The Schmooze lies at the intersection of high and low culture. Here, the latest developments and trends in Jewish art, books, dance, film, music, media, television and theater are all assimilated into one handy pop culture blog.
The Schmooze
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Ronan Farrow Slams Media for Coddling His Father, Woody Allen
Ronan Farrow, son of Jewish filmmaker Woody Allen, called out the media on failing to publish information about his father’s alleged sexual abuse of daughter Dylan Farrow. Ronan wrote that he believes claims by Dylan that Allen routinely molested her as a child to be true, and recounts how his father would go into his…
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Beyonce Rocks Israeli-Designed Dresses on New World Tour
JERUSALEM — Beyonce is wearing a line of dresses custom made by Israeli fashion designer Inbal Dror on stage during her new world tour. Dror, of Tel Aviv, posted photos on her Facebook and Twitter feed of the performer wearing her creations in a May 7 Houston show for the “Formation” tour, which started late…
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Morgan Freeman Celebrates Passover on TV’s ‘The Story of God’
Morgan Freeman broke bread (or in this case, matzah) with Rabbi Maya Leibovich in Jerusalem as he explored the meaning of religion in his National Geographic documentary series, “The Story of God.” During the Seder, Freeman learns about Jewish freedom from slavery in Egypt from Leibovich, who is the first female rabbi to be born…
The Latest
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Surprise! Tony Kushner at Center of Israel Kerfuffle — This Time North of the Border
Tony Kushner, the playwright and screenwriter of “Angels in America” and “Lincoln,” has found himself at the center of an unexpected scandal in Toronto. In the city for a talk hosted by the Koffler Center for the Art, he’ll be discussing his career with theatre director Philip Akin. But Kushner’s appearance has been obscured by…
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A Very Canadian Jewish Tribute to Prince (With 2,000 Choristers)
Canadian TV personalities Nobu and Mio Adilman decided to do something a little different with their most-recent Choir! Choir! Choir! performance. As Toronto Life reports the Adilmans took the stage at Toronto’s Massey Hall, and led a 2,000 person tribute to Prince in the form of the song “When Doves Cry.” The Adilmans have also…
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The Mensch on a Bench Has Found His Match in Bubbe
The Mensch on a Bench has a new Mensch(ette) to keep him company. “Shark Tank” favorite, Neal Hoffman, appeared on the latest episode of “Beyond the Tank” to introduce Bubbe, a talking Jewish grandmother doll and the newest edition to the Mensch on a Bench product line. Appearing with Shark and investor Robert Herjavec, Hoffman…
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Woody Allen Leads Pack at Cannes With ‘Cafe Society’
The 69th Cannes Film Festival has what it takes to be a vintage edition, with Woody Allen leading a pack of celebrated filmmakers presenting their movies to the French Riviera crowds. The May 11-22 cinema extravaganza opens on Wednesday with Allen’s “Cafe Society,” featuring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in a story of a young…
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Jeffrey Goldberg on Why His Tablet Magazine Column Never Panned Out
The ongoing fracas over David Samuels’ lengthy New York Times Magazine profile of Obama-whisperer Ben Rhodes has churned up a bit of media gossip about a half-forgotten Jewish journalism mystery from five years ago. Riveted? Read on, Tablet/JTA/Forward staffer/ex-staffer. In summer of 2011, Tablet made a big announcement: Jeffrey Goldberg was moving “Goldblog,” his argumentative,…
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Wyoming-Born Photographer, Penny Wolin, Showcases American Jewish Photographers
I first met Cheyenne, Wyoming-born photographer Penny Wolin at the October 3, 2012 preview of the New Jewish Rep’s Yiddish version of “Waiting for Godot” hosted by Nahma Sandrow (author of “Vagabond Stars: World History of Yiddish Theater) and her husband, photographer William Meyer, at their Upper West Side home. Wolin—who in 2000 published the…
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A Mother’s Day Homage to My Mother’s Wartime Survival Ingenuity
With Mother’s Day and Holocaust Commemorations converging this year, I thought back to my mother Zelda’s courage and ingenuity in rescuing me from German-occupied Warsaw just before the ghetto walls went up. Our building had been bombed several times. Whatever food reserves we had were almost gone. My father Mordechai (Matvey) Bernstein—along with fellow Yiddish…
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Gérard Depardieu, Talmud Scholar?
Gérard Depardieu, the French film star known for his roles in “The Last Metro,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” has shed some surprising light on his literary preferences: he’s currently working his way through the Babylonian Talmud. The famously intricate rabbinic text isn’t the most obvious choice for light reading, especially for a…
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