5.The most delightful reality TV of all time is the show that featured this young Orthodox couple’s marriage. (Disclaimer: The Schmooze went to elementary school with the groom.) This may be the best and most accurate hora-ing on the silver screen.
2.The most famous Jewish wedding on “Sex and The City” is Charlotte York’s marriage to Harry Goldenblatt. But the best Jewish wedding on “Sex and the City” is this gay wedding officiated by Liza Minelli as a gay men’s choir sings “Sunrise, Sunset.”
Supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss has been dating real estate heir-cum-venture capitalist Joshua Kushner for six years this summer. We expect to hear wedding bells any minute.
Or will it be a wedding shofar?
(Or whatever it is that plays at Jewish weddings. Accordions?)
Klossy will be converting to Judaism before she marries Kushner. Before Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump married in 2009, Trump converted to Judaism in an Orthodox ceremony, and Kloss is expected to do the same. According to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who mysteriously devoted a column to the two couples (it’s only cool when we do it, Maureen! It’s weird when you do it!), our girl Karlie faces “severe pressure” from Kushner’s parents, Seryl and Charles, to convert. It’s rumored that the milkmaid-esque coder has been studying with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The proof is in the pudding. By proof we mean hints, and by pudding we mean social media. Obviously!
Let’s take a look:
In April, the couple travelled to Israel together
This was likely another step on Karlie’s conversion journey. They toured the country, floating in the Dead Sea and lingering in Jerusalem. Even Karlie’s clothes are a mix of Zionist zeal and demure Jerusalem style.
Kloss seemed to be implicating herself in the land, acknowledging the shared Jewish spiritual and historical connection to Israel and developing her own relationship to the country.
The couple continued on to the Wadi Rum desert of Jordan, and Kloss posted a rare pic of Baby Kush. Peep her red string Kabbalah bracelet. She’s ours, folks.
The trip to Israel seemed to be a turning point. Since that vacation, the two have rarely been apart. Kushner posted a steamy video of Kloss on May 27, and she added a snapshot of herself on the same day.
This week marked the future Mister Kloss’ 33rd birthday. In celebration of this palindromic event, Kloss posted a wildly romantic message that basically announces “We will die side by side, reciting the sh’ma.”
On the same day, Kloss posted a video featuring Joshua kissing her on the cheek. This is practically hardcore porn for Kloss, given that she typically keeps her boyfriend off her social media entirely and rarely speaks about their relationship.
“It’s not like I’ve ever wanted to be so secretive about my private life,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “Carolina Herrera always says, ‘A woman who’s an open book is boring,’” she added. This limiting viewpoint is extremely offensive. We will happily forgive Karlie, though, if she makes it up to us by gifting us a commemorative vase after her wedding.
Instagram Video Screensho...
From Kloss’ Instagram video for Kushner’s birthday
If your kids aren’t quoting Dorothy Parker, reciting the history of New York City landmarks, or begging for brusque strolls in the park then get thee to “Central Park: The Musical.” The new musical, by Russian-Israeli composer Dina Pruzhansky with a book by Arnold Shvetsov, will play at the JCC of Manhattan this Sunday at 11AM and 2PM, and it ain’t anything like “Annie” or “The Music Man.” The sophisticated score and story began as just a handful of songs and, given support by the Manhattan JCC and the Genesis Philanthropy Group, grew into a real-life dream.
We spoke with rising talent composer Dina Pruzhansky about dreams, the Alice in Wonderland statue, and passing Russian-Jewish heritage from generation to generation.
The Schmooze: Hi Dina! Who are you?
Dina Pruzhansky: Hi! I was born in the Soviet Union, and then as a kid with my family I moved to Israel. I lived and studied there until 2006, and then in 2006 I came to New York because I wanted to write musicals even though I was classically trained. I still am, so I also write classical music and operas, but I came to New York because I was interested in musical theater.
(Note: The Schmooze is very interested in musical theater.)
So you’re not just one of those classical composers slumming it in musical theater just to show you can?
I love doing this — musical theater, everything theater, musical opera! The only thing more fun than watching a musical is writing one.
(The Schmooze is awed and moved by this.)
To me, writing a musical is a dream. I think it’s coming from my childhood because the very first show I saw was “Fiddler on the Roof.” I was so moved by it in ways I had never been moved before by straightforward theater or even from an opera. There was something about this — all the elements — music, dance, everything — coming together was so powerful. It makes you dream like nothing else.
Sing it, Dina! What’s the story of “Central Park: The Musical”?
I love working with children. I love kids. This particular project actually grew out of something very small. It was very simple — a few songs that I wrote for a daughter of my friend, by her request. They’re a Russian-jewish family living in Canada. She wanted her little girl to preserve her Russian language, and the daughter didn’t like to speak Russian. But she loves to sing. My friend said that her daughter loves certain poems and asked me to write a few songs using them. I sat down and picked a few iconic Russian jewish poems and wrote music to them. Eventually I got support from the JCC and the Genesis Group, and it took off.
