Interview with Josh Hammer
Josh Hammer is a lawyer and political commentator.
World’s Worst Kept Secret
Contents
Max Raskin: I want to start by asking: Do you collect anything?
Josh Hammer: That's not a question that I find myself thinking about frequently. Back in the day as a kid, I used to collect stuff. I was big into baseball cards like any kid was.
I have some hobbies that can turn into collections. I love watches. I've been wearing watches since I was basically in kindergarten.
MR: What about the cowboy boots you wear?
JH: Yes. I have seven pairs of cowboy boots. I'm proud of the fact that that six of those seven pairs are all from Lucchese, the iconic Texas cowboy boot company.
MR: Is that the brand you’d recommend to someone who’s never worn cowboy boots before?
JH: That is the brand. The same way that Stetson is the iconic cowboy hat manufacturer.
MR: Do you have a boot that you'd recommend someone who wants to dip their toes in and check out?
JH: I think everyone's first pair should probably be a basic calfskin pair. I wouldn't recommend just jumping straight into ostrich or some of the more exotic stuff like elephant or whatever. My very first pair was a calfskin pair. That was actually my only non-Lucchese pair. My very first pair that I got in Nashville nine years ago was just a calfskin boot from a French-Canadian company called Boulet.
Look, if I'm being very honest about the boots, I stocked up on them for numerous reasons. One is I just think they actually look good. I generally think that they're very cool looking. Two is there's no shoelaces, so you don't have to worry about tying your shoes. Three is, at least the Luccheses I have are very comfortable. Fourth is, it's the world's worst-kept secret that a nice 1.75-inch heel, the “cowboy heel,” gives you a nice little height boost if you're a vertically challenged gentleman like myself, or like yourself.
It's kind of funny: I bought all seven of my pairs of cowboy boots over a three-and-a-half-year stretch, from 2014 to 2017.
MR: I'm not short! But yes, I take your point. I'm going to be cutting that out of the interview.
JH: So I bought them when I was in law school in Chicago and very excited to move to Texas after law school, and then from my first year or two actually living in Texas. It's funny because I live in Florida now, which is not exactly the cowboy capital of the world (Ron DeSantis’ sartorial choices perhaps notwithstanding), but my wife and I have done two trips recently out west—both initially to Utah, and then we were in Yellowstone, Wyoming, Montana, all of that.
It got us really into Western culture. We started watching the show Yellowstone on Peacock, and I actually also just finished 1883 on Paramount. We’ve been to the rodeo in nearby Davie, Florida (self-proclaimed “Cowboy Town, USA!”) twice in recent months, believe it or not. I finally bought my first nice Stetson cowboy hat out in Utah. It's funny because now I'm removed from my Texas days here in Florida, but I've somehow gotten back into all of it.
MR: Do you like the aesthetic of the West?
JH: Man, it's beautiful, right?
MR: What about the clothing?
JH: Yeah look, there's something rugged about that. I think men in particular love Western films, the Western scenery, the cinematography. There's something just very rugged and individualist—the proverbial saying, “Go West, young man.”
I've never done any research on this, Max, but I bet if you looked at the demographic breakdown of who views the old Gary Cooper films, I would not be the least bit surprised if it was like 70 to 75% male audiences.
MR: You think that low?
John Wayne and Antonin Scalia
JH: There's something just inherently beautiful about the West. My favorite gun that I own, actually, is a Colt Single Action Army revolver, so it's an 1871 U.S. patent. It's that beautiful single-action revolver where you have to manually eject each cartridge.
MR: Is it a new gun?
JH: I bought it in 2016 as a gift to myself after I passed the Texas bar exam. I named the gun after Antonin Scalia. I took it to a laser engraving dude up in Spring, Texas (I was living in nearby Houston at the time), and I got “Scalia” engraved in cursive on the wooden handle. That is the Gary Cooper gun. That gun was nicknamed “the gun that won the West.” It's the official gun of the State of Arizona, probably other Western states as well.
I have the classic 7.5-inch barrel—that’s the barrel length on the original ones, if I’m not mistaken. It takes Colt .45 ammo, which is pretty rare these days to cartridge that particular round. And man, that ammo is not cheap, either! But I just love the West, in general.
