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
-
Israeli April Fool’s Jokes Went Too Far
Coming soon after the Purim prank season, April Fool’s Day didn’t used to be such a big deal in Israel. But every year it becomes more popular — and more chaotic. Israelis, it seems, aren’t always great at knowing where to draw the line. Three youngsters from Beit Shemesh have just spent three days in…
-
Israel Museum Joins Google Art Project
Crossposted from Haaretz Art connoisseurs around the globe will find it easier to visit Israel Museum, after the Jerusalem institute announced on Tuesday it was joining the Google Art Project, which provides online tours of the world’s top museums. The addition of Israel’s preeminent museum to the digital project was announced in a press conference…
-
Rabbi Who Writes Too Much
Useless. Egocentric. Negligible. These are the words David Assaf, a professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University, used to describe a condition called “grapho-mania,” or excessive writing. The subject was at the center of a talk delivered March 28 called “Hasidic Grapho-Mania: The Strange Case of Rabbi Eliezer Shlomo Schick of Brooklyn-Yavne’el.” The program…
The Latest
-
Jackie Mason Calls Cops on Lady Friend
Oy vey. Jackie Mason’s apparent girlfriend was giving him some serious tsoris early last Friday morning. It was so bad that the 83-year-old Tony Award-winning comedian and former rabbi called the cops on her. The police put 48-year-old Kaoru Suzuki-McMullen in handcuffs at Mason’s West 56th St. apartment after he alleged that she had assaulted…
-
Monday Music: LA Jewish Symphony at 18
The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony is celebrating its 18th anniversary this year with a series of live performances, beginning with a March 31 concert at Valley Beth Shalom, in the San Fernando Valley. The “Istoria Judia — La Convivencia Musical” concert concentrated on Morocco’s Sephardic tradition and commemorated the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain….
-
PJ Library Founder Honored for Philanthropy
Jewish philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, a real estate entrepreneur and founder of the PJ Library program, was honored May 29 at the by the Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations for his commitment to the Russian-speaking Jewish community. The event, entitled “Building the Future,” marked COJECO’s 10th anniversary and took place at The Museum of Jewish…
-
Lily Safra To Auction Jewels for Charity
If you are in the market for some expensive jewelry, you’ll want to know that philanthropist Lily Safra’s personal collection will be on the auction block at Christie’s in Geneva on May 14. The auction will feature 70 lots, which are estimated to fetch in excess of $20 million, all of which Safra plans to…
-
Books Author Blog: Waiting Too Long To Teach About Israel
Mitchell Bard is the author/editor of 22 books, including “Israel Matters” and “The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East.” His blog posts are being 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,…
-
Lost Opus Reaches Israeli Stage
Crossposted from Haaretz Sometimes an unknown work is rescued from oblivion and performed at a concert before an audience. Usually it’s a minor work that somehow eluded the catalog and was stuck in a drawer of some unimportant library, and its eventual discovery and performance mark the end of a painstaking process of collecting all…
-
Out and About
An expedition is underway to recover hundred of millions of dollars worth of art stolen by Nazis, which is believed to be buried in a mine. A.B. Yehoshua imagines a meeting between David Ben Gurion and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Guernica magazine interviews Forward opinion editor Gal Beckerman. The Montreal Review of Books looks at a history…
-
Q&A: Jesse Aaron Cohen on Tanlines and Yiddish
By day, as photo and film archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Jesse Aaron Cohen tends to thousands of images of bygone Jewish culture. By night, he’s half of the Brooklyn-based “existential pop” duo Tanlines, whose new album, “Mixed Emotions,” will sound “absolutely stupendous when you’re driving during the daytime with your windows…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Elon Musk is doing everything conspiracy theorists accuse George Soros of
- 2
Fast Forward ‘Modern-day Mein Kampf’: NYC Mayor Adams under fire for Hitler reference as calls for his resignation mount
- 3
Fast Forward Why was there a pro-Hitler, Holocaust-denying ad on X?
- 4
Opinion Why does Trump’s Gaza plan sound so familiar? Because the Nazis tried it first
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Eric Adams said he’d ‘collaborate’ on immigration enforcement — so did Vichy France during WWII
-
Fast Forward German Jews express alarm after J.D. Vance’s comments boost far-right AfD ahead of election
-
Fast Forward At Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, Israelis mourn — and vow to keep fighting for the captives who remain
-
Fast Forward ‘It took the Nazis one month’: Pritzker compares Trump’s policies to 1930s Germany
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
