Renee Ghert-Zand
By Renee Ghert-Zand
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The Schmooze Caught in a Sad Romance
Filmmaker Josh Freed is willing to do a lot for the sake of his art, including casting himself in a negative light. His debut documentary, “Five Weddings and a Felony,” which premieres November 6 at the DOC NYC film festival, is Freed’s personal journey as a Jewish 28-year-old New York guy, trying to figure out…
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Culture From Sex.com to Clean and Green
Clean-tech entrepreneur and Jewish philanthropist Gary Kremen walked through his home in Los Altos Hills, Calif., on a recent afternoon. He held his 5-month-old son, Isaac, in one arm and gestured with the other arm to the environmentally friendly baby paraphernalia. Today, Kremen’s home is filled with diapers, bottles and teething rings. Not long ago,…
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The Schmooze Slideshow: Jews of the Fillmore
With the opening of San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School of the Bay’s (JCHS) new building on Ellis Street in 2002, the city’s organized Jewish community finally returned to the Fillmore. Only local Jewish history buffs appreciated the significance; the neighborhood in which the school is situated — now called The Western Addition — was…
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The Schmooze Orthodox Jews Fight Proposed Niqab Ban in Quebec
The Orthodox community in Quebec is fighting for Muslim women’s right to wear the niqab. Convinced that a bill to ban the Islamic face veil, if passed, could ultimately lead to the outlawing of Jewish religious practices and customs, they made an unprecedented appearance in front of the National Assembly committee considering the legislation. The…
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The Schmooze Ethiopian Jewry’s Journey, in Dance
On October 14 at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael, California, at a performance for 400 middle school students from six different Bay Area Jewish day schools, the members of the Beta Dance Troupe seemed to defy the laws of human kinetics. Their shoulders pulsed, their heads bobbed and their elbows flapped, while their…
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Food Foodie Passions Take the Bimah at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
The guests at Jack Cohen’s recent bar mitzvah enjoyed gefilte fish. Sounds familiar. But Cohen’s friends and family were not only treated to it at the kiddush lunch, but also by way of an in-depth PowerPoint presentation on the traditional Jewish food as part of Cohen’s ceremony. By choosing to delve into the complex history…
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The Schmooze Slideshow: A Jewish Refugee’s San Francisco Scene
The title of a current exhibition of works by the late German Jewish American photographer John Gutmann, “An Emigrant’s Visual Discovery of a New World,” says it all. An immigrant to the United States, Gutmann brought to the striking black and white images he created the eye and sensibility, not only of a foreigner, but…
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Life ‘The Social Network’ on the Lore of Jewish Men and Asian Women
Sarah Seltzer came away from watching “The Social Network,” the movie about the founding of Facebook, peeved about its (non)portrayal of women. In her post, “The (Male-Only) Social Network,” she quoted Maya Dusenbery about “the wall of giggle and boobs that composes the film’s background.” I, too, came away miffed about this, but also thinking…
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