MR: I want to touch on your watches. Do you like spending money on watches, or do you more enjoy finding funky cool ones? Are you into the movement? What's the watch thing for you?
JH: I think horology, the craft of watchmaking, is a beautiful craft. There's something inherently appealing to me about getting in there with these beautiful movements and using these tiny tools and just building these beautiful timepieces. I've been wearing watches on and off since I was basically in first grade —the Timex, the G-SHOCK, all that stuff way back in the day.
MR: What are you wearing right now?
JH: Right now I'm wearing a Breitling that I got as a law school graduation gift.
MR: I don't necessarily want to put in that you have nice watches in the interview because I don't want anyone robbing you or something.
JH: Here's the thing — I don't actually own a ton of watches. I really just like looking and browsing. I did just get a beautiful new piece from this boutique German company I’ve long been obsessed with, called Glashütte Original, which I think just makes gorgeous watches. There was actually a recent piece in The Spectator on the small east German town of Glashütte, and how it became one of the horological centers of the world. The single most well-known company there is probably A. Lange & Söhne, which competes directly against the Swiss “Big Three” watchmakers (Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin). But in general, I just like browsing.
I follow some of the watchmakers on Instagram. The photos of some of these movements are just…it’s kind of sexy, for lack of a better term. Cars, watches, some of these things (especially German, it seems), are just so well-made. I've been a car guy literally my whole life—my mom has these wild home videos of when I was two years old. I guess the common thread, Max, that ties lot this together whether it's nice boots, nice cars, nice watches, nice guns…I just like the craftsmanship of making certain nice, aesthetically pleasing things that also serve a nice function as well.
MR: Do you like watching these restoration videos on YouTube?
JH: I've only vaguely explored that part of YouTube to be totally honest with you, but I can see the appeal. Based on what I just said, I probably should explore it more.
MR: You’ll go down a rabbit hole.
Wandering
MR: I want to ask a little bit about Florida and Miami.
So Florida versus Texas. Were those the two places that you were thinking about moving?
JH: I've lived in a bunch of places. Very briefly, the full rundown: I was born and raised in New York, I went to college in North Carolina, then worked in D.C. for a couple of years, went to law school in Chicago, then I was in Houston, Texas for a year and a half, Dallas, Texas for two and a half years, then did a year in Denver, Colorado during COVID, and then moved to Florida. I’ve been in Florida now for almost two and a half years.
I was thinking a little bit about moving back to Texas after Colorado. I really liked living in Dallas; I thought Dallas-Fort Worth was a great area to live. But as a member of the tribe, some of these places in Texas just don't have the Jewish amenities and infrastructure frankly, that Florida has. Especially Austin, which is (or at least was) otherwise a very appealing city.
Austin, unfortunately, I think has gotten worse over the past five years. Ten years ago, I think Austin was really a lot better than it is now, but Austin has a tiny Jewish community. It's a difficult place to live a meaningful or fulfilling Jewish life there. It can be done; it’s just more difficult.
Putting all the pieces together, when I was looking for a place to really try to put down my roots and settle, Florida was just the obvious place—especially because I work in media, so being in the same time zone as New York and D.C, just makes everything inherently easier. I really do love Florida.
MR: Do you think you'd ever move out West?
JH: It's funny. Watching Yellowstone and 1883 and having just been out there in Wyoming and Utah this summer, it really is gorgeous.
I have to say, as much as I love the West and all the West entails…the attitude, the spirit, the mountains…as much as I love that and I really do, I like hiking, fly fishing, I love all that. I still really am, at the end of the day, more of a beach and palm trees kind of guy. I love boats, I love being on boats, I love just being on the beach, walking on the beach. I love the warm weather. The Florida mentality is really wonderful. I think I'm living my best life here, honestly.
MR: How has your Jewish practice evolved over the years? Where do you see it trending, evolving, or where did it come from?
JH: I came from a very, very assimilated, Reform starting place. “Secular” wouldn’t be accurate; I was never an atheist my entire life. It was astoundingly obvious to me at a fairly young age that God exists, and I’ve never gone through an existential “Does God exist?” phase, which I think many people probably go through. I never did. It was always obvious to me that God exists.
