Michael Kaminer
By Michael Kaminer
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The Schmooze Last ‘Pink Triangle’ Holocaust Survivor Dies at 98
Another living link to the Holocaust was lost last week when the last surviving man to have worn the pink triangle — sewn onto concentration camp uniforms to signify homosexuality — died at the age of 98. The New York Times reported that Rudolf Brazda, who had been imprisoned in Buchenwald, died in Alsace, France,…
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The Schmooze Rabbis To Cheese Company: ‘Worker Exploitation Ain’t Kosher’
The cheese may be kosher. But treatment of workers hasn’t been. That’s the message a group of rabbis took Tuesday to the Midtown headquarters of a hedge fund that owns a kosher-cheese processor accused of retaliatory firings against employees who fought for overtime pay. Crain’s New York Business reports a delegation of rabbis was turned…
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Food Caplansky’s Deli Truck Rolls Out on the Streets of Toronto
Three years ago, Zane Caplansky applied to the city of Toronto to sell Montreal-style smoked-meat sandwiches from a cart. Confronted with red tape that would have required a steep investment in a mobile kitchen, he dropped the idea. Bad news for the aspiring vendor became a boon for Toronto foodies. Caplansky instead started selling smoked-meat…
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The Schmooze Israeli Gangster Gunned Down at Gas Station
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the old saying goes. But it meant tragic consequences for an Israeli gangster. Crime boss Francois Abutbul, whose casino-owner father was murdered in 2002, was himself gunned down Sunday at a central Israeli gas station, Haaretz reports. Abutbul, known as “Francois the Great,” was released from prison…
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The Schmooze AIDS Epidemic as Echo of the Holocaust
Until two of them passed away of complications from AIDS in 1994, the art collective known as General Idea produced an enormous body of intellectually engaging, provocative, and savagely witty work, much of which explored notions of identity and social control. On July 30, the trio will get its first comprehensive retrospective at the Art…
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The Schmooze Bloomberg Officiates at Same-Sex Nuptials of Two Jewish Staff Members
New York’s weekend of marriage equality launched with a joyous Jewish twist. Mayor Michael Bloomberg last night officiated at the wedding of two Semitic members of his staff at a Gracie Mansion ceremony. Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz and Criminal Justice Coordinator John Feinblatt tied the knot after being together for 14 years, according to…
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The Schmooze Etgar Keret and the World’s Skinniest House
“Narrow-minded” isn’t how Etgar Keret normally comes across. But his new project in Warsaw actually has the Israeli author and filmmaker limiting his boundaries. According to the Toronto Star, Keret will become the occupant of the “world’s skinniest house”—a four-story, five-foot-wide modernist structure to be completed by winter. Located in an alleyway between a 1960s…
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The Schmooze Amy Winehouse’s Dad Releases Album of Inoffensive Jazz Hits
Don’t expect any onstage meltdowns or messy arrests from this Winehouse. Amy’s father Mitch, a former sales consultant who became a London cabbie late in life, is releasing an album of “lovely but forgotten jazz and swing hits,” according to the New York Times. Winehouse pére tells the Times he “taught Amy to sing when…
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Opinion Netanyahu is facing electoral catastrophe — and could place Israel in existential peril
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Culture Proposal to ban Israeli products roils a Brooklyn members-only grocery
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