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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Museum of Jewish Heritage Saved from Sandy
Of all the Jewish institutions in New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, found itself in the most vulnerable position as Hurricane Sandy bore down on the city Monday night. It was thought that the museum, located right on the edge of New York Harbor, in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan, was…
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Eli Roth on ‘The Man With the Iron Fists’
Eli Roth, 40, is a Hollywood multi-hyphenate. He’s part of a group of filmmakers known as the “Splat Pack” because of the violent and bloody nature of their movies. He’s an actor, most notably playing Donny “the bear Jew” Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds.” He’s also a screenwriter and director of “Cabin Fever” and…
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Books Author Blog: Seeking Connection
Earlier, Lisa Alcalay Klug wrote about how her work is informed by her father’s experiences during the Holocaust. 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: If there is one consistent theme in…
The Latest
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Books Author Blog: It’s Not All in a Name
Lisa Alcalay Klug’s most recent book, “Hot Mamalah: The Ultimate Guide for Every Woman of the Tribe,” is now available. She is also the author of “Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe,” a National Jewish Book Awards Finalist. Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the…
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Lena Dunham on Sandy
As we know, lots of Jewish celebrities live in New York. So like all the other Big Apple residents, they were affected by Hurricane Sandy. Ivanka Trump tweeted a photo of her young daughter Arabella looking out the window at the storm. Some fans speculated whether Andy Cohen, cozy in pajamas and alone in the…
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Hurricane Sandy Celebrity Tweets
Before the power went out, quite a few celebrities managed to send out some tweets about impending Hurricane Sandy (#Sandy). Here are some from Bette Midler (who said she was “baking macaroons for the duration”), Ivanka Trump, Bethenny Frankel, Idina Menzel, Andy Cohen and Lena Dunham, among others. Darren Aronofsky didn’t seem too worried about…
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Liz or Dick: Who Was More Jewish?
Who was more Jewish — Elizabeth Taylor or Richard Burton? This question was the basis for squabbles between the married Hollywood superstars, according to Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger’s “Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century.” Taylor was a celebrated convert to Judaism, but Burton was proud of having a…
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Books Comic Books and Country Music
The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song By Frank M. Young and David Lasky Abrams, 192 pages, $24.95 With a recent issue of Time magazine declaring “The Carter Family” to be one of the seven best comics of 2012, artist David Lasky has ascended to the top tier of Jewish-American comic artists, an august group…
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A Guide To November Classical Music
A November of concerts featuring fall colors and Yiddishkeit is available to Manhattan music lovers. On November 3 & 4 at New Brunswick’s State Theatre in New Brunswick and Newark’s NJPAC respectively, explosively expressionistic colors will be conveyed by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and conductor Augustin Dumay in Arnold Schoenberg’s stirring “Transfigured Night.” Also…
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Barbara Walters Tells Off Donald Trump
Barbara Walters looked straight into the camera while filming a recent episode of “The View” (that is, once she figured out which camera to look at) and plain out told her old friend Donald Trump that he is being “a fool.” If that wasn’t clear enough, she admonished the tycoon and reality TV star with,…
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‘Cello Goddess’ Puts Lot’s Wife to Music
To say that you’ll never think of Lot’s wife the same way after seeing Maya Beiser’s “Elsewhere,” a new “cello opera” that recently played at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, would be a gross understatement. In the Genesis story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife has no name — let alone speaking lines…
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