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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: torah judaism
The Setting Sun
Saturday. 3 pm. He walks east on Robertson Blvd and within two blocks he’s already outside of Torah Town. He passes a small Chabad and then a tiny Knesset Israel and then there’s no sign of Yiddishkeit. The sun drops … Continue reading
Posted in Alexander Technique, Personal
Tagged Alexander Technique, beverlywood, knesset israel, public dialogue, sun drop, torah judaism
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The Slifkin Challenge
David Kelsey writes: One of Rabbi Slifkin’s tormentors — one of the few who remains standing anyway, as many have been caught in one type of scandal or another — is rethinking whether he is helping or hurting Kiruv with … Continue reading
Posted in David Kelsey, R. Natan Slifkin
Tagged apikorsim, David Kelsey, haredim, kiruv, kornreich, laundry list, rabbs, torah judaism
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Would You Get Spiritual Counseling From A Rabbi Who Had An Affair With A Congregant?
Around 2002, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg (brother of Rabbi Matis Weinberg) lost his job with Lincoln Square Synagogue for having an affair with a congregant. He was caught in the act. He was subsequently divorced (and I believe he married the … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, R. Simcha Weinberg
Tagged Aish HaTorah, hebrew bible, mattis weinberg, moral leader, spiritual counseling, torah judaism
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Making Conversion To Orthodox Judaism Easier
From The Jerusalem Post: United Torah Judaism’s rabbinic leadership is expected to meet on Wednesday night to discuss a possible compromise in proposed conversion reforms that would allow the party to join the government coalition. The meeting is slated to … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Gary Rosenblatt, Orthodoxy, Reform Judaism
Tagged congregation beth israel, Gary Rosenblatt, government coalition, jerusalem post, orthodox judaism, rabbi yosef, reform congregations, steve lipman, temple solel, torah judaism
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Is Blogging Good For The Jews?
ISSAC COHEN WRITES TO HIRHURIM: If there ever was a time/place for Jewish leaders to implement Mussar practices it is here… on the web. At a minimum, I’d suggest: 1) Time outs for comments that cross certain lines 2) No … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging
Tagged Agriprocessors, issac cohen, neutral media, orthodox jews, rabbi wein, torah judaism
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Rescuing Chained Women
I remember discussing agunot eleven years ago at Aish HaTorah with Rabbi Aryeh Markman (in 2007 he described me as a "Torah weirdo" in the Jewish Journal) and he said it was just an excuse for people to bash Orthodox … Continue reading
Posted in Agunot
Tagged child custody issues, child custody rights, feminist legislation, rabbi shlomo amar, rabbi shlomo riskin, torah judaism
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The Israeli Press
Yair Ettinger writes: Instead, they have chosen to hypnotize their readers with a modest scandal of their own. The party dailies, Yated Ne’eman (affiliated with the Degel Hatorah faction of United Torah Judaism party) and Hamodi’a (affiliated with the party’s … Continue reading
Posted in Israel
Tagged agudat yisrael, hebrew month, torah judaism, torah study, walls of jerusalem, yeshiva students
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