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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Abram Games Designed Posters for Humanity
Photo courtesy Estate of Abram Games “To be an artist you need talent and you haven’t got it,” the young Abram Games was told by his headteacher, advising him to pursue a career as a bank clerk instead. Regardless, with what appears to be characteristic tenacity, sheer hard work and obvious talent, Games went on…
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How About a Swastika With Your Uber?
JPUpdates.com, DNAInfo As if Uber hasn’t gotten enough negative press this month, the NYPD is investigating the flyers showing swastikas above the taxi app’s logo that have mysteriously appeared on Bedford Avenue, in Brooklyn. Officer’s in NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force division officers are investigating the flyers, posted Monday night, as a potential hate crime….
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Crashing Fashion Week for a Bat Mitzvah
Marc Jacobs models walk the runway at New York Fashion Week // Getty Images Many a preteen has done a crazy thing or two for the perfect bar/bat mitzvah. For Chloe Cornell, that meant crashing the Marc Jacobs show at New York Fashion Week with six of her closest friends, all wearing t-shirts bearing the…
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The Pain of Rootless Jews in Berlin
(Reuters) — Moshe Gershuni’s expressive, historically loaded art, which places symbols of the Holocaust in a religious setting and seeks to polarize opinion about current Israeli society, seems unlikely to reward the casual viewer. Titled “No Father No Mother,” the retrospective of paintings and ceramics since 1979 in the New National Gallery is the first…
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How Isabel Rose Went From Acting to Writing to Music
The first song on Isabel Rose’s new CD is “Lot of Livin’ To Do,” an especially appropriate choice. She has already packed a lot of living into her, uh, years on planet Earth. “I don’t want to distract people,” Rose said about her age. In a phone interview with the Forward, she added, “I prefer…
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Babs Is Back on ‘Tonight Show’ — 51 Years Later
Yesterday marked Barbara Streisand’s big return to the “Tonight Show.” Why is this a big deal? Well, the last time Babs appeared on the show (with Johnny Carson as host), Kennedy was president, America had never heard of the Beatles and the Berlin Wall was still something new. In 1963, and the singer was just…
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The Luck of the Yiddish: ‘Godot’ At First Irish NYC Theater Fest
Mingling with the guests at the Origins First Irish Theatre Festival Launch party I spotted Yoel and Avram Weisshauss — two bearded Satmars. I asked in Yiddish: “Vos epes. farvos zaynd ir do?” (“Why are you here?”) Both answered me with a Yiddish-style shrug. Held at Mutual of America’s Park Avenue headquarters and hosted by its…
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Israeli Artist Assaf Evron Takes Chicago By Storm
Photo: Rea Ben-David When September’s Chicago magazine tipped Assaf Evron as one of “four rising artists worth investing in,” it was the first many in the Windy City had heard of the Israeli-born creator. But Evron has long been a name to watch among the cognoscenti. In Israel, his work is in permanent collections of…
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Another Offensive Sweatshirt, Courtesy of Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters has done it again. The (once) hip clothing giant took flack this week after listing an eyebrow-raising product for sale: a Kent State sweatshirt with a blood-spatter design. The sweatshirt seems to be a poorly-conceived nod to the Kent State shootings of 1970, in which Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd…
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That Time Drake Was in ‘Harry Potter’
When I was in 5th grade, I had a deep dark secret. Upon turning 11, I fully expected to receive a letter by owl post, summoning me to join my class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Judging by the picture Drake posted to Instagram this weekend, it seems I wasn’t the only one….
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Amy Winehouse Statue Unveiled in London
Mitch Winehouse with the statue of his daughter, singer Amy Winehouse // Getty Images Amy Winehouse can once again be seen hanging around Camden, north London. A life-size bronze statue of the late singer was unveiled on Sunday, three years after the Winehouse’s death from alcohol poisoning, on what would have been her 31st birthday….
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