What Russian Jewish poets did you use? Who should we be reading?
Samuil Marshak — he’s the poet, especially for children’s poetry. Agniya Barto — she’s great. And a Russian-speaking Israeli poet — Renata Mucha. The show was originally in Russian, but for the new English production I was interested in the mixture of cultures, so I inserted poetry by Dorothy Parker, Alexander Milne [the writer of “Winnie the Pooh,”] and my fellow lyricists from the BMI Workshops — Gabrielle Gold, Ethan Kanfer, Anastasiya Moiseeva. (Note: BMI is an elite musical theater writing training program.)
So, what’s the show like now?
It’s about kids and adults who go to stroll in Central Park, and magical adventures begin. What we wanted to do was educate in a non-didactic way. To be entertaining and surprising and educating without seeming educational. For example, we have a reference to the Alice in Wonderland statue, and to Hans Christian Anderson, and many many places that happen to be in central park. Everything we do uses the audience’s imagination.
Why should people see this show on Father’s Day?
Our cast is intergenerational…I think it’s a great family activity. We even have a father-daughter combination in the cast.
We’ll take audiences on a stroll, and have little adventures, and educate them along the way.
Jenny Singer is the deputy Lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
Karlie Kloss, fashion queen, and Josh Kushner, NYC finance guru/brother to the most powerful Jew in America, are reportedly this close to an engagement. Since Karlie is fashion royalty and a soon-to-be-member of the tribe, we have one question: what will she wear to her engagement party?
Well, there are a few options, but at the top of the list is Brandon Maxwell. Maxwell’s aesthetic is precisely tailored, luxuriously minimalist, with an urban sensibility. Karlie is, apparently, Maxwell’s muse, and she tends to wear Maxwell for all her super formal events, like the Met Gala.
At this year’s Met Gala, she wore a subtly dramatic cut-out black gown with a deep v-neck at the back. It was remarkably similar to the one she wore to the 2016 Gala — a white gown that also had cutouts, topped with a structured overcoat.
Of course, she could go with another designer friend, Jason Wu. Wu, also a favorite of former First Lady Michelle Obama, designs feminine clothes with a distinctly modern edge. Kloss wore a custom-made piece by Wu to the CFDA Awards a couple of weeks ago, and attended as Wu’s date.
The spaghetti strap gown evoked the late 90s minimalism which Karlie seems to favor of late, and the virginal white hue makes us wonder: did she have wedding on the brain when she worked with Wu on the design, which was “months in the making?” Will she re-wear this gorgeous piece to what’s sure to be the IT engagement party of the New York City social calendar? TBD.
But maybe Kloss will go daring, different. She’s been a Victoria’s Secret semi-Angel on-and-off over the years; why not wear an elaborate, showgirl-esque bra ensemble, like the one she wore at the 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai?
Of course, that might be too risqué for the Kushner family’s liking. So perhaps she’ll opt for something more casual, more in line with her cool girl, Code With Klossy vibe. She works out, like, all the time and is an ambassador for Adidas, so maybe she’ll buck tradition and celebrate with a casual friend-hang at her place, wearing a T-shirt and leggings courtesy of Adidas. Obviously, it’s a stretch (see what we did there?), but it’s not impossible.
But let’s get real: she’ll most likely want to wear a proper party dress that hews toward minimalism. So she may pick Calvin Klein, the father of sleek New York chic. Klein is the first show she ever walked the runway for back in 2007 when she first started modeling, which makes this choice both sentimental and vaguely poetic.
Natalie Portman has an Oscar, a Harvard degree, a hot-French-ballerina husband, two adorable children, and worldwide acclaim.
And she just doesn’t give a damn anymore.
Portman, who has maintained a divide between her personal life and her professional work for most of her twenty-four year professional career, has recently been saying whatever she wants.
Then, she quietly did the unthinkable by refusing to accept the Genesis prize — publicly criticizing the Israeli government without renouncing Israel. (However you may feel about it, you have to admit that the brilliant, lifelong Israel-supporter whose entire extended family lives in the country had a lot to lose by taking this stand.)
Then, on Thursday night, Portman told Stephen Colbert exactly what she really thinks of Jared Kushner, a former friend of hers from their Harvard days.
“We were friendly,” Portman said of Kushner, who graduated Harvard in 2003, the same year as Portman. “Unfortunately,” she added, “There’s not a lot funny to say about someone you were friends with becoming a super villain.”
Natalie Portman is one of the loveliest women alive and we have always mildly resented her for it. But now, there can be no turning back. All hail Natalie Portman: She is the best of Queen Esther and of Vashti, of early Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the present-day Notorious One, of Queen Amidala, of Jackie O, and the rapping version of herself she played on SNL.
Admitting we have a Jared Kushner problem is the first step on all of our recovery as a Jewish nation, and we accept our Queen’s leadership in this process. Godspeed Natalie, godspeed.
Jenny Singer is the deputy Lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
