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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Spinoza, a Man for All Seasons
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree The modern Jewish experience is awash in fascinating personalities whose imprint extends far and wide. Were you to compile a list of such people, Benedictus (né Baruch) Spinoza would undoubtedly be on it. Streets are named after him, conferences mark his birthday and both paintings and plays take him…
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Master Potter Daniel Bellow
Colorful tumblers, bowls, vases and pitchers beckoned viewers to come close and examine their artisanship. The handmade creations were the work of Daniel Bellow, whose pottery was on display at the recent New York International Gift Fair at the Javits Center in New York. The potter had traveled from the Berkshires to show his high-fire…
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New Diet Plan: Dessert for Breakfast!
Want to lose weight? Just eat dessert with your breakfast. You read that correctly: Treat yourself to some chocolate cake or ice cream in the morning and you are more likely to take off and keep off the pounds. Researchers at Wolfson Medical Center and Tel Aviv University found that eating a larger breakfast, which…
The Latest
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Éliette Abécassis, ‘Hereby Permitted’ to Readers
Perhaps the brainiest current romance novelist is the French Jewish writer Éliette Abécassis, born in 1969 in Strasbourg to an Orthodox Sephardic family. Her father, Armand Abécassis, is an historian of Jewish spirituality and prolific author himself. Éliette Abécassis teaches philosophy at the University of Caen and also writes middle-brow, accessible fiction about the storm…
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Video: Bearded Matisyahu Grants Special Wish
Reggae star Matisyahu had two surprises in store for concert-goers who had come to see him perform at The Tarrytown Music Hall on February 16. The first was the re-growth of his beard. No sooner had the singer’s famous facial hair disappeared than it was back again — though it will obviously take a while…
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Italian Architect to Build Green Schools in Gaza
Crossposted from Haaretz For the past year Italian architect Mario Cucinella has been heading a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) project to build 20 sustainable schools in the Gaza Strip. The planning for the first environmentally-friendly school, to be built in Khan Yunis, is now in the final stages. The building will serve about…
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Sacrifice for Ailing Rabbi
Israel’s Orthodox community is anxious, as the country’s most revered rabbi, Yosef Shalom Eliyashiv, is in a serious condition at a Jerusalem hospital. The 101-year-old scholar has been in a coma for almost two weeks. In synagogues across the country worshipers are praying for him — but some people are going further. One Orthodox Jerusalemite,…
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Books Author Blog: Moses and Hubris
Adam Wilson’s debut novel, “Flatscreen,” is now available. 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 on the series, please visit: There’s a great “Seinfeld” episode — and one I relate to — in which…
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C. Everett Koop and a Choice Between Lives
Crossposted from UnRetiring Few of us remember the poignant real-life story of surgeon C. Everett Koop and the conjoined twins who shared a single heart. Who would live and who would die? It was a terrible question that plagued the children’s parents, rabbis, and the medical staff at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. On February…
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M15: Nazi Forged Bank Notes Shook British Confidence
Seeking to sabotage Britain’s economy in World War II, the Nazis “flooded” Europe with fake British bank notes, according to secret documents released today by British intelligence agency MI5. And though M15 didn’t know it at the time, the fake bills “were being made at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by prisoners, many of whom were…
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Friday Film: Not Quite ‘The Karate Kid’
There’s something familiar about “Kaddish for a Friend,” the coming of age/unlikely friendship tale screening at this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Indeed, Berlin-born director Leo Kashin’s full-length debut reeks of “Karate Kid,” Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino,” and any number of movies from the “young fish out of water befriends a crusty old guy from…
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In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward A young Jewish organizer takes on Jerry Nadler in a generational challenge
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Yiddish די ווערק פֿון ישׂשׂכר בער ריבאַק מערקן אָפּ, און מאַכן איבער אַ צעשטערטע וועלטThese works by Issachar Ber Ryback commemorate, and transform, a devastated world
אין די אילוסטראַציעס האָט ער אױסגעדריקט זײַן צער נאָך די מוראדיקע פּאָגראָמען פֿון דער רוסישער בירגער־מלחמה.
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Fast Forward Marjorie Taylor Greene may be first Republican lawmaker to call Gaza war a ‘genocide’
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Fast Forward Lithuania scraps years of planning by Jewish groups to convert sports complex into Jewish heritage site
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