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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Leonard Lauder Gives $1 Billion Collection to Met Museum
Cosmetics tycoon and philanthropist Leonard A. Lauder has donated his $1 billion collection of Cubist art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The collection includes 78 Cubist paintings, as well as drawing and sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braques, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris, many of them signature and historically significant works. Lauder, 80, is…
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Books Author Blog: What Is the Story?
Earlier this week, Jennifer Gilmore wrote about the overlap between her personal concerns and writerly concerns. Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series, please visit: “The Mothers” is the first book I’ve written that…
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Writer Responds to Amanda Bynes’ Threat
After a long period of being a somewhat forgotten tween movie star, Amanda Bynes has been hitting headlines with every click of her mouse. The “She’s The Man” cutie’s abrupt transformation into a Jersey Shore-worthy diva — complete with fake tan, cheek piercing and talon-like nails — has the Twittersphere at rapt attention. Especially since…
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The Nihilism of ‘VICE’
The thing about “VICE” — the new HBO show by the magazine-cum-media empire of the same name — is that it’s strangely un-VICE-like. The first episode, which aired April 5, features reports on political violence in the Philippines and suicide bombing in Afghanistan. It’s shallow in a “dude this sh*t is crazy” kind of way,…
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Don’t Diss Amanda Bynes, She Might Sue You
Fast on her way to becoming a kind of Jewish Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes has attracted her fair share of attention lately with some pretty odd tweets. Her latest one threatens to sue all the tabloids, blogs, magazines and news sources that have criticized her: I’m suing every blog, every magazine, every news source that’s…
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When "Star Wars" Meets "The Graduate"
What if Tatooine were a warped version of 1960s suburban California, Aunt Beru was Mrs. Robinson, and Luke Skywalker just a blonder Benjamin Braddock? Replace John Williams’s Darth Vader theme with Simon and Garfunkle, and my guess is, it would look something like this. Enjoy your trip to Scarborough Fair. Via land speeder, that is….
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Allen Sherman Sings About Lox
Next month, Brandeis University Press will release “Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman” by Forward contributor Mark Cohen. (You can read Cohen’s 2010 piece on Sherman for us here.) But there’s no need to wait for May to start immersing yourself in Shermanania (or is that just Shermania?). For the past few…
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Grindr To Donate Revenue In Support Of Surrogacy In Israel
Grindr, the popular gay mobile app, has announced that it will be donating 100% of all revenue from new subscribers to Grindr Extra this week to Israeli couple Yuval and Liran, as part of their Grindr for Equality world campaign. “I read about Yuval and Liran’s emotional personal story and was impressed by their creativity…
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Books Rothschild Heiress and ‘Miss Havisham of Bebop’
The name “Rothschild” means different things to different people. In 1902, Sholem Aleichem wrote the monologue “Ven ikh bin Rothschild” (“If I Were a Rothschild”), which would be famously turned into the song “If I Were a Rich Man” by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock for “Fiddler on the Roof.” To Sholem Aleichem and generations…
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Marc Jacobs Turns 50
It’s hard to believe that Marc Jacobs is 50. I mean, have you seen him? It’s a far cry from his days of long, stringy hair, baggy clothes and just general schlubbiness. May we all look this good when the big 5-0 rolls around. But beyond his amazing beach bod, the man is just so…
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Books Francesca Segal Wins $100K Rohr Prize
Francesca Segal has won the 2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her novel “The Innocents,” the Jewish Book Council announced today. The award, worth $100,000, is one of the largest literary prizes in the world and is given for fiction and non-fiction in alternating years. This year’s runner-up, who receives $25,000, is Ben…
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