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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: shul
I Have A Friendly Face!
I feel isolated much of the time. Standoffish. Most people, I don’t feel much inclination to get to know them. I frequently feel lonely in a crowd. I’ll go to a conference one weekend and there might be only one … Continue reading
Posted in Alexander Technique, Personal
Tagged forehead, inclination, postures, shul, stranger
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Oct. 21, 2007
On October 21, 2007, I decided (after an email ultimatum from my rabbi that evening to either quit XXX or leave the shul) to stop writing on the porn industry and to sell my website lukeisback.com. It’s been four years … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged alexander technique teacher, credit card debt, porn industry, rabbi, shul
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Friendly Luke
People relate to me without the beard. It makes me appear more friendly, more accessible. Women dig it. A guy said to me in shul over Rosh Hashanah that I have the friendliest face. Frankly, I haven’t been particularly friendly … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged Alexander Technique, ford center, honorable profession, hovel, rosh hashanah, shul
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Finding A Shul In The San Fernando Valley
Sara* emails: Mr. Ford, Since your website is so comprehensive and otherwise helpful in navigating Jewish LA, I thought I would take a chance and ask you if you know of anything interesting going on at any shul in the … Continue reading
Posted in San Fernando Valley, Synagogue
Tagged Chabad, minyan, shaarei tzedek, shul, shuls
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Rabbi Topp’s drasha on divisiveness
I hear: The rabbi at Beth Jacob of Beverly Hills did very well. Skillfully navigated difficult terrain. Took the wind out of the sails of the pro-Chazzan group using Rabbinic license – Halacha and precedent. Pointed out that we are … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Jacob, R. Kalman Topp
Tagged Beth Jacob, divisiveness, drasha, halacha, shul
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Is There Free Will?
I had this discussion with a friend recently. “Right here and now,” I said, “in the moment, I feel like I have free will, but when I look back at my life, everything seems fated. Given who I was at … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged closeness, david brooks, shul, social animal, twinge
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Rabbi Uri Pilichowski’s Resignation From Beth Jacob Was Not Voluntary
*Update!* Rabbi Pilichowski apparently did something and was then quickly forced to resign. What happened we do not know as yet. At a board meeting of Beth Jacob last week, the head rabbi of the shul and the president of … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Jacob, R. Uri Pilichowski
Tagged Beth Jacob, board meeting, head rabbi, resignation, shul
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My Crispy Oily Shuvuot Nightmare
For years during my teens and twenties, I used to live at 7955 Bullard Drive in remote and lonely Newcastle, CA, 95658. I just woke up from the following dream: About my present age (45), I was celebrating Shuvuot on … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged black cops, gun point, jewish teens, newcastle ca, seventh day adventists, shul
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Rita Pauker Says The Repo Men Took Back Her Four Torah Scrolls From Rabbi Ohana
I spoke to Rita Pauker Thursday night. She says that a repo team went to Rabbi Ohana’s shul yesterday and from among the ten Torah scrolls there, they took back her four Torah scrolls. She says the repo men have … Continue reading
Posted in R. Samuel Ohana
Tagged ohana, repo team, shul, taking possession, torah scrolls
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I Have No Use For People Who Take Offense
If you use the phrase, “I’m offended” or “That’s offensive”, I want nothing to do with you. I’ve worked hard to create a life where I can say what I want. As I live this vision, I encounter increasingly few … Continue reading
Posted in Internet, Personal
Tagged delicate sensibilities, hot blonde, internet highway, shul, temerity
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