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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: shuls
My Conversion To Judaism Story
This guy in shul was told my story, and so he asked me for chizuk, for strengthening. He was Orthodox from birth but he struggled with some typical guy stuff. He knew I had chosen Torah. He wanted to know … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, Personal
Tagged conversion to judaism, davening, orthodox jew, orthodox jews, reform jews, shuls
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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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Today Was Great Because…
* I studied a page of Talmud. * I talked to people. I let them know my situation. I want to get married. It’s weird being the only one in shul not wearing a prayer shawl (never married men in … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged prayer shawl, prayer shawls, raisin bread, shul, shuls, talmud
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Looking For A Sephardic Cantor?
Yisroel Kituv ([email protected]) emails: Hey! First I’ll present myself. My name is Yisroel Elituv, and I’m an agent of a group of students who learn at a Sephardic cantorship school in Israel. The school exists about seven years already. Our … Continue reading
Posted in Sephardim
Tagged gmail, graduate student, moroccan, music theory, sephardic, shuls
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When Did I Reject My Shuls?
I must confess I never thought about this perspective from a friend: So before I emailed you I wanted to know how you are doing. Instead of just asking you, I went to the best location there is: lukeford.net. I … Continue reading
My Next Challenge – Making People Feel Safe
A friend says: "I think the banning is more because they want members to feel safe. It’s not that they think you are a physical threat but people are worried what you might write about them. It’s something for you … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Pico/Robertson
Tagged death threats, dumpster, physical threat, quot quot, shuls
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The Maimonides Of Pick-Up Artists
JConnectLA‘s Tu B’Av love party at 7174 Melrose Blvd is jammed. I haven’t gotten any sleep for days. I’m stumbling around, feeling old and lost and claustrophobic, yet people keep coming up to me and telling me what amazing energy … Continue reading
Posted in JConnect LA, Personal
Tagged epiccenter, JDate, lyn paul, manishevitz, sharabi, shuls
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The Old Luke Ford Would’ve Been All Over This Story
Chaim Amalek emails: "And who knows, maybe his hectoring would have kept the business a bit more honest, a bit safer for its workers, and made the world a better place. What does the new Luke do that has comparable … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged australian accent, carbon dioxide, diligent efforts, hectoring, luke ford, moral compass, quot, senior citizen, shuls, stellar example
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A New Modern Orthodox Blog
About a year ago, I said to Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, "When are you getting your own blog?" He seemed pretty overwhelmed at the time and I did not expect him to post one any time soon. I got an email … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Pico/Robertson, R. Yosef Kanefsky, Rabbis
Tagged Aish HaTorah, Beth Jacob, ketuba, rabbi yosef, shuls, YICC
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Which Pico-Robertson Shuls Will Allow Seeing Eye Dogs?
A friend of mine is going blind. He’s waiting for a seeing-eye dog. All the major shuls in Pico-Robertson do not allow seeing eye dogs into their sanctuary. They say the kids will go nuts over the dog and things … Continue reading
Posted in Pico/Robertson
Tagged nuts, sanctuary, seeing eye dogs, shuls
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