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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POEM: ‘Assimilation’
For Irving Ladin, died October 2007 It’s different in the house of death. There’s family here too but no one crowds around the bed. They hang back in the shadows waiting for you to come to them. The mother and father you left marinating in their accents whisper their Russian version of the local dialect….
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Lessons of Aaron Swartz, the ‘Internet’s Own Boy’
“The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” is likely to accomplish something no politician has been able to do: unite the Tea Party and liberal Democrats. The documentary, which goes into limited release and video on demand June 27, tells the story of the government’s overzealous prosecution of a bright young man whose…
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No Jewish Royal Baby — Gad Elmaleh’s Son Baptized
Back in December, I gushed that Jews finally had their own royal baby frenzy — Moroccan-born French Jewish comedian Gad Elmaleh and Charlotte Casiraghi had just had a baby boy. “Grace Kelly’s granddaughter just had a Jewish baby. Win,” I wrote. Boy, was I wrong. When my family heard that Elmaleh was marrying Casiraghi, they were…
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100 Years of the ‘Joint’
“I live. Send help.” With that hopeful but heartbreaking dispatch, a survivor named Luba Mizne implored the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for rescue amid the devastation of 1945 Warsaw. Now, her original telegram is one of more than 100 artifacts in “I Live. Send Help,” a moving exhibition at the New York Historical Society…
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David Wain Is Back Again
David Wain is a co-founder of two sketch comedy troupes, The State and Stella. He is executive producer and occasional star of the Emmy-winning Adult Swim series, “Children’s Hospital.” He also has his own online show, “Wainy Days,” about his (mis)adventures with women. But certainly his greatest claim to fame is his 2001 cult classic,…
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Russian Oligarchs Sing Record Longest ‘Hallelujah’
Mikhail Fridman sings Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ in effort to make record books / Russian Jewish Congress (JTA) — If time really is money, then the song that producer Igor Sandler recorded on Tuesday at his Moscow studio not only will be the longest tune ever released, but may be among the costliest to make. That’s…
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North Korea Threatens War Over Seth Rogen Flick
North Korea denounced a forthcoming American comedy film featuring a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong Un as an act of terrorism and threatened to unleash a “merciless counter-measure” if Washington failed to ban the movie. The movie “The Interview”, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, is scheduled for release in December. “Making and…
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Remembering Eli Wallach, Yiddish Theater Champion
Each time I met Eli Wallach — whom I had known for nearly 30 years (and always with his wife Anne Jackson at his side) — he greeted me warmly. Ever gracious, he’s sent handwritten ‘thank you’ notes following mentions in my column and a particularly sweet one after my review of their daughter Roberta’s performance…
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Jon Stewart Gets Personal About Celiac Disease
On The Daily Show Jon Stewart opened up about his son’s experiences dealing with Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects 1 in 100 people worldwide. When those with Celiac disease eat gluten, their bodies attack the gut and damage the villi that line the small intestine. These villi, tiny hair-like projections, are supposed to…
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Gary Oldman Insists Not ‘Defending’ Mel Gibson
(Reuters) — Gary Oldman made comments about Mel Gibson, Alec Baldwin and Nancy Pelosi in an interview that sparked headlines, but his manager insisted the actor was giving a “flamboyant monologue on political correctness and demonstrates the absurd by being absurd.” In the interview published in Playboy magazine on Monday, the 56-year-old British actor said…
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Fighting Aaron Swartz’s War
It’s been said that the Internet both defined and was defined by Aaron Swartz. He co-founded Reddit and co-invented RSS, but it was his fight for free speech and open access to information that was both his legacy and his downfall. Swartz used Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computers to hack into JSTOR, the academic…
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In Case You Missed It
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Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
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Fast Forward On his first trip to Auschwitz, New Jersey governor urges vigilance against rising antisemitism
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Fast Forward Survivors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7 embrace at Auschwitz, marking annual March of the Living
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Fast Forward Could changes at the FDA call the kosher status of milk into question? Many are asking.
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