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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Steven Spielberg Takes On Vatican’s 158-Year-Old Feud With Jewish Family
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film with Mark Rylance, “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,” will shine a light on an obscure battle between the Papacy and an Italian Jewish family that led to outrage and controversy in Europe and the United States in the mid-19th century. Based on true events, the story focuses on a six-year-old Jewish…
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When Was the Bible Really Written? New Clues Emerge.
For a text commonly thought of as foundational, it can feel odd to think that there was a time when it didn’t really exist. The Bible, though, has a birthday, and no one knows quite when it is. On Monday, a group of scholars from Tel Aviv University published a new guess. , appearing in…
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Is Sexy Nazi Role Playing OK — as Long as You’re a Proud Jew?
There’s nothing wrong with introducing Nazi role play in the bedroom, journalist Mark Oppenheimer wrote in an advice column — but he scolded the letter writer for being a self-hating Jew. Famous sex writer Dan Savage called on Oppenheimer, who is Jewish, to answer the unusual question on his blog “Savage Love.” The letter writer,…
The Latest
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The Night George Soros Stood In For Nobelist Holocaust Survivor Imre Kertesz
The news that Hungarian Holocaust survivor and 2002 Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz died at 86 on March 31 in Budapest, brought back the memory of the May 13, 2003 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research benefit dinner at which Kertesz was to be an honoree. Held at the Pierre, among the 460 guests a roster…
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Lisa Moses Leff Wins Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
The Jewish Book Council named Lisa Moses Leff as the winner of the 2016 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her book Leff received a $100,000 prize. The runner-up Choice Award went to Yehudah Mirksy, who wrote Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution and took home $25,000. The other finalists were Dan…
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Why Ivanka and Eric Trump Won’t Get To Vote for Donald in New York Primary
Well, this is embarrassing. On Monday morning’s episode of Fox & Friends, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump had to explain why two of his five children, Ivanka and Eric Trump, will not be voting in the Republican New York primary on April 19: in time. “They had a long time register and they were, you know,…
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Todd Slotkin Food Allergy Research Champion Honored at Castle Connolly Awards Gala
At this year’s 11th Castle Connolly Annual National Physician of the Year Awards Gala at the Pierre, the honorees included Northwestern University’s urologist William Catalona Prostate Cancer SPORE Director; U. of Michigan Health Systems’ Prof. of Neurology Eva L. Feldman M.D., Ph.D.; and Suzanne Oparil M.D. Director of Vascular Biology & Hypertension Program at the…
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Ted Cruz’s Terrible Billy Crystal Impersonation Just Ruined ‘The Princess Bride’ For Us
We get it, running for president is a tough job. You have to be charming, yet firm, funny, yet serious, you have to dance and make jokes and pander to every sort of different crowd. And even if you do something well, you still get criticized. With that said, this Ted Cruz impersonation of Billy…
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Sacha Baron Cohen Slammed as ‘Arse’ as Freddie Mercury Film Feud Erupts
Sacha Baron Cohen recently explained why he left a Freddie Mercury biopic in which he was set to star as the late Queen singer. But now, Queen lead guitarist Brian May is sharing the band’s side of the story. In March, Cohen told Howard Stern that he left the biopic, which he had been attached…
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Kevin Costner in Israel Dismisses BDS Champion Roger Waters
(JTA)— At the Israel premiere of a film starring Kevin Costner, the Hollywood actor said he does not care whether anti-Israel activists, including Roger Waters, disapprove of his visit to the Jewish state. “I don’t ask anyone’s permission to travel,” Costner said in an interview Tuesday a press conference earlier this week at the Cinema City multiplex…
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Hey Mandy! Looks Like Barry Manilow Is Bound For Israel
Calm down Israeli Fanilows! Really, try and keep it together. But it is confirmed: Barry Manilow is bringing his “One Last Time” tour to you shores. The ‘Copacabana’ showman announced his plans on Facebook with these three words: Manilow. Israel. June. And that’s all he wrote — at first. Natch, fans in Israel wanted —…
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