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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Why Can’t You Play ‘Jew’ in Words With Friends?
An Open Letter To: Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga From: Hinda Mandell, Words with Friends user Dear Mr. Pincus, I have a gripe: Don’t worry — it has nothing to do with Farmville. I’m writing because, when I play the smartphone app Words with Friends, I feel bad about myself — and not…
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Shlomo Carlebach Whack-a-Mole
“Soul Doctor,” the musical about the life of the rockin’ rabbi, Shlomo Carlebach, is a theatrical version of the carnival whack-a-mole game. It seems to pop up every now and then, but disappears back into its hole almost as quickly as it appeared. The play was the first English language production of the National Yiddish…
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Get the Official ‘Old Jews Telling Jokes’ Tattoo
For a self-proclaimed Old Jew, Daniel Okrent is looking pretty tough these days. The creator of Off-Broadway hit Old Jews Telling Jokes is sporting a new, baseball-sized tattoo featuring the pastrami-sandwich-shaped logo of his show. The tattoo, on Okrent’s right bicep, was officially unveiled in a photo circulated today by Eric Spiegelman, whose “Old Jews…
The Latest
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Rashida Jones Apologizes for Travolta Gay Joke
During a recent interview while promoting her new movie, “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” Shmooze favorite Rashida Jones got a bit too excited about celebrities coming out of the closet. While discussing her mild obsession with singer Frank Ocean, who recently declared that he is bisexual, Jones joked that John Travolta should just come out already….
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Books Dissecting America From the Inside
Siegfried Kracauer’s American Writings: Essays on Film and Popular Culture Edited by Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson University of California Press, 304 pages, $29.95 “It’s terrible to arrive like us — after eight years of an existence that doesn’t deserve the name. I have grown older… Now comes the final station, which I can’t…
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The Gospel According to (Nato) Green
● On coming from San Francisco: My wife and I are a typical San Francisco couple. We recycle; we’re into light bondage; our safe word is “Zinfandel.” ● On his wife’s pregnancy (with twins): It was a tough time. She was eating for three; I was drinking for four. We didn’t want to know whether…
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Books Author Blog: Unlocking Memories
Earlier this week, Doreen Carvajal wrote about trying to recover her family’s secret identity. 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: Most everyone has a family tree. But how do you turn…
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Canadian Mogul Turns To Austrian Politics
Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach, who founded the Magna International auto parts empire, is moving into politics in a big way — but not in his adopted homeland. Stronach is about to announce the formation of a new political party in his native Austria that will aim “for the nation’s exit from the Eurozone,” the Toronto…
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Books Gregg Allman’s Ghost Writer
In a “grizzled, laconic drawl,” wrote Gregory Cowles in The New York Times, Gregg Allman’s recently published autobiography, “My Cross to Bear,” provides a “rambling backstage account of five decades with the Allman Brothers Band.” But it’s Allman’s Jewish co-author, Alan Light, who translated the rock legend’s rough-hewn tall tales of excess into “crisply ironed”…
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The Tortured Genius of Oscar Levant
American pianist Oscar Levant (1906–1972), whose fortieth Yahrzeit was on August 14, was renowned, perhaps distractingly so, for his wit steeped in psychic pain. Born in Pittsburgh in 1906 to an Orthodox Jewish family originally from Russia, Levant was tormented by psychiatric ailments, requiring hospitalizations and medication which he made light of on radio, TV,…
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Isaac Rosenberg: An Abbreviated Life
An anthology, “Isaac Rosenberg: 21st-Century Oxford Authors,” reminds readers of a major modern writer who died in the trenches during World War I. Born in Bristol to Yiddish-speaking Lithuanian Jewish emigrants, Rosenberg (1890-1918) moved with his family to London’s East End, where he continued to face economic hardship. Gifted at both literature and painting, Rosenberg…
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In Case You Missed It
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Culture That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
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Opinion Were the attacks in Boulder and D.C. the product of ‘blood libel’? Not so fast
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News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
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Culture In the Trump-Musk feud, both sides are united by antisemitism
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