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The Schmooze

This Week in Forward Arts and Culture

  • I revisit the life and work of the great music and cultural critic Ellen Willis.

  • Jenna Weissman Joselit pays homage to a colonial-era circumcision set.

  • Carol Zemel explores the irony-laden work of Israeli artist Yael Bartana, who is representing Poland at this year’s Venice Biennale.

  • Shoshana Olidort and Jake Marmer review the letters of Paul Celan and Ilana Shmueli with some letters of their own.

  • Graham Lawson documents the struggle to bring a Picasso to Ramallah.

  • Adam Rovner reviews a new book by Guy Alroey, showing that Jews left Europe for news of economic opportunity dispensed by Jewish information bureaus more often than they did for fear of pogroms.

  • Benjamin Ivry honors Georg Tintner, an overlooked Vienna-born conductor who spent most of his career in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

  • Philologos celebrates the disappearing German Jewish tradion of the Wimpel.

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