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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When Journalists Are Also Activists
Photo Credit: Margaret Olin Much was made in 2010 of Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, “becoming part of the story” when he treated the Haitian patients he’d been sent to report on. The journalistic ethics, it appeared, were murky; should reporters — particularly those with medical training — abandon their professional posts to help…
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Books ‘Clueless’ Advice: Alicia Silverstone Won’t Circumcise Son
Someone should have told Alicia Silverstone that once your claim to fame is a movie called “Clueless,” it’s probably a good idea to avoid spouting real-life clueless rhetoric. In her her new book, “The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful Beginning,” the…
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Adam Levine Dyes His Hair Blond — Jewish Girls Mourn
Adam Levine must be over being the “Sexiest Man Alive,” because this weekend, he went and did this: Yes, the first Jewish man ever to win People’s annual award has bleached his hair an N’Sync shade of blonde. The photo, which shows Levine posing with fiancee and Victoria’s Secret Model Behati Prinsloo, was posted to…
The Latest
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Comedian Tales — It’s All in the Timing
It was all about tale telling at the Society of Illustrators’ “From the Borscht Belt to Seinfeld: The Evolution of Jewish American Comedy.” With welcoming comments by Society’s executive director Anelle Miller, panelists included Yiddish scholar and Jewish comedy maven Prof. Edward Portnoy, “comedy writer Tom Leopold (“Seinfeld,” “Cheers”), Drew Friedman, whose amazing caricature illustrations…
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How Shabbat Dinner Can Save America
In the film “Fed Up,” opening May 9, the untenable reality pours down like a mid-summer rain: In the United States, more people die from obesity than starvation. 87% of food items on supermarket shelves have added sugars. Teenagers are having gastric bypass surgery. We’ve become a corpulent nation, which is not news to anyone…
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POEM: ‘Mount Zion’
My mom can tell you stories about all her mother’s sisters. Except for two. One was stillborn. Nameless. The other was Shirley. Shirley, the second to arrive once the family reunited in New York, my great-grandfather having immigrated first. Shirley, who died, the certificate says, on May 7, 1924. Aged thirteen months. Cause of death:…
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Presidents Conference vs. J Street: ‘Mean Girls’ Edition
The dovish group J Street has lost its bid to gain admission to the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations by a suprisingly large margin of 22-17. Many were outraged, including Union for Reform Judaism leader Rick Jacobs who threatened to quit the group, which he called a “facade.” But we have Facebook to…
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‘Ida’: Conversation with Director Pawel Pawlikowski
“Ida,” a fascinating and disquieting Polish language film written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, is a post-Soviet Polish rumination, a mystery with religious and political overtones. Pronounced as “Eeda,” Pawlikowski told me during our chat: “I needed a good name and remembered the Jewish Polish actress Ida Kaminska. It was a name I liked, but…
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Jay Leno To Give $1M Genesis Prize in Israel
Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno will visit Israel to host the presentation of the inaugural Genesis Prize. The May 22 ceremony in Jerusalem will honor former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the $1 million award. “Jay Leno is a comedic icon who has entertained millions of people around the world for over…
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Polish Drama in Black and White
Shot in rich black and white, “Ida” is a quiet, deliberately paced study of the end of innocence for a young Polish woman, Anna, raised an orphan in a convent. It is the early 1960s. On the verge of taking her vows, the Mother Superior tells Anna that her only living relative, an aunt, wants…
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Ronan Farrow: Are Those Baby Blues Real?
Remember when everyone was in a tizzy over the possibility that Ronan Farrow could actually be Frank Sinatra’s son? Those bright baby blue eyes seemed to be the ultimate giveaway (Come on, no way Woody Allen passed those on.) Well, it seems that, contrary to Farrow’s now famous tweet, we’re not all possibly Frank Sinatra’s…
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