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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Bar Rafaeli to Israelis: Go Vote
Hey, Israelis! Today is Election Day, and Bar Refaeli and her celeb friends are telling you in this PSA video to get out and vote. When Maxim’s Hottest Woman Alive tells you to vote, you go vote. Yesterday was Inauguration Day here in the US, and James Franco wrote a poem for the occasion. And…
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Books Author Blog: What’s Meant To Be
Ilie Ruby is the author of “The Salt God’s Daughter” and “The Language of Trees.” 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: One of the things that I find most compelling about…
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Salvation at the Strip Club
“I could have remained a well respected writer who didn’t get anything of my own made,” said Jill Soloway, the Emmy-nominated writer behind successful television shows like HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and Showtime’s “United States of Tara.” “But I stopped waiting for directing opportunities to come my way, and I built that reality myself.” Soloway…
The Latest
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Who’s Who at the Inauguration
Harvey Weinstein will be at the president’s second inauguration on Monday, but a lot of other big celebrity Obama supporters, like George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, will not be attending the festivities. We wish a refuah shlemah (full recovery) to former New York Mayor Ed Koch, 88, who was hospitalized over…
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Books Debating the Term ‘Concentration Camp’
Earlier this week, Eric L. Muller wrote about the photographer Bill Manbo, mass incarceration and Kodachrome, and asked: What does a concentration camp look like? His 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:…
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Chuck Norris’s Bibi Endorsement
Chuck Norris has officially endorsed Bibi Netanyahu. Like this will have any bearing on the outcome of Israel’s upcoming election. Contemplating getting a tattoo? If a rose or Chinese character don’t really do it for you, you might want to consider one of these inked likenesses of Larry David. West Wing actor Josh Malina had…
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Mariah Carey Speaks Hebrew on ‘Idol’
We all knew that Mariah Carey can sing, but what we didn’t know was that she can also speak Hebrew. Well, at least she knows three expressions—and can use them correctly. Carey surprised us when she greeted American Idol contestant Shira Gavrielov, the 23-year-old daughter of Israeli singer-songwriter Miki Gavrielov, with a friendly “Shalom.” She…
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Author Ascending A Staircase
In 1940-1941, as part of the American journalist Varian Fry’s rescue of anti-Nazi European intellectuals, artist Marcel Duchamp fled to New York, with a brief stopover in Morocco. This visit is the focus of a new novel by Serge Bramly, a Frenchman of Tunisian Jewish origin. The title of “Orchidée fixe” cites a virtually untranslatable…
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Mayim Bialik Looks Forward to 2013
Mayim Bialik said on the Golden Globes red carpet that she is looking forward to a good 2013. She’s pretty sure it can’t be any worse than 2012, during which she was injured in a car accident and filed for divorce from her husband of nine years. In other leftover Golden Globes news: Paul Rudd…
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Adina Tal Speaks An International Language
As the audience files into NYU’s Skirball Center the deaf-blind actors are already on stage kneading dough. Throughout “Not by Bread Alone,” they are preparing bread for themselves and theatergoers who at the end of the performance will join the actors on stage and share the bread with them. Interspersed with the preparation—and as the…
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Yo La Tengo’s New Groove
The fuzzed out dulcet tones of Yo La Tengo ring out on “Fade,” the band’s 13th studio album in a long and storied career that stretches nearly 30 years. Proudly hailing from Hoboken, New Jersey, the trio is composed of guitarist Ira Kaplan, his wife and drummer Georgia Hubley, and bassist James McNew, all of…
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