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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Martin Luther: Hater of The Jews
The Austrian Jewish psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), author of “Man’s Search for Meaning”, an inspiring account of his concentration camp experiences, enlightened many generations of students. None more so than a budding Austrian theologian Eric Gritsch, who in 1950 was mentored by Frankl, as the former described in a 2009 memoir. Now…
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Nukes, Capitalism and Cocktails on the Moon
On December 3, 1956, “Night of the Auk” landed on Broadway. An audacious work by Arch Oboler, the play was set aboard the first manned spaceship to return from the moon and was written in blank verse. The talent behind the production was stunning. Sidney Lumet directed, Kermit Bloomgarten (“The Diary of Anne Frank”) produced,…
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Hans Bethe: Great Scientist and Mensch
Must a great scientist also be a mensch? The historian of science, Silvan Schweber, who teaches at Harvard and Brandeis, has offered some ideal examples in such previous books as “Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius” from Harvard University Press and “In the Shadow of the Bomb: Oppenheimer, Bethe, and the Moral Responsibility of…
The Latest
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On Lena Dunham’s Wacky New Yorker Video
Who better to herald the next lurching step in the death march of print media than Lena Dunham? The 25-year-old writer-slash-director-slash-star of “Girls” also wrote, directed and starred in a five-minute web video introduction to the publication’s “head-spinning” new portable portal, where a bizarro, slacks-clad version of herself named “Lanny Donhom” (?) takes to a…
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Books Author Blog: Quality Grumbling
In this installment of the Visiting Scribe,Joshua Cohen and Justin Taylor exchange ideas around book promotion, materials of writing, and the devolution of the author. Read Part One of their exchange here. Their blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For…
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Western Wall, Now in Bilgoraj
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree The news that members of the Isaac Bashevis Singer Association of Bilgoraj intend to build a replica of the Western Wall at the site of the Polish town’s Jewish cemetery undoubtedly raised an eyebrow or two. Coming on the heels of an announcement that the International Pro-Life Memorial and…
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Bar Refaeli On Yet Another Magazine Cover
In the latest stop of her pageantry tour as Maxim’s #1 “Top 100” girl, Bar Refaeli appears in a tiny black bikini on the cover of the magazine’s September issue, which also features a racy photo spread and interview for readers hungry to learn more about the Israeli supermodel. And boy, are they hungry! A…
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Books Author Blog: A Necessary Evil
In this installment of the Visiting Scribe, Joshua Cohen and Justin Taylor exchange ideas around book promotion, materials of writing, and the devolution of the author. Their 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…
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What Will Aly Raisman Do Next?
Hear ye, hear ye: Aly Raisman, our little engine that could, just won a gold! She’s the first U.S. woman to ever win an Olympic gold for a floor exercise. And what did she do her flips and twists to? That’s right, our favorite Jewish folk tune, “Hava Nagila.” Leaping and flipping in style, Raisman…
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Shaq and Salma Hit the JCC
Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal paid a visit to the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in Marblehead, Mass. on Monday. The 7-foot-1 superstar was in town shooting promotional scenes for his upcoming Adam Sandler film, Grown Ups 2. The sports giant visited with the center’s basketball commissioner, posed for a few pics, and turned…
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David Frankel on Sex Scenes and Meryl Streep
“Hope Springs,” opening nationally August 8, is centered on a long-married couple whose relationship has gone stale. Kay Soames, played by Meryl Streep, is frustrated by the lack of intimacy in her relationship with her husband Arnold, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Arnold refuses to acknowledge that anything is wrong and resists her efforts to…
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