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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Books
Author Blog: The Beauty of Broken English
Janice Steinberg’s most recent book, “The Tin Horse,” is now available. 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: I thought I had entered completely into the world of my novel: Boyle Heights…
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Jewish Winners at Sundance
We called it! Both feature-length films premiering at Sundance we wrote about last week have won awards at the prestigious film festival. First-time director Jill Soloway won the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition for her film, “Afternoon Delight,” about what happens when a frustrated Jewish housewife living in the hip Silver Lake neighborhood…
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Koch Released from Hospital
We’re glad to hear that former New York mayor Ed Koch, 88, was released from the hospital this past weekend after a week-long stay. This was his third admittance to the hospital since September. True to form, Koch has said he isn’t planning to let this latest health crisis slow him down. And in news…
The Latest
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World War II ‘Secret Listeners’ Revealed
Secret listener Fritz Lustig was told by his commanding officer that his job was “more important for the war effort than firing a machine gun or driving a tank.” Recruited by British intelligence during the Second World War, listeners — who were Austrian or German refugees — monitored, recorded and made detailed transcripts of private…
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Natalie Off to Paris
Au revoir La La Land! Natalie Portman, husband Benjamin Millepied and their young son Aleph will be moving to the City of Light in 2014. Millepied has been named the new director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet. The tabloids are already dubbing Portman “Nat The Expat.” Bethenny Frankel’s divorce from Jason Hoppy is…
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Matisyahu’s Beardless Problems
People often complain that they can’t recognize a guy after he grows a beard. Well, the opposite can happen, too. Poor world-famous Matisyahu had to wait a full 10 minutes outside a club at Sundance last weekend because his clean shaven countenance did not look at all familiar to the door managers. A man accused…
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The Love Song of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi
The American historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, who died at age 77 in 2009 was author of “Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory”; “Freud’s Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable”; and “Haggadah and History,” among other key texts. Yerushalmi was particularly appreciated in France, where Sylvie Anne Goldberg of l’École des Hautes Études organized a 2011 colloquium…
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Books How Some Jews Live
Earlier this week, Ilie Ruby wrote about the idea of bashert. 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: I always begin like this, with Irv, my grandfather, and then I describe him,…
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An Inconvenient Economic Truth
“Inequality For All,” a new documentary film premiering this week at the Sundance Film Festival does for economic inequality what “An Inconvenient Truth” did for climate change. While “An Inconvenient Truth” had Al Gore expounding on the causes and effects of global warming, this new movie has former labor secretary and current UC Berkeley professor…
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Seinfeld’s Hip Hop Debut
Jerry Seinfeld is a youthful 58 years old, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s taking a stab at being a hip-hop artist…right? The expert at observational comedy has channeled his way with words into some rapping with Wale, the artist who once made an album inspired by Seinfeld’s television show — and who Seinfeld’s…
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Watching Etgar Keret at Sundance
With so many great films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week, it’s impossible to focus on them all. But it would be shame to miss “What Do We Have In Our Pockets,” a whimsical, endearing animated four-minute short by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Goran Dukic and based on a short story by Israeli writer…
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