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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Josef Mengele in Patagonia
It seems apt that a renowned figure of evil — the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, the so-called “Angel of Death,” notorious for his cold-blooded “selections” at Auschwitz — should inspire a film whose mood is at once mysterious and sinister, yet whose visual style is strangely poetic, perhaps even terrifyingly beautiful. In the space of…
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Joan Rivers Makes Another Tasteless Joke And Refuses to Apologize
Joan Rivers is under fire for a joke she made while on the “Today” show with daughter Melissa on Tuesday. Speaking about the guest room her daughter’s Malibu home, Rivers said:“Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space” — referring to the three women held for over a decade in Ariel Castro’s “house of…
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The Most Boring Job in the Army
Movies about the army are usually about fighting, sacrifice, a tense atmosphere and people in uniform plotting war strategies. “Zero Motivation,” the first feature film by Israeli director Talya Lavie, shows a different aspect of military life: Set in an army base in the Israeli desert in 2004, it tells the story of a group…
The Latest
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‘Bachelorette’ Contestant Dies in Paragliding Accident
Sad news: “Bachelorette” contestant Eric Hill has passed away after a serious paragliding accident. The 32-year-old was a contestant on the upcoming season, vying for Jewish bachelorette Andi Dorfman’s affections. The accident did not happen on the show, sources confirmed to E!News. Hill had already gotten eliminated from the series, which will premiere on May…
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Idina Menzel Makes Variety ‘Power of Women’ List
Look, it’s Adela Dazeem! (Never gets old) On a more serious note though, the extremely talented Idina Menzel is on the cover of Variety, as part of the magazine’s “Power of Women” series. The Broadway actress and “Frozen” star is being recognized for her work with A Broader Way (founded in 2010 with then-husband Taye…
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VIDEO: Jazz Genius in the City of Light
A friend of klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer recently stumbled on a mention of Behcet’s Syndrome, a medical disorder involving inflammation of the blood vessels. He joked that Krakauer seems to be suffering from Bechet’s Syndrome, an obsession with the American reeds player Sidney Bechet, who received great acclaim in the late 1940s. Krakauer has let…
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A Holocaust Movie Without a Soul
“Walking With the Enemy” has brave Jews standing up to the Nazi death machine. It has helpless Jews loaded onto cattle cars. It has good Germans unwilling to participate in the eradication of a people. It has both Hungarian anti-Semites and Hungarian nuns who sheltered the oppressed. In short it has everything a good Holocaust…
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Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman Welcome Baby Daughter
Mazel tov to Drew Barrymore and Will Kopelman on baby no.2! The actress and her Jewish hubby welcomed daughter Frankie into the world on Tuesday, People reported. “Happy to announce that today we are the proud parents of our second daughter, Frankie Barrymore Kopelman,” the couple said in a statement. “Olive has a new little…
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Honored in Yiddish Word and Song
On April 20, a glorious, sunny day, more than 100 gathered at Der Shteyn — “The Stone” Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at Manhattan’s Riverside Park and 83rd Street. Organized by the Congress for Jewish Culture, Jewish Labor Committee, Workmen’s Circle and Jewish Labor Bund, it marked the 71st anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising…
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New Spielberg Film About Jewish Boy Seized by Church
Director Steven Spielberg has several new projects in the works, including a film about the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. The movie will recount the true story of how in 1858 a young Italian Jewish boy was taken from his parents by authorities of the Papal States after a housemaid claimed to have given him an…
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Celebrate the Marx Brothers With ‘Marxfest’
It’s been 100 years since four brothers — Leonard, Arthur, Julius and Milton — sat down at a table and, with the assistance of a fellow vaudevillian, reinvented themselves as Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Gummo. The centennial anniversary of that comic rebirth will be celebrated with Marxfest, a month-long series of screenings and discussions taking…
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