I went to a fairly standard Reform synagogue growing up. Funny enough, I actually was a two-time Reform Jewish day school dropout because I actually had such an animus toward “organized religion” when I was a young kid. I ended up having a private rabbinical tutor for a super Reform Bar Mitzvah quite literally in the backyard of my parents’ house.
I grew up the furthest thing from observant. I genuinely don't think I had a Shabbat dinner until I was well into my teenage years, probably around the time that I went off to college. That deeply saddens me, in retrospect, and it is something I have adamantly committed to fixing for my own children b'ezrat HaShem.
It's funny: I think a lot of people come to their politics through their religion. I did the reverse. I got more into my religion through my political conservatism—I have been on the Right since my first political musings, around 9/11 when I was 12 years old, and have never much deviated from that. The more that you read up on Burke and the value of tradition and how knowledge is built, accumulated through the generations, you start asking yourself: Well, where is this coming from in my own tradition? If there is wisdom embedded in tradition, why I am not seeking out my own tradition?
As it turns out, Max, our people have a prolific track record in this respect. So I've been doing Daf Yomi this cycle, since it started in January 2020. It was in my early to mid 20s that I started doing "kosher style", which everyone knows is halachically B.S. but it was something I did as a “down payment” to going fully kosher one day. (“Kosher style” would just mean you don't eat shellfish or pork, but you'll still eat treif beef or chicken.)
I got my first pair of tefillin five years ago or so. I've been wrapping tefillin every single day since then. I'm still not consistently davening three times a day, but I do pray a full shacharit every morning and wear tefillin every day. I started doing legit kosher, so not just “kosher-style”, about two years ago or so.
Being kosher in South Florida these days is amazing. The sheer panoply of kosher establishments is really just incredible. It’s a kosher dining renaissance down here! We do something for Shabbat every single Friday. I don't work, obviously on the chagim or anything like that. I'm not fully frum, but I'm not terribly far off from it at this point either. And we very much aim to get there by the time we have children b'ezrat HaShem.
[Shortly after this interview was published, Josh became fully observant.]
MR: Are there any books or thinkers in the Jewish tradition that really speak to you?
JH: This is probably a typical answer and not exactly a unique insight. I’m huge fan of the Rambam. I’m a big Rambam guy. Back when I lived in Dallas, I was very active in Intown Chabad. I’m close to this day with the rabbi there, Zvi Drizin; he actually just co-officiated our wedding, along with my wife’s family’s Sephardic rabbi. He and I would have a regular chavrusa where we'd go over Mishneh Torah, go over Rambam.
The wisdom of the Rambam is partially his ability to synthesize so much knowledge into a pithy form that's easy to understand. That's how he becomes the one who codifies the 13 Principles of Faith, things like that. He was perhaps most well-known, at least in Mishneh Torah, for his concept of the “middle way”—which today we might associate with the all-important virtue of prudence. I’m born on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and have always admired him as my favorite figure in American history, and no one embodied prudence—or the “middle way” quite like Lincoln.
The Rambam was also incredibly learned also outside of Judaism. He was famously knowledgeable about the Greeks and Aristotle—who viewed prudence as the queen of all the great virtues—and all of that. The Rambam spoke of the “unmoved mover” in the same way that Aristotle did. My best friend from childhood was a fairly devout Christian, so I've always been very fascinated by and passionate about fostering Jewish-Christian relations. That's always been very, very important to me, and the Rambam’s knowledge extending outside our own tradition is very appealing to me.
When I was in Israel just over a year ago — I was actually there last week too — I made sure to go to his tomb in Tiberias. It was my first time going there. That was a very cool moment, as well.
Kosher in Miami
MR: Where do you think you've eaten the most in South Florida?
JH: My wife’s parents' kitchen, because my mother-in-law is probably the best chef I've had in my entire life.
That was a total cop out, I know.
MR: That will stay in there, you'll get the points.
What about restaurant?
JH: I love Fuego. That's a meat/barbecue-adjacent place in North Miami Beach. I went there for my birthday this past February, and we go back whenever we can. It's a super fun atmosphere, but I just think the meat is also just really good, frankly.
