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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Israeli TV Investigated Over ‘Greenwashing’
Crossposted from Haaretz Broadcasts of a new environmental television program that has come under fire because it is being sponsored by a chemical company that is considered one of Israel’s biggest polluters were suspended on Wednesday. Last week Haaretz reported that “The Green Man,” which is shown on the cable and satellite Health Channel as…
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Israeli Jews Split on IDF Women Singing
There is a surprising new poll out in Israel, where there has been significant controversy in recent weeks about religious soldiers who leave ceremonies where women sing. The walkouts have generated angry opinion pieces in the media and fury among top army brass, with 19 reserve major generals petitioning the Defense Ministry claiming that they…
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Q&A: Brittany Engel-Adams on Dance and Israel
After taking just a two week workshop with choreographer Ohad Naharin, dancer Brittany Engel-Adams knew she had to move to Israel. Growing up in West Palm Beach, Florida, Engel-Adams, 22, started studying ballet at the age of 9. She attended the Bak Middle School of the Arts and Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts,…
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Out and About
In Brooklyn, Crown Heights is the new Williamsburg. Steven Spielberg may direct a Moses biopic called “Gods and Kings.” The Village Voice’s Jen Doll publishes her lost interview with “Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine. George Robinson profiles cellist Maya Baiser and her love of tango for the Jewish Week. Read my profile of Beiser from 2010…
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Turkey to Air Subtitled ‘Shoah’
Last week, the Forward reported that Turkey had selected a young Jewish pop singer as its representative to 2012’s Eurovision music competition — an oblique gesture of musical détente at a time of frosty relations between Israel and Turkey. Now, in a very different kind of cultural milestone, Turkish state television network TRT has announced…
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Israeli Sketch Comedy Pokes Fun at U.S. Jews
It must be American Jewry season on Israeli television. A few weeks ago, everyone was talking about the depiction of the Jewish American man in the government’s ad campaign to get Israelis living in the U.S. to head “home.” Now, U.S. Jews are fodder for the most popular sketch show in Israel. Eretz Nehederet has…
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The Wedding Guest
Liana Finck is adapting old Yiddish press self-help columns into a book. This week, she’s letting us peek behind the curtain at her source material. On Monday, she looked at the first two pages of her comic. Today, she takes a look at the second story. Her blog posts are being featured this week on…
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H & H Bagel Saga Continues
It’s been through multiple bankruptcies. Its New Jersey manