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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Fashion Week: Max Azria’s Runway
Models strutted the runway at Fashion Week at Lincoln Center today showcasing BCBGMAXAZRIA’s Spring 2013 collection, inspired by photographer Helmut Newton’s test Polaroid shots from a trip to San Tropez in 1978. Max Azria’s wife Lubov Azria, who helps him design both the BCBGMAXAZRIA and the Hervé Léger lines, explained prior to the show that…
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Bar Rafaeli Over the Moon
Bar Rafaeli’s new photo shoot has us over the moon. Passionata, a French lingerie company, chose the Israeli supermodel to be the face (and, of course, body) for their brand. The eclectic mix of pictures features Rafaeli as a “lunar swinger” in a “space hammock” that looks like a crescent moon. Perhaps in homage to…
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Maurice Halbwachs: A Kaddish From Baudelaire
Sociologists have honored the Frenchman Maurice Halbwachs for his ground-breaking works such as “On Collective Memory.” A new volume of private letters and other previously unpublished material, “Writings from America,” adds insight into Halbwachs’ relationship with his Jewish wife Yvonne (née Basch). Halbwachs’ in-laws were the Budapest-born French Jewish politician and philosophy professor Victor Basch…
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Books Author Blog: The Real Flavor of the Streets
Earlier this week, Steve Stern wrote about embarking on a quixotic journey and his decision to teach creative writing in Vilnius. 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: There’s a district in…
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Judy Blume’s Cancer Diagnosis
Children’s book author Judy Blume has been diagnosed with cancer. She revealed the news in an apology on her blog to fans who had hoped to meet her at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in July. She did not stick around after the premier of ‘Tiger Eyes’ (adapted from her 1981 novel and directed…
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Mayan Apocalypse: Good for the Jews?
Don’t know whether to say the “Av Harachamim” prayer before Shavuot? Wondering about the obscure fast of the Eighth of Sivan? Hedging your bets as to which Christmas to observe as “Nittel” and refrain from Torah study — Eastern Orthodox or December 25? How about the Mayan apocalypse? If any of these are a major…
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Natalie and ScarJo Hit the Convention
Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson will be speaking tomorrow at the Democratic National Convention, according to news reports. Portman, a longtime supporter of President Barack Obama, is an unsurprising pick. But the choice of fellow actress Johansson, whose support has been far less public, is a pleasant surprise. More pleasant, we predict, than Clint Eastwood’s…
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Books Author Blog: Illusions and Remembering
Yesterday, Steve Stern wrote about his decision to teach creative writing in Vilnius. 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: I liked to sit sipping coffee in the tall kitchen window of…
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God and Man in Tampa
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree People in funny hats, empty chairs, a capella singing, overheated rhetoric, a red dress — the Republicans put on quite a show in Tampa last week at their national convention. Most of it left me cold. What didn’t was the ardent public display of religion, especially the ritualized invocation….
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Lena Dunham’s Jewish Boyfriend
Lena Dunham, creator of ‘Girls,’ is canoodling with Jack Antonoff, the Jewish guitarist for Fun. According to an upcoming issue of US Weekly, leaked to the New York Post, the two are trying to keep it a secret. “They have a good time when they can get together,” a source told the magazine. Antonoff is…
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Arts Festival Reinvents Brighton Beach
Babushki chattering in Russian, store awnings adorned in Cyrillic, the scent of fresh pierogi in the air — for decades, these displaced attributes of Soviet culture have been characteristic of Brighton Beach, New York’s Russian-speaking enclave in the southern tip of Brooklyn. While much of the borough was busy gentrifying, Brighton managed to stay frozen…
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Most Popular
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Music Remembering Ozzy Osbourne’s Jewish vow renewal
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Opinion American Jews were played — now what?
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Fast Forward Cuomo says key factor in his primary loss was Mamdani’s support from young, Jewish and pro-Palestinian voters
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish World VIDEO: What Rabbi Soloveitchik said about Jewish concern for Israel
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Fast Forward Stanford suspends student co-op that it said asked Jewish students to leave
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Fast Forward Josh Shapiro accuses Zohran Mamdani of condoning ‘blatantly antisemitic’ supporters
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Opinion The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda
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