- 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: religious zionist
Visiting Rabbis’ Graves Outside Of Israel Is Idolatry
Many of my friends are at Uman, in central Ukraine, to daven at the graveside of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. I don’t know much about the issues involved in this matter, but from the little I know, I agree with … Continue reading
Posted in Rabbis
Tagged clap your hands, famous grave sites, Rebbe Nachman, religious zionism, religious zionist, shabbos morning
Comments Off on Visiting Rabbis’ Graves Outside Of Israel Is Idolatry
Almost Every Gadol Of The Early 20th Century Had A Child Who Left The Path
In his third lecture on Rav Elazar Schach for Torah in Motion, historian Marc B. Shapiro says that Rav Schach’s son became a religious Zionist aka Modern Orthodox as opposed to Chareidi aka traditional Orthodox (who are not Zionists, don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi, Israel, Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
Tagged lubavitcher rebbe, Marc B. Shapiro, marc shapiro, rabbi moshe, religious zionist, torah in motion, torah scholars, torah study, two generations
Comments Off on Almost Every Gadol Of The Early 20th Century Had A Child Who Left The Path
Torah Scholars Stuck Behind The Iron Curtain
Professor Marc B. Shapiro blogs: R. Shemariah was one of many great talmidei hakhamim who were stuck behind the Iron Curtain, and even if not killed by the regime, lived out their days in what can only be described as … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged iron curtain, lubavitcher rebbe, Marc B. Shapiro, religious zionist, stalinist terror, torah scholars
Comments Off on Torah Scholars Stuck Behind The Iron Curtain
Rabbi Chaim Druckman Interview
Elliot Resnick writes for The Jewish Press: Much uncertainty remains in the wake of Israel’s High Rabbinical Court ruling in May that voided all conversions performed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman since 1999. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar promises … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy
Tagged chief rabbi shlomo amar, conversion controversy, knesset member, rabbi chaim, rabbi shlomo amar, religious zionist
Comments Off on Rabbi Chaim Druckman Interview
Shmarya’s Rogue Gallery Of Haredi Rabbis
He writes on Jewcy: Israel has no civil marriage or divorce, which means that every Jewish Israeli is at the mercy of the state’s rabbinic courts. During the past decade, ultra-Orthodox rabbis have wrested control of those state rabbinic courts … Continue reading
Posted in Haredi
Tagged conversion procedure, conversion to judaism, nightmare scenario, orthodox rabbis, religious zionist, rogues gallery
Comments Off on Shmarya’s Rogue Gallery Of Haredi Rabbis
David S. Gruber – From Orthodox Rabbi To Secular Humanist
I call David in Texas Thursday morning. David: "I was born in Evanston, Illinois. My family made aliyah when I was eight. We were back in the Chicago area for my dad’s sabbatical year when I was 13. Aside from … Continue reading
Posted in R. David S. Gruber
Tagged archeology, ben gurion university, conservative rabbi, evanston illinois, international bible contest, orthodox rabbi, religious zionist, sabbatical year, secular humanist
Comments Off on David S. Gruber – From Orthodox Rabbi To Secular Humanist
No YULA Students Get Into Yeshivat HaKotel
This modern-Orthodox religious Zionist hesder yeshiva interviewed about a dozen boys at YULA and accepted none of them. I’m not sure why. Some of these YULA kids will go to Yeshivat Gush Etzion. Over the past 20 years, most graduates … Continue reading
Posted in YULA
Tagged american schooling, chaim i waxman, consternation, daniel jacobson, different life, different perspective, doctoral dissertations, dozen boys, flipping out, graduates, insecurity, Israel, jewish community, life path, primary education, rabbi daniel, religious devotion, religious zionist, spiritual lifestyle, statistical studies, torah study, yeshivat hakotel
Comments Off on No YULA Students Get Into Yeshivat HaKotel