JZ Steakhouse in Hollywood also has this amazing pastrami appetizer…big fan of that, and the steaks are also great. Soho in Aventura, under new management, has gotten really good. Actually there’s a brand new shawarma place that just opened. It's in Hollywood as well, called Dabush. It's incredible. Best shawarma in South Florida—quite possibly best I’ve ever had in my life.
MR: Someone who's never been to Miami before, what's something that you say you can't miss?
JH: Miami Beach obviously is the most famous part of Miami. You'd be remiss if you didn't go to the tip of the island. South of 5th Street, where you can see Fisher Island right across the channel. It's beautiful walking around there. I think all of that is great.
I think Key Biscayne is really special and absolutely gorgeous. There's a Ritz Carlton there and there's a lighthouse, which is beautiful. There was a professional tennis tournament there for years; they've got a world-class tennis facility. I play golf at the golf course there sometimes, as well. You'll see manatees, dolphins, all that stuff around Key Biscayne if you're paying close enough attention.
Little Havana is really cool. I used to live in Brickell—essentially downtown Miami—and it was walking distance from Little Havana. That's a unique cultural experience.
There are many places in America that have an authentic Mexican cultural influence. Places like Southern California, Southern Arizona, San Antonio, whatever. But the Cuban thing is really quite unique to Little Havana—and Miami-Dade County, in general. It's not just the food, but the museums. It's cool stuff.
Gear, Reads, and Rhythm
MR: Where's your microphone from?
JH: Newsweek bought me this whole contraption. I'm using a RØDECaster device. The microphone itself, Electro-Voice.
MR: Where are your headphones from?
JH: Sony.
MR: I want to talk to you a little bit about writing and tools of the trade of writing, but you're not really editing Newsweek anymore, right?
JH: Yeah, I moved off the op-ed page in May, changed titles and all of that. I'm not really editing others' work at this point, but I did head up the opinion page for a little over three years before internally transitioning to focus on my own show and writing.
MR: When you have a vision of yourself, do you think of yourself as a writer?
JH: Yeah, why not? I write a weekly column that gets syndicated through Creators Syndicate. Look, I also enjoy talking. I enjoy my podcast, which is we are now also self-syndicating into radio; we’re already in two radio markets, with hopefully many more to come. I guest-host on radio for others, as well. I'd like to more fully get into radio eventually, I think.
But my background is more in writing than anything else. As soon as you and I hang up with this interview, I'm probably going to try to pump out my syndicated column for this week. I very much enjoy writing.
MR: Where do you write your first drafts of things?
JH: Microsoft Word.
MR: What's your favorite newsletter? Or something not to be missed?
JH: There's a good newsletter now called Upward News. They're starting to make a bit of a name for themselves. It was founded by a precocious young Jewish guy named Ari David. I am a daily reliable reader of Erick Erickson’s Substack, as well; Erick was the very first person who ever gave me an online platform back when he was editor-in-chief of RedState, and I feel a sense of enduring loyalty to him to this day.
I never miss Ann Coulter’s Substack. (Ann has also become a personal friend in recent years, since my Florida move.) I also never miss the daily newsletter/headline compilation from The Jewish Press, one of my go-to sources for Israel/Jewish-related news from a reliable Religious Zionist/“Dati Leumi” perspective.
MR: What about on Twitter?
JH: Well, Ann’s certainly a great Twitter follow as well.
MR: What about non-political?
JH: I have tons of other interests. I'm a diehard country music fan. I listen to country music pretty much whenever I’m in the car, so I love staying abreast as to what’s happening in country music world as well.
MR: What were your top three most-played songs for last year?
JH: All right, I'm laughing because this is so embarrassing…but it was that song that Van Zan did for the DeSantis reelection campaign in Florida, “Sweet Florida.”
MR: Why are you embarrassed about that?
JH: Because I know you were trying to steer the conversation in a less political direction and then sure enough, I come back. But it's a country-adjacent song, so it kind of works.
MR: Number two?
JH: Eric Church’s “Heart On Fire.” That's a good song. The third song, actually—this is a special song because I actually quoted it in my proposal to my wife at the Kotel in Jerusalem—is this Israeli song by these two Ethiopian Jewish brothers. It's a song called “Ihiye Beseder.”
MR: What line did you quote from it?
JH: “Ani yode'a shehakol ihiye beseder.” In other words, I always know now that everything will be alright.