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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Joan Rivers — Bachelorette?
Forget “Real Housewives” or “The Bachelorette.” Joan Rivers is someone whose life we want to vicariously live every week on TV. After more than 15 years of single life, Rivers has announced she is ready to find love — and we can watch her do it. Starting in September, Rivers will star in a webseries…
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Cantorial Music Gets Jumbotron Treatment
When Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchok Meir Helfgot take the stage of the Hollywood Bowl this evening for the latest stop on their Eternal Echoes tour, audience members who are not fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish or Aramaic will be able to follow the lyrics via English supertitles projected on giant screens located on both sides…
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Fall of J.D. Salinger
Is J.D. Salinger over-exposure possible? Based on the late author’s reclusive life and limited output you would think not, but this fall might convince you otherwise. On September 6 Shane Salerno’s much anticipated and highly secretive bio-pic, “Salinger,” will hit theaters. It will be accompanied by a book, also by Salerno along with David Shields,…
The Latest
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Kathie Lee Gifford’s Secret Jewish Ambition
Forget dinner and flowers — Kathie Lee Gifford wants something a little out of the ordinary for her birthday. The “Today Show” host, who celebrated her 60th birthday on Friday alongiside co-host Hoda Kotb, read out a submission from a 60-year-old viewer who said she was in her senior year of college, graduating in November….
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Shlomo Carlebach Really Was a ‘Soul Doctor’
“Soul Doctor” can best be described as “Hair” meets post Holocaust trauma with Eric Anderson’s visceral channeling of Reb Shlomo Carlebach and Amber Imam’s portrayal of Nina Simone illuminating the production. The 700 opening-nighters at the August 15 performance of “Soul Doctor” at Circle in the Square included philanthropist and Birthright founder Michael Steinhardt (who…
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Everything You Need to Know About 30-Year-Old Woody Allen
30-year-old Woody Allen’s typed resume has resurfaced from the depths of “the files of his former press agent.” Needless to say, it’s quite a gem. Written in the first person, the 1965 document details Allen’s achievements to date, including a successful week on the Johnny Carson Show, writing gigs for the Gary Moore Show and…
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Yiddish Godot Arrives at Last
A few months ago, we reported on the growing number of crowdfunding campaigns for Yiddish projects, including an effort to raise $40,000 for a Yiddish production of “Waiting for Godot.” That campaign didn’t meet its goal, but the play will be going forward anyway, in part thanks to the $7,370 it did succeed in raising….
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Born Again in Yiddish
When I was a boy of 7, 8 and 9, I would tag along with my father pretty much everywhere. He was, among other things, the “house” rabbi for his parent’s landsmanshaft, the Kolomear Friends Association. During the 1970s many of the original Kolomears were passing on and their children were burying them. My father…
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Sam Horowitz’s Very Modest Bar Mitzvah
Rabbi David Wolpe — a Los Angeles pulpit leader currently ranked No. 3 most Newsweek-y rabbi – came out against 13-year-old Sam Horowitz’s burlesque Bar Mitzvah video, calling “egregious, licentious and thoroughly awful.” Quoting Wolpe in his Washington Post Op-Ed published August 15: Poor Sammy. I say this with no irony. What remains to him…
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Sam Horowitz Viral Bar Mitzvah Hits Small Screen
(JTA) — The Internet is crazy. That might be the main lesson of the overnight explosion of bar mitzvah dance star Sam Horowitz. The Texas teen’s dance routine has 431,877 YouTube views and counting. Thanks to his sudden fame, the newly minted man appeared today on “Good Morning America” and showed off his dance moves…
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Harry Styles: Jew or No Jew?
So, let’s admit it: it’s fun to be a member of the tribe. Some people, like Dr. Tim Whatley (a.k.a the “anti-dentite” dentist from “Seinfeld”) convert to get in on the privileged sphere of the Jew joke. Others just like saying “shlep,” and “shvitz.” Still others just grew up in New York City. But sometimes,…
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