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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Neo-Nazi Murderer Gets Reality Show
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at the end of 2010, about 7.1 million people, or 1 in 33 adults, were under the supervision of U.S. adult correctional authorities. That’s a whole lot of institutionalized Americans. So it’s no surprise that a show like the Discovery Channel’s “I (Almost) Got Away With It,” a…
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How Anne Frank Became an Industry
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree I learned recently of a brand new app, “Anne’s Amsterdam,” which provides all sorts of digital details, both personal and geographical, about Anne Frank and her city. I can’t say I’m surprised. In the years since the publication of her diary, Anne Frank’s life and times — and above…
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Where Jew and Mohawk Meet
For “Home on Native Land,” a beautifully presented show of provocative new work by Indigenous and Aboriginal artists at Toronto’s Bell Lightbox cultural center, curator Steven Loft channeled his Mohawk heritage. But the exhibit’s dominant themes — home, roots, historical injustice — might also speak to Loft’s Jewish identity. Aboriginal on his father’s side, Loft…
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Books Author Blog: Recasting a Classic
Francesca Segal’s debut novel “The Innocents” is now available. 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: I would never have set out to recast a classic, Pulitzer-winning American novel — it seemed…
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Anna Wintour In Cahoots With John Galliano?
All eyes were on Raf Simons last week as the successor to disgraced designer John Galliano sent his debut collection for Dior down the runway for Paris’ fashion week. So maybe Vogue editrix Anna Wintour thought nobody would notice when she hunkered down for lunch with Galliano at L’Espadon, the restaurant at Paris’ Ritz hotel…
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A Jew in Mao’s China
Even when I have been disenfranchised from God and synagogue, I have always been culturally proud to be a Jew. A source of that pride is the Jewish tradition of helping the oppressed, and our involvement in social movements such as labor and civil rights. Until I saw the documentary “The Revolutionary” at the Philadelphia…
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Praying to Keep Haredim Out of the IDF
Two weeks ago the Shmooze was a bit bamboozled by the complete loss of any sense of proportion by Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi. Now, rabbinic melodrama seems to be spreading. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar claimed that people should pray against plans to give state salaries to Reform rabbis just like they pray when “rockets are…
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Natalie Portman Goes ‘Black Swan’ for Dior
All that grueling ballet training has served Natalie Portman well. Not only did she get an Oscar for her performance in “Black Swan,” a role that required her to train as a ballerina for eight hours a day, but now she’s landed a Christian Dior campaign that pays homage to her turn as a haunted…
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Bloomberg’s Puntastic Hot Dog Speech
Hizzoner had his audience groaning yet again, and it wasn’t because he banned their Big Gulps. This Wednesday, Mayor Bloomberg presided over the opening weigh-in at Nathan’s Famous July 4 International Hot Dog-Eating Contest. The Mayor read a speech that, according to reports, had even “the stuffed hot dog character face-palming.” “Dogged pursuers will finally…
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British Artist Gets New Home and Recognition
Outside the entrance to London South Bank University’s (LSBU) Southwark campus (previously known as Borough College), a crest of arms sits below an ornate art deco glass window with the inscription, “Do It With Thy Might.” The insignia has a contemporary resonance; in June the building became home to the Borough Road Gallery, housing the…
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Video: Guns N’ Roses Rock ‘Hatikvah’
Axl Rose and his newest iteration of Guns n’ Roses brought down the house in Tel Aviv when lead guitarist Ronald Jay Blumenthal, better known by his alias Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, did an abbreviated solo version of “Hatikvah.” Blumenthal, who adapted his stage title from a colorfully named bacterial infection, had performed the national Israeli…
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