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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)
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Tag Archives: religious observance
A Brief History Of My Beard
Noon. Thursday. Jan. 31. 2008. I’m at the Robertson branch of the Los Angeles Public Library leafing through the February issue of Commentary magazine. It’s been a few days since I’ve shaved. I stop at an article on the role … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy, Personal
Tagged growing a beard, long white beard, rabbi meir, religious observance, rick moses, robertson branch
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The Community Comes First
I grew up a Protestant. The center of our faith was individual salvation to Heaven. I loved movies that glorified the individual against the group such as 1966’s A Man For All Seasons. When I turned 18, I dropped my … Continue reading
Posted in Dennis Prager, Jews
Tagged belief in god, crushed testes, Dennis Prager, khyl, leviticus, radio stations, religious observance, sancta sanctorum, turtle doves
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Modern Orthodox Education aka How Men Can Control Their Sexual Urges
From Hirhurim: There is a fascinating special issue of Meorot (formerly The Edah Journal), guest edited by R. Nathaniel Helfgot and focusing on Modern Orthodox education (link). What follows are rough notes that are even less reliable than my normal … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Modern Orthodox
Tagged gravity of the situation, Hirhurim, orthodox education, religious observance, social realities, summer camp experiences
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Hebrew Illiteracy In Jewish Life
Rabbi Gil Student writes: You might recall an opinion piece last February by Dr. Shawn Zelig Aster about the problems he found teaching Bible in Yeshiva University of some students having difficulty reading and understanding Hebrew (link). R. Shalom Z. … Continue reading
Posted in Hebrew, Hirhurim
Tagged fond recollections, gil student, hebrew instruction, hebrew literacy, religious inspiration, religious observance
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Purity of the Camp
Jonathan Rosenblum writes: RECENTLY, AN ad appeared in the two largest haredi daily newspapers seeking men at least 35 years old with a broad knowledge of Talmud, Halacha and aggada, who also have experience giving classes to audiences from varying … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi
Tagged apparent contradiction, hamodia, haredi world, Jonathan Rosenblum, religious observance, torah life
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RUPTURE AND RECONSTRUCTION:THE TRANSFORMATION OF CONTEMPORARY ORTHODOXY by Haym Soloveitchik
Published in Tradition, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Summer 1994). Reprinted here with permission. Haym Soloveitchik teaches Jewish history and thought in the Bernard Revel Graduate School and Stern College for Woman at Yeshiva University. This essay is an attempt … Continue reading
Posted in Torah
Tagged andunidentified, anti zionist, bernard revel graduate school, religious observance, stern college, zionist enterprise
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Time Off From God
This morning the rabbi said there should be no time off from God. He bemoaned how kids in his religious school were unaware of the Torah portions between the middle of Bamidbar (Numbers) and the beginning of Devarim (Deuteronomy) because … Continue reading
Posted in God, Orthodoxy
Tagged observant jew, orthodox judaism, religious observance, summer respite, torah portions, yom tov
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Eliot Spitzer’s Jewish Identity
From the Forward: In the last statewide public opinion poll taken before news broke of Eliot Spitzer’s involvement in a high-priced prostitution ring, the New York governor’s approval rating was below 50% for every major demographic group, except one: his … Continue reading
Posted in Eliot Spitzer
Tagged american governor, connecticut senator, demographic group, Eliot Spitzer, fellow jews, hank sheinkopf, jewish politics, jewish president, joe lieberman, mario cuomo, mayor michael bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, new york mayor, new york mayor michael bloomberg, orthodox synagogue, prostitution ring, public opinion poll, religious observance, rsquo, york mayor michael bloomberg
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