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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Szymon Szurmiej, Jewish Actor and Polish Leader, Dies at 91
(JTA) — The Jewish actor and director Szymon Szurmiej, the longtime head of Poland’s State Jewish Theatre, has died. Szurmiej, a leading Jewish figure for years during the post-Holocaust communist era, died Wednesday in Warsaw. He was 91. He survived the widespread anti-Semitic purges of 1968 and, in addition to heading the theater since 1970,…
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First Black Captain America Coming to Marvel Comics
(Reuters) — An African-American character will soon strap on the star-emblazoned shield and step into the red, white and blue uniform of Captain America in the pages of Marvel Comics. The character of Captain America first appeared in 1941, as a super soldier fighting the Nazis. He was revived by Marvel in the 1960s and became…
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When Music Is the Best Medicine
Photo courtesy of BOND/360 Carly Simon recently told The New York Times that one of her goals this summer was to see “Alive Inside” again. She calls the documentary, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, “an extremely moving depiction of the power that music has.” She’s right. And…
The Latest
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LeBron James and His New Israeli Coach
Rookie Cleveland Cavaliers Coach David Blatt won a European title with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Now he gets to coach Lebron James. Getty Images One year ago, David Blatt was working with Maccabi Tel Aviv’s management on signing new players for the upcoming season. A year later, Blatt is coaching the best basketball player on the…
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Cote de Pablo To Play ‘Witch of Moab’ in ‘The Dovekeepers’
Cote de Pablo is a Chilean-born actress who seems to specializing in playing Jews. She is most famous for playing Mossad agent Ziva David in the long-running CBS hit “NCIS.” Now comes news that she has been cast in “The Dovekeepers,” a four-hour mini-series based on Alice Hoffman’s best selling novel, which, in turn is…
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‘Tyrant’ Quitting Tel Aviv Over Rocket Fire
(JTA) — The production of “Tyrant” is leaving Tel Aviv because of the ongoing rocket fire in Israel. The television drama, which was co-created by Israeli writer Gideon Raff, will move its operations to Istanbul, Turkey, Variety reported Wednesday. Air raid sirens and ongoing rocket fire from Gaza have disrupted the production, and members of…
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Books Now You Can Call Ishmael, To Talk About Books
“Call me Ishmael,” declares one of the most famous opening sentences in Western literature. But what if the narrator of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” was actually asking you to call him? That was the whimsical thought Logan Smalley offered in a spirited bar conversation about notable first sentences. He jotted the notion down on a…
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Jon Stewart Needles Israel on ‘Bomb-Better’ War
Our favorite Jewish late-night talk show host tackled the violence in the Middle East last night — with a few sharp-tongued yucks aimed at Israel. In a two-minute segment on the Gaza conflict, Jon Stewart highlighted the “asymmetrical” nature of the two sides pitted against each other. “Both sides are engaging in aerial bombardment, but…
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Should ‘The Goldbergs’ Be More Jewish?
Paul Lee, ABC’s group president of entertainment, met with reporters this morning during the Television Critics Association semi-annual meeting in Hollywood. Not unexpectedly, the subject of “The Goldbergs” came up. Lee,who recently renewed his own contract with the network (though ABC has languished in fourth place for the last four years), recently renewed the Jewish-themed…
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Want Slice of Hamas Rocket? Just 146 Bucks
Yochay Benarie Want to have your own slice of the war in the Middle East? You can bid on your very own “Hamas Missile Debris” on HappySale, an Israeli based auction website. The seller, Yochay Benarie, is asking for 500 shekels, or $146.70, for the fragment. Benarie, who lives in Tel Aviv, put up the…
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I Got Text From Hamas — in Broken Hebrew
Facebook (JTA) — I just got a text from someone who’s trying to blow me up. “The stupidity of your leaders put all of Israel under fire, and forced all the Israelis to go into shelters,” it said, sent by a user named SMSQASSAM. “We will continue bombing every place in Israel until they answer all…
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