dancing With The Rabbis
Dennis Prager writes: I guess one can say that with “Dancing With the Rabbis,” the movement toward “the rabbi is just one of us” reached its apotheosis. Our rabbis — or at least the rabbis who participated — are just … Continue reading
Posted in Dennis Prager, Rabbis
Tagged bradley shavit artson, Dennis Prager, orthodox rabbi, rabbi david, reform rabbis, temple isaiah
Comments Off on Dancing With The Rabbis
Reform Responsa
Orthodox rabbi Gil Student writes: When you think of Reform responsa, you automatically think of Reform Rabbi Solomon Freehof, who published some eight volumes of responsa (on Freehof, see the article in Wikipedia – link – and listen to the … Continue reading
Posted in Rabbis, Reform Judaism
Tagged adam mintz, emil fackenheim, hebrew union college, rabbi solomon, reform rabbis, reform responsa
Comments Off on Reform Responsa
A Reform Alternative To Aish HaTorah
From the Jewish Chronicle of London: The Reform movement is about to take the first step to launch an alternative to Aish, the Orthodox outreach organisation for young adults. A residential weekend next month will be the inaugural event by … Continue reading
Posted in Aish HaTorah, England, Reform Judaism
Tagged Aish HaTorah, jewish adults, mark goldsmith, north western reform synagogue, reform rabbis, residential weekend
Comments Off on A Reform Alternative To Aish HaTorah
Orthodox Rabbis & Social Activism
Rabbi Gil Student writes: I don’t recall where, but someone recently mentioned (perhaps in the comments here) that R. Haskel Lookstein had once declared that we should treat lettuce as non-kosher due to the treatment of farm workers. As … Continue reading
Posted in Rabbis
Tagged gil student, orthodox rabbis, reform rabbis, scholarship books, social activism, social consensus
Comments Off on Orthodox Rabbis & Social Activism
What Is The West Coast Rabbinical Court?
I think it is for Sephardic Jews. It is run by Rabbi Gavriel Cohen whose claim to fame is his ability get divorces from men reluctant to give their wife a get (Jewish divorce) so she can remarry. I believe … Continue reading
Posted in Gavriel Cohen, RCC
Tagged cautious optimism, claim to fame, conservative leaders, euro trade, gavriel, jewish divorce, Jewish Journal, jewish nation, muskin, orthodox rabbis, rabbi cohen, rabbi elazar, rabbinate, rabbinical council of california, rabbinical court, reform rabbis, responsible approach, sephardic jews, uniter not a divider, Young Israel
Comments Off on What Is The West Coast Rabbinical Court?