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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Dwight Howard Irks Jews With #FreePalestine Tweet
Getty Images Basketball superstar Dwight Howard’s foray into commentary on the crisis in the Middle East only lasted about 15 minutes. However, that was more than long enough to make headlines and draw the ire of thousands of twitter users. On Saturday, Howard tweeted #FreePalestine but deleted the tweet in about fifteen minutes according to…
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Filming the One-State Solution
With the two-state solution increasingly invoked as either tragically out of reach or altogether unjust, a new film seeks to examine another possibility for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the one-state solution. More in the tradition of didactic documentary films than storytelling ones, Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon’s “A People Without a Land,” which recently premiered at the Manhattan Film…
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Tommy Ramone, Jewish Punk Icon, Dies at 65
Getty Images As Thomas Erdelyi, he was the Budapest-born son of Holocaust survivors who settled in Forest Hills, Queens. But as Tommy Ramone, he became the leather-jacketed, rhythm-slashing backbone of The Ramones, arguably one of the most influential bands of the late 20th century. Ramone, the last surviving original member of the band, died July…
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Dodging Gaza Rockets? There’s Red Alert App
Getty Images (Reuters) — Israelis have found a new way to learn of imminent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip in the form of a mobile phone app. Hamas militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets from Gaza at Israeli cities in the past week. Typically, air raid sirens blare and residents have between 15 and…
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Matt Freedman’s Moving and Inspiring Memoir
When we read Matt Freedman’s harrowing and hilarious illustrated memoir “Relatively Indolent But Relentless,” we were struck by how it was unlike traditional memoirs. So, we passed a copy along to Liana Finck, the incredibly talented artist and author of ‘A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York.’ Finck’s response was both enthusiastic….
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Lorin Maazel Remembered as Conductor, Friend of Israel
Lorin Maazel, cerebral conductor — who died aged 84 on July 13 from complications of pneumonia — was a presence in my columns not only because of his international renown and as conductor of the N.Y. Philharmonic, but also because of his support of Israel’s cultural and humanitarian institutions. At the January 23, 2003 joint…
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When Having It All Is Too Much
Director Kevin Asch’s film, “Affluenza,” is about a “disease” that seems to strike people with too much money and too much time but not enough of a moral compass to guide them. Its symptoms are a sense of entitlement and self-indulgence. The movie is set in Great Gatsby country, on Long Island’s Gold Coast, where…
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Israel Scraps Neil Young Gig Over Rocket Fears
Getty Images Palestinian rocket fire on Tel Aviv has forced the cancellation of veteran rock star Neil Young’s concert scheduled for Thursday. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Sunday the show was canceled by police for security reasons “in order not to put people in Gaza rocket range at unnecessary risk”. Militants in the Gaza…
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Toni Collette Honored as Ambassador Against Worldwide Hunger
Delighted to be invited to the 12th Annual Concern World Wide Women of Concern Luncheon at The Pierre, I got to meet one of my favorite film stars — Toni Collette — who was honored as its First Global Ambassador for Concern. Among Collette’s many films are two favorites I like to revisit: The 2003…
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First Look at Ridley Scott’s ‘Exodus’
(JTA) — The first trailer for Ridley Scott’s upcoming take on Exodus is out, and JTA is here to obsessively parse its 97 seconds so you don’t have to. With “Exodus: Gods and Kings” following closely on the heels of Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” we appear to be experiencing at least a mild renaissance of biblical…
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POEM: It’s Summer
in the south where we are busy slaughtering each other. There’s no time for flowers amid burnt bodies and ruins. Scalding summer will pass, autumn will arrive unnoticed. If only an early winter rain would come, send us all indoors, there to stand at shattered thresholds and watch the yellow sky weep and weep for…
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