Michael Kaminer
By Michael Kaminer
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The Schmooze ADL Study: ‘Passion Play’ (Still) Antisemitic
Did the world really need a research paper to determine that the once-a-decade “Passion Play” in the Bavarian town of Oberammergau, Germany, conveys anti-Jewish sentiments, as has been the general consensus since the show’s 1634 debut? The Anti-Defamation League apparently thought so. The group commissioned the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJCR), which bills…
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The Schmooze A Jewish Taylor Swift?
Could the next guitar-toting, post-adolescent pop sensation — a la Taylor Swift or Colbie Caillat — be a 16-year-old Jewish girl from suburban Montreal? If the buzz around Brittany Kwasnik, a soft-spoken singer-song writer, is any sign, there’s a good chance. Kwasnik, who started writing songs in her bathroom, went from musician in hiding to…
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The Schmooze Gay Tourist Robbed, Left Naked at Israel Intersection
Criminals apparently got the memo that Tel Aviv’s now hot with gay tourists, as the Forward recently reported. According to JPost.com, a British traveler was lured into a robbery with promises of sex, then left stranded — and naked — at a Tel Aviv intersection by a male perp. Though reports of the crime just…
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The Schmooze Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Name Misspelled on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Walk Of Fame? How About Walk of Shame. Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Seinfeld” fame received a high honor when she was bestowed with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Tuesday. Unfortunately a wrench was thrown into the celebratory day when, upon the star’s unveiling, it became apparent that Louis-Dreyfus’ name was misspelled. A careless…
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The Schmooze A Hebrew School Dropout’s Guide To Religion and Weight Loss
It’s completely appropriate — and not a little ironic — that Dave Konig’s crisis-of-faith monologue, “Hebrew School Dropout,” is opening off-Broadway at the Actor’s Temple Theater, which is also the functioning synagogue known as Congregation Ezrath Israel. “[I] Love the Actors’ Temple,” Konig wrote the Forward in an e-mail. “You know who used to go…
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News The Jews from Ipanema
During my first day in Rio de Janeiro, I stumbled onto Chai Delly, a part-kosher Copacabana takeout joint whose recent opening had eluded even my Jewish tour guide. On day two, TV channel-surfing led me to “Menorah TV,” a Jewish public affairs program with a “Hava Nagila” intro. And on day three, another tour guide…
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The Schmooze The Kosher Toothpaste Debate
The Orthodox Union, which certifies as Kosher more than 400,000 products, includes a long discourse on toothpaste on its web site. Though most dentifrices contain glycerin, an animal product that is “unquestionably” non-kosher, it’s not completely clear whether they’re treyf; the OU quotes some complicated rabbinical rulings involving flavor and usage of the product. “If…
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Life Merissa Nathan Gerson: A ‘Yenta’ for a New Generation
By her own admission, Merissa Nathan Gerson’s qualification as an advice columnist is mainly “10 years of talk therapy.” “Add a few rabbis, a Buddhist-inspired education, monks, stupas, shrine rooms and the like, stir, and you get a 28-year-old Yenta,” writes the former farmer, waitress, teacher, lamp-maker, and creative writing teacher at a juvenile detention…
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