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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Drew Barrymore Loves Her New Jewish In-Laws
Mazel Tov! Drew Barrymore tied the knot Saturday with Will Kopelman under a custom-made chuppah at Barrymore’s Montecito, California home. The Kopelman family’s rabbi, reportedly flown in from New York for the occasion, performed the 45-minute wedding ceremony. Few details an no photos have been released yet, but fashion bloggers have been abuzz with descriptions…
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Orthodox ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Fans?
Widely panned but massively popular, “Fifty Shades of Grey” has become ubiquitous on nightstands and beach bags. But it’s Orthodox Jews who first glommed onto the book’s frisky list of fetishes, according to New York Times Magazine. David Sax (who also contributes to the Forward) wrote Sunday that Fifty Shades of Grey ”took off in…
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Books Author Blog: The Future of the Past
Yehuda Kurtzer is the author of “Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past.” 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: In a recent Commentary article, Jack Wertheimer once again takes on the…
The Latest
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Joe Biden’s Daughter Marries Jewish Doctor
Vice President Biden’s daughter Ashley married Dr. Howard Krein, a Jewish doctor from Philadelphia, on Saturday at the bucolic St. Joseph’s of the Brandywine in Wilmington, Delaware, which is the same church where she was baptized. In the official statement released by the vice president’s office, Joe and Dr. Jill Biden said, “We’re happy to…
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Letters from a Dying Hungarian Architect
Instructional letters from parents to children, such as those from Lord Chesterfield or Madame de Sevigné, can make delightful reading. But few have the emotional charge of “Paper Kisses: Letters of a Jewish Father from Prison 1942/43,” published in February by Klett-Cotta Verlag. They were written by the Hungarian Jewish architect Pál Meller (known as…
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Monday Music: Starting From Flamenco
“Ride,” the debut album from New York City-based band Caramelo, has global ambitions worthy of its name. The opening track, “The Girl is Gone,” sets the tone for the rest of the album when Jewish singer Sara Erde trades smooth fly-girl R&B vocals with flamenco artist Alfonso Cid. While Erde’s voice is immediate, alternating rapidly…
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Madonna’s Mixed Reviews
France’s far-right National Front is considering a lawsuit against Madonna over a video she used during her concert in Israel on Thursday night. The clip showed party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead. While she performed the song “Nobody Knows Me” in Ramat Gan Stadium, Madonna showed a video in which…
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Winehouse House To Sell for $4.2 Million
The London pad where the late songstress Amy Winehouse lived is on the market, priced at a cool $4.2 million. The sprawling three-bedroom house in swanky Camden, where Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning last July, had become an impromptu memorial site for the pop star. Winehouse’s grieving fans traveled to the home to leave tributes…
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Author Blog: The Joint
Earlier this week, Leslie Maitland wrote about reconnecting branches of her family separated by the Diaspora of the Nazi years. 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 not be writing…
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Muhammad Ali’s Grandson’s Bar Mitzvah
We’ve called former world heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali “The Greatest,” “The People’s Champion” and “The Louisville Lip.” Now we might want to also call him “Zaidy” — and a very proud one at that. The boxing news site “The Sweet Science” reports that the Muslim Ali’s grandson recently became a bar mitzvah. The 13-year-old…
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Dr. Ruth To Sell Sexy Low-Alcohol Wine
It turns out that Dr. Ruth Westheimer wasn’t kidding when she told me that she was coming out with her very own line of wines. When I interviewed her at an event at the Jewish Theological Seminary last March, she was talking a mile a minute about latest projects. She mentioned the wine somewhere in…
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