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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Toronto Jewish Arts Center Takes Up Trendy New Digs
When the Koffler Centre of the Arts lost its North Toronto home five years ago, it made a virtue of necessity. Rather than replace its gallery space at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre — which closed to make room for a huge new complex — the Koffler launched an ambitious off-site program that took its…
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Michael Bloomberg Honored by Yad Vashem
To shouts of “We love you mayor!” Michael Bloomberg mounted the dais at the November 10 American & International Societies for Yad Vashem’s Annual Tribute Dinner at the Sheraton New York Hotel to accept the Societies’ Remembrance Award. “If I have one regret,” said the soon-to-be-departing mayor, “it’s that my parents did not live to…
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George Washington To Launch New Jewish Arts Program
Hot on the heels of a new graduate program in Jewish Cultural Arts, George Washington University has announced an additional new MA program in Experiential Education and Jewish Cultural Arts. Whereas the first program focuses more on arts administration and museum management, the second is meant to train educators for professional roles in today’s broad…
The Latest
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Evan Rachel Wood on Motherhood and Romania
Evan Rachel Wood stars with Shia LaBeouf in Fredrik Bond’s Tarrantino-esque thriller, “Charlie Countryman,” which opened November 15 in limited release. LaBeouf plays Charlie, whose dead mother appears and sends him to Bucharest. The griefstricken and unglued Charlie goes through a series of bizarre events leading him to Gabi (Wood), a mysterious Romanian he falls…
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Jew vs. Jew Chicago Pizza Feud
So now Jews are fighting about pizza. Because we really needed one more thing about which to get Uncle Morty upset this Thanksgivukkah. The Jews in question here are two of the most well-known in the nation: Jon Stewart and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And the pizza in question is Chicago Deep Dish, specifically the…
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Actor Quits Milan Jewish Community Over Israel
(JTA) — Since the 1980s the Italian Jewish actor Moni Ovadia has garnered a popular following with stage productions and cabaret acts largely based on Yiddish, klezmer music and Jewish jokes and legends. Born in Bulgaria, Ovadia, 67, came to Milan as a small child and attended the Jewish school there. Arguably Italy’s best known…
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Daryl Roth, ‘Kinky Boots’ Producer, Honored By Einstein
“Thank you for coming to my Bar Mitzvah!” joked emcee Jordan Roth, president of Jujamcyn Theatres, to the festive crowd at The Plaza Hotel for the November 11 Albert Einstein College of Medicine Women’s Division 50th Anniversary Celebration which honored his mother, Broadway producer Daryl Roth, and philanthropist Benjamin Winter. “I knew little of what…
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Music and the Laws of Poetry
If, as Shelley had it, poets are the legislators of the world, then at this past year’s KlezKanada Poetry Retreat their law was music. Hosted at the large, week-long klezmer festival, the poetry was surrounded by accordionists, tsimbelists, people tapping out rhythms or tuning their violins. I was privileged to be co-teaching the retreat along…
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‘Harry Met Sally’ Orgasm Flash Mob
“I’ll have what she’s having” just reached a whole new level. Improv Everywhere, known for staging flash mobs around the world, gave Katz’s Deli patrons dinner and a show when they had 20 women recreate the iconic scene from “When Harry Met Sally” in which Meg Ryan shows Billy Crystal how to fake an orgasm….
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‘Homeland’ Writer Lands New Series Set in Jerusalem
We’ve seen Tel Aviv stand in for Beirut in screenwriter Gideon Raff’s smash Showtime hit “Homeland” (based on his Israeli series “Hatufim”). Now, in his new series, “Dig,” we’re going to see Jerusalem stand in for… well, Jerusalem. Raff has scored a six-episode deal with USA Network, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. The action-adventure-event series…
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‘Cupcake’s Israeli Neighborhood Charm
Eytan Fox’s latest film, “Cupcakes,” (“Bananot” in Hebrew, meaning bananas) will receive its U.K. gala premiere when it closes the 17th UK Jewish Film Festival on November 17, in London. A feel-good musical comedy about love, life and friendship, the movie is a significant shift away from the award winning writer-director’s previous works such as…
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