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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VIDEO: Taking Kapparot Way Too Far
Worried that your day-old infant won’t be forgiven on Yom Kippur? Maybe you should wave a chicken over his head. That’s the route one ultra-Orthodox woman has taken in a video circulating widely on WhatsApp and posted to the internet today by Yeshiva World News. It’s unclear where or when the video was recorded —…
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POEM: ‘The Great Dying’
He gathered his friend’s dead flesh, walked back and sat in a field reciting a psalm. Kneeling, he signaled the signs of courage and defeat with his bloody fingers, each sign for each heart beat before the great dying. An instinctive act, he ruminates. He sounds the psalm like a warning bell, befuddled by what…
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POEM: ‘The Converts’
On the holiest day we fast till sundown. I watch the sun stand still as the horizon edges toward it. Four hours to go. The rabbi’s mouth opens and closes and opens. I think fish and little steaming potatoes, parsley clinging to them like an ancient script. Only the converts, six of them in the…
The Latest
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3 Can’t Miss ‘Humans of New York’ Photos From Israel
New York’s favorite hipster photographer, Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York (or HONY, to those in the know!), just published a selection of portraits from his recent “unscheduled side trip” to Israel. The photos, posted on his Humans of New York Facebook page, are no different than his other work: they are not…
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Netflix Trying to Revive Adam Sandler’s Career
Getty Images Netflix Inc said on Thursday that comedian and actor Adam Sandler has signed a deal to star in and produce four films that will be shown exclusively on the video-streaming service. The deal moves Netflix, which produces the Emmy-winning political thriller “House of Cards” and the comedy-drama “Orange Is the New Black,” further…
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Elie Wiesel Receives Germany’s Knight Commander’s Cross
It was a heady gathering of “Jewish Eagles” — ADL’s Abe Foxman, World Jewish Congress’ Ronald Lauder, ** AJC’s **David Harris, American Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations’ Malcolm Hoenlein and B’nai B’rith president Allan Jacobs gathered at the Fifth Avenue residence of Germany’s newly appointed Consul General Brita Wagener for the presentation of the Order of…
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A Delirious Interpretation of the Binding of Isaac for Yom Kippur
Writing of Kafka’s tales, Walter Benjamin pointed out that Kafka’s tangled meanings “do not modestly lie at the feet of the doctrine, as the Haggadah lies at the feet of Halakah… they raise a mighty paw against it.” Benjamin, ultimately, juxtaposed the Jewish law (halachah) with mythic storytelling (aggadah), envisioning the rise of the latter…
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‘Yidlife Crisis,’ the First Yiddish Sitcom
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. “Yidlife Crisis” has been a long time coming. Back in the good old days — 60 or 70 years ago — there were Yiddish comedy serials on the radio, featuring the same cast of characters week after week. Unlike their English counterparts, however, these shows never…
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Ben Feldman on ‘Mad Men,’ Playing Jews, and Why He Never Had a Bar Mitzvah
Photo: Trae Patton/NBC The last time we saw Ben Feldman, he’d just cut off one of his nipples. Now, he’s head-over-heels in love with a girl he spied — but never met — years earlier at a rock concert. Perhaps an explanation is in order. For the last three seasons, Feldman has played Michael Ginsberg,…
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Paul Reiser Returns to the Stage
Paul Reiser is coming to Manhattan to make his first New York appearance in over two decades. He’ll be appearing October 2 at Merkin Concert Hall in a benefit for JazzReach, an organization that sends musicians to schools around the country to perform jazz for students. The comic is most famously the star and creator…
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Trying To Find the Real Heinrich Himmler
A sense of irony is helpful, perhaps even necessary, to truly appreciate “The Decent One,” the new documentary about Heinrich Himmler. The paradox begins with the title character. He was the architect of the Final Solution, commander of the SS, and a man who in civilian clothes looked like a Jewish accountant. What Vanessa Lapa,…
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