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
-
The Perfect Mischievous Purim Cards for All Your Partying Needs
Purim is around the corner, so as you’re washing down those hamentashen with a libation, or two, or three, stop a moment to send a card to a loved one, letting them know just how hard you plan on partying and your expected level of inebriation. We at the Forward created the perfect Someecards to…
-
Remembering Anita Brookner, “Mistress of Gloom”
“Dr. Weiss, at forty,” Anita Brookner wrote, “knew that her life had been ruined by literature.” The point she was aiming to make, through that first line of her first novel — published as “A Start in Life” in England and “The Debut” in America — was one she would return to frequently in her…
-
Jackie Kennedy’s Jewish Granddaughter Launches Web Comedy Series
Like grandma, like granddaughter. Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, and Jewish artist Edwin Schlossberg, strikes a remarkable resemblance to her beloved late-grandmother Jackie Kennedy. Schlossberg, 27, a Harvard grad who earned her masters degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2013, recently launched…
The Latest
-
The 6-Year-Old Rabbi’s Daughter and Her One-Girl Protest Against The New Yorker
Conservative Rabbi Jill Jacobs is known for her social activism, and her young daughter is already fighting injustice too. Six-year-old Lior’s issue: The New Yorker cartoon contest’s policy against accepting submissions from minors. “It isn’t fair. Seriously,” she wrote in a letter to The New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff. Clearly cowed by the young…
-
Prepare Yourself! Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford Announce Fifth ‘Indiana Jones’ Movie
Somewhere in Hollywood, Harrison Ford is dusting off a brown fedora and gearing up for an adventure. Steven Spielberg announced plans to direct a fifth installment of “Indiana Jones” starring Ford as the swashbuckling archeologist with a penchant for beating Nazis and getting in trouble that is slated to hit theaters July 19, 2019, 38…
-
Seth Rogen’s ‘Sausage Party’ is the Adults-Only Cartoon You’ve Been Waiting For
Have you wondered if food comes alive at night in the supermarket? Or if a potato feels pain when you peel it? And, most importantly, can a hot dog and a bun make love? Seth Rogen’s answer is YES! “Sausage Party,” Rogen’s upcoming Pixar-quality cartoon, features a who’s who cast of Judd Apatow-film alums voicing…
-
3 Reasons Ted Cruz Should Actually Call for Ban on ‘Satanic’ Tritone
Sadly, today’s report that Ted Cruz has issued a call to ban the tritone — in music theory terms, the musical interval of augmented fourth or diminished fifth, and in conspiracy theorist terms, the dangerously alluring sound of the devil — is satirical. (Importantly, it was issued by the website Submediant, which is a satirical…
-
Hillary Clinton is Abbi and Ilana’s Bae in New ‘Broad City’ Episode
Hillary Clinton had a rough time in the media last week when she made a pretty serious slip-up speaking at Nancy Reagan’s funeral and lauding her for helping bring HIV/AIDs into the national conversation when in reality Reagan did exactly the opposite. She later published this apology. But this week, the only female candidate in…
-
How a Jewish Artist Created One of the Best Places To Observe Lent
Apparently it is Lent and has been since February 10th. In The Guardian’s somewhat belated move to honor this period – or, perhaps, a “we’re nearly there, don’t lose your focus” bit of motivation – this past weekend that paper’s “Christianity” section published an intercontinental list of spaces, holy for various reasons, likely to inspire…
-
Beauty Queen Says ‘Saul’ Won Oscar Because Jews Run Hollywood
A Colombian actress suggested that “Son of Saul” won the Academy Award for best foreign language film because “a large part of the industry and especially those who vote for the Oscar awards” are Jewish. Paola Turbay, a former Miss Colombia and runner-up in the 1992 Miss Universe pageant, was miffed that “Embrace of the…
-
Bloomingdale’s CEO Tony Spring Honored at New Yorker For New York Gala
Greeting the 400 guests at the March 7 Citizens Committee for New York City Gala at Gotham Hall, Committee CEO Peter H. Kostmayer informed “Our work is in hundreds of the city’s poorest neighborhoods filling gaps whether it be music lessons for poor kids or vegetable gardens for neighborhoods with little access to fresh and…
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion I’m a Jew of color. Ta-Nehisi Coates can’t apply US lessons to Israel.
- 2
Culture Columbus may have had Jewish heritage — that doesn’t mean he was Jewish
- 3
Opinion The most antisemitic university president you’ve never heard of
- 4
Culture Why Doug Emhoff shared his bar mitzvah with a guy named Scott
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture ‘Humans of Judaism’ tells the Jewish story, from the shtetl to Sandy Koufax to Hasidic rapper Nissim Black
-
Fast Forward Doug Emhoff: Jewish support for Trump is ‘shocking’ and ‘vexing’
-
Fast Forward Exclusive: GOP nominee for Senate says Christian nationalist who trafficked in antisemitism has ‘moral courage’
-
Fast Forward Biden ambassador: Blindly supporting Israel is not friendship
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism