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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Justin Bieber Hangs With L.A. Rabbi
Getty Images Pop star Justin Bieber spent three hours meeting with a rabbi in Los Angeles. Bieber on Wednesday visited the Westside Jewish Community Center, the celebrity news website X17.com reported. The singer “is on a spiritual journey,” according to X17, and reportedly has stopped using drugs and gotten rid of his entourage. Bieber reportedly…
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Alan Dershowitz Talks Hamas, Terror and Abraham
Alan Dershowitz spent 50 years on the Harvard University law faculty, including the last 20 as the Felix Frankfurter professor of law. In all that time, he didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk, too, representing a number of frequently unpopular clients — Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bülow — in frequently…
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Diane Von Furstenberg’s $12M Push To Restore Venice Ghetto
Getty Images The world’s oldest ghetto is about to get a makeover. Jewish-German designer Diane von Furstenberg is launching a $12 million initiative to restore the 500-year-old Venice Ghetto, i24 News reports. Von Furstenberg is spearheading the project, which would include rebuilding the neighborhood’s various synagogues, with real estate investor Joseph Sitt and other philanthropists…
The Latest
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How Mike Nichols Was Related to Everyone
This article was first published in the February 26, 2010 issue of the Forward. On the celebrity family tree, a Jewish film director has been revealed as the missing link among Albert Einstein, Meryl Streep and TV’s Dr. Mehmet Oz. Mike Nichols, the Oscar-winning director of the 1967 film “The Graduate,” learned that he shared…
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6 Things About Mike Nichols
(Reuters) — Few directors have moved between Broadway and Hollywood as easily as Mike Nichols. Here are six facts about Nichols, who died on Wednesday. 1) A bad reaction to a whooping-cough vaccine at age 4 left Nichols permanently hairless, according to the New Yorker magazine. Later he would come to rely on wigs and…
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My Year of Not Shopping
All images courtesy Sarah Lazarovic Equal parts autobiography, treatise, art project, and social commentary, Sarah Lazarovic’s “A Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy” (Penguin Books) chronicles a year in which the author sublimated consumer urges by drawing things instead of purchasing them. But the book’s much more than a visual diary. Lazarovic’s elegant,…
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Google Doodle Pays Tribute to Ofra Haza
The Israeli Google homepage pays tribute to Ofra Haza Israelis visiting the Google homepage today got a fun surprise, in the form of a Google Doodle dedicated to the one and only Ofra Haza. Haza, a famous Israeli singer of Yemenite Jewish heritage, died in 2000 of AIDS-related pneumonia. She was 42. Today would have…
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Deborah Lipstadt Speaks At U.S. Holocaust Museum Dinner
“The world is in chaos,” began Sara Bloomfield, Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, addressing the 400 guests at its Annual 2014 Dinner at The Plaza. “Ukraine and Russia, Hong Kong and China, ISIS and Iran, the Middle East and anti-Semitism in the very land of The Holocaust. Communism, Nazism, Islamism all offers a…
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‘Frozen’ Princess Sings ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’!
Getty Images “Do you wanna build a snowman?” ‘Cause, baby, it’s cold outside. For the first time in forever, 2014’s favorite Frozen Jewish princess, Idina Menzel, teamed up with Michael Bublé to cover the holiday favorite, “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” Menzel joins a long list of Jews singing (and writing) Christmas songs. The music video,…
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Writers Line Up For Israel’s Top Literary Prize
Reuven Namdar in New York. Photo by Beth Kissileff. In a time when the famed British Man Booker Prize has been opened to writers in English from all countries, Israel too has achieved a milestone. For the first time in its 14 years, the Sapir Prize, given by Mif’al Ha-Payis (Israel’s national lottery), has on…
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Will There Be a Synagogue Emoji?
Have you ever been texting and thought: “If only there was an emoji that appropriately captured the essence of a Jewish house of worship?” Well, the emoji gods have heard your prayers. According to Buzzfeed, 37 new emojis characters are currently being considered by the Unicode Consortium (which creates your favorite pizza slices and praying…
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Fast Forward Devices tagged ‘Free Gaza’ found at ballot drop box fires in Oregon, Washington state
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Yiddish צוויי אויסצוגן פֿון ייִדישער ליטעראַטור וועגן אַ צעשטערטן שׂימחת־תּורהTwo excerpts of Yiddish literature about devastation on Simchat Torah
די צוויי ווערק דריקן אױס װײטיק, פּנים־אל־פּנים מיט חורבן און בראָך אין פֿריִערדיקע תּקופֿות.
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