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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Remembering Freudians and Cannibals
The Cairo-born French Jewish ethnopsychiatrist Tobie Nathan previously published a novel, “Who Killed Arlozoroff?” about the 1933 murder of left-wing Israeli political leader Haim Arlosoroff, as well as a book-length essay last year criticizing Sigmund Freud’s 1899 “Interpretation of Dreams.” Now the ever-iconoclastic Nathan, born in 1948, has written his memoirs “Ethno-Novel,” to explain how…
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Sygmunt Stein: A Spaniard in the Works
Sygmunt Stein, a humble Paris button-maker of Polish-Jewish origin, left a compelling account of his volunteer service fighting Fascism during the Spanish Civil War. Stein (1899-1968) first published his recollections in 1950s articles in the Yiddish “Forverts,” as prepared for publication by the paper’s then-Paris correspondent, Avrom (Abraham) Shulman, better known by the pen name…
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My Big, Gay Jewish Seder
A wacky, coincidence-laden plot. Super-saturated colors. Over-the-top, emotion-drenched songs. And even Spanish superstar Carmen Maura. “Let My People Go!” opening January 11, has everything a Pedro Almodovar picture should have. Except Almodovar. Instead, it’s helmed by 29-year-old French filmmaker Mikael Buch, here directing his first full-length feature. Buch transports Almodovar-esque high drama and low comedy…
The Latest
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One Direction’s Harry Styles’ Tattoo
Tattoo aficionados continue to be intrigued by One Direction’s Harry Styles’ tattoo of his sister Gemma’s name in Hebrew on his left bicep. Either he or the tattoo artist had to have known Hebrew well enough to know an accent mark was needed over the gimel to denote the “j” sound at the beginning of…
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Play Dress Up at Walmart
cIt seems we’re barely past Hanukkah, and it’s already time to think ahead to Purim (and of course, to Tu B’Shevat in between). This year, however, there is no need to fret between now and February 23 about where to buy unmistakably Jewish kids’ costumes. You’d think you’d have to seek out a specialty shop…
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And the Nominees Are…
We all know that the Oscars race has been going on for some time now, but with today’s announcement of the 2013 Academy Awards nominees, we can consider the contest official. Two Israeli films are among the final five nominees for Best Documentary. The first, “5 Broken Cameras,” by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, documents…
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Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ Tops Oscars List
Presidential drama “Lincoln” led the pack of Oscar nominees on Thursday with 12 nominations including a nod for best picture, in the race for the world’s top film honors. Joining “Lincoln” in the competition for the best movie Oscar were eight films – shipwreck tale “Life of Pi” with 11 nods, musical “Les Miserables,” Iran…
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Alma Gluck: A Jew in Blackface
Paradoxically, the first recording by a classical artist to sell over one million copies was “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” the minstrel version of a folksong cut in 1916 by a Romanian Jewish soprano who knew bupkis about Old Virginny. As we learn from a cogent chapter in “The Arts of the Prima Donna…
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Chatting with Oscar-Nominated Israeli Filmmaker Dror Moreh
This morning brought a first for the Israeli film industry. Two of the five Oscar nods for the Best Documentary went to Israeli films the “5 Broken Cameras” and “The Gatekeepers,” both movies that deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — but from opposing views. The praise, particularly for “The Gatekeepers,” is the latest in a…
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Gangster Squad’s Comedy Nerd
Go to the photo section of director Ruben Fleischer’s website, and the first thing you see is a Dalmatian wearing a yarmulke and a tallit. It is a picture Fleischer took on his pet’s 13th birthday, the day, Fleischer jokes, the pooch became a man. Photography is just one step in Fleischer’s peripatetic career, which…
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Bette is Back on Broadway
Bette Midler will be back on Broadway after a 30-year hiatus. She will star in a one-woman show based on the life of the late Hollywood agent Sue Mengers. Skinny girl mogul Bethenny Frankel is seeking child support, primary physical custody of her 2-year-old daughter, and a whole lot more in her divorce from Jason…
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