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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Monday Music: Hardcore Mysticism
“Secrets of Secrets,” a new album by clarinetist Aaron Novik, has an air of doom about it. The album takes its name and inspiration from a five-book series written by the Jewish mystic Rabbi Eleazar Rokeach, who lived in Worms and in 1196 witnessed crusaders slaughter his wife and children. This isn’t the first time…
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Lenny Kravitz Headed To Israel
Singer and actor Lenny Kravitz will be on his way to Israel soon, or so he has told a reporter interviewing him about his new film, “The Hunger Games.” While earlier this year, he told Israeli friends that he was going to come to the Holy Land for a private visit, word now is that…
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Zach Braff and Mitt Romney: Cousins?
Zach Braff, in England right now for the premiere run of “All New People” (his London stage debut — plus, he wrote the play) is surely enjoying the present moment. But it turns out that his past — at least his family’s past — has something to do with another play: “The Crucible” by Arthur…
The Latest
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Journalists Apologize to Claims Conference
Crossposted from Haaretz An Israeli couple, both renowned journalists, issued an apology Monday, over a film they directed, to the Jewish organization responsible for negotiating with Germany on restitution for Holocaust survivors. The film, “Moral Reparations — The Struggle Continues,” charges that the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany — better known as the…
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Books Author Blog: Is Prayer for Activists?
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is the founder and president of Uri L’Tzedek. He is the author of “Jewish Ethics & Social Justice: A Guide for the 21st Century.” His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information…
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Out and About
Why Canadian Jewish poet Irving Layton still matters, 100 years after his birth. The New York Times pays homage to New York Review of Books editor Robert Silvers. Some German architects are converting Nazi bunkers into modern homes. The Los Angeles Review of Books weighs in on the 21st-century Marxism of Tony Kushner. Is it…
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Yiddish Actress Chayale Ash-Fuhrman Dies at 90
In Yiddish there are some professions or positions that use the diminutive form of a name as a sign of popular endearment. These include Hasidic rebbes, cantors, thieves and actors. This was true of the beloved Yiddish actress Chayele Ash-Furman, who died on March 8 in Northern California at the age of 90. According to…
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All in the Dysfunctional Family
Image courtesy of Monterey Media Too often, the foibles of Jewish family life are portrayed in negative, even mean-spirited ways. Happily, “Reuniting the Rubins,” a warm and heimish film, provides a humorous and occasionally moving antidote to that negativity. The first full-length feature from religiously observant British writer-director Yoav Factor, “Rubins” suggests that familial love…
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Israel Film Festival Opens in L.A.
The gala opening of the 26th Israel Film Festival at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on Thursday night turned into a celebration of Israel’s entertainment industry as translated by Hollywood. Producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, and Showtime President David Nevins of the TV hit series “Homeland,” based on the Israeli series, were honored with…
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Slow Demise of Modernist Bus Building
Crossposted from Haaretz The Egged bus company building is unlike any other office building erected in Tel Aviv during the course of the 20th century. It hunkers on a large corner lot located on Menachem Begin Road, overlooking the Ayalon Highway and the city’s eastern neighborhoods, and looks like a cross between a Histadrut labor…
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Israeli Celebs Support Sudanese Asylum Seekers
It’s celebrities versus politicians in Israel. If the latest petition to be signed in Israel ever went up for auction, it would sell for millions of shekels, because it bears the names of some of the most famous Israelis alive: writers Amos Oz, David Grossman and A.B. Yehoshua, singer Yehudit Ravitz and actors Hanna Maron…
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