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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Check Out This Hand-Drawn Drake Comic
Drake’s angsty lyrics and bravado laced with sadness have garnered him more than a legion of fans. Now he has his very own comic book — a superhero story of sorts by Sean T. Collins and Andrew White. On the tumblr “Hottest Chick in the Game,” you can read all of Collins and White’s lengthy,…
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Books Author Blog: The Nation-State
Daniel Gordis, recipient of the National Jewish Book Award and Senior Vice President and the Koret Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, discusses his forthcoming book “The Promise of Israel: Why Its Seemingly Greatest Weakness Is Actually Its Greatest Strength.” His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish…
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Video: Vintage 1992 Bar Mitzvah Dance
Imagine bar mitzvah season in the year 1992: a time of frilly dresses, balloon arches and Paul Rudd emceeing in Doc Martens and a yellow tuxedo. Now cut to Shaun Sperling’s bar mitzvah. With Madonna’s face embroidered onto the back of his white button down, Sperling strutted out onto his bar-mitzvah’s wood paneled dance floor…
The Latest
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Drake Hit With $16 Million Lawsuit
Chris Brown and Drake, the sparring pair of musicians as synonymous with “feud” as Capulet and Montague or Hatfield and McCoy, has just received that most American of official recognitions: a lawsuit. W.i.P., the New York nightclub where the two entertainers had a doozy of a dust-up earlier this summer, is suing Brown and Drake…
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Glimpse Into Circassian Culture
The Circassian Heritage Center in Kfar Kama and the smaller Circassian Museum, in Rehaniya, offer a window onto the community’s singular material culture. “It’s not exactly the Israel Museum or the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem — it’s modest and simple,” said Khoon Shawki, proprietor of the Circassian Museum and of Rehaniya’s Sausruka restaurant. “After viewing…
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Yiddish Theater for Smart Alecks
Allan Lewis Rickman likes to say that the best audiences for “The Essence: A Yiddish Theatre Dim Sum” are gentile college students — a demographic that seemed (shockingly!) underrepresented at the show’s opening NYC Fringe Festival performance at the Robert Moss Theater on August 14. More than a few people in this crowd murmured recognition…
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Jewish Fighter Goes to Cage
Jewish boxing fans haven’t exactly been starved for the heirs to Benny Leonard and Barney Ross. From Zab Judah’s reigns as welterweight and light welterweight champion to Yuri Foreman’s championship success in the light middleweight division, Jewish boxers have risen to prominence again in recent years. However, as mixed martial arts and the UFC supplant…
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Meet the Israeli Behind Hollywood’s Superheroes
Hollywood’s newest superhero is an Israeli émigré whose powers include an uncanny cheapness “that has become the stuff of lore.” The Los Angeles Times just profiled Ike Perlmutter, the chief executive of publisher Marvel Comics, and now one of the largest shareholders in Disney after the conglomerate bought his company. As the Times notes, superheroes…
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To Mindy Meyer, With Love
Modern Orthodox punk band The Groggers are known for tangling with controversial issues. From their first viral video hit, “Get,” to one of their latest, “Jewcan Sam (A Nose Job Love Song)” about, well, getting a nose job, the band has drawn equal measures of enthusiasm and scorn. Last May, Groggers front man L.E. Staiman…
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Books Author Blog: Genetic Memory
Earlier this week, Doreen Carvajal wrote about trying to recover her family’s secret identity and how to unlock and preserve memories. 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: Earlier this summer, I…
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Lipa Schmeltzer in Uniform
Lipa Schmeltzer, the Hasidic superstar we can’t stop talking about, keeps pushing buttons. Yesterday the Orthodox news site Vos Iz Neias picked up reports from the Israeli newspaper Maariv that Schmeltzer is shooting a new music video with Israeli soldiers, dressed as a soldier himself. “Schmeltzer shot footage for the video several days ago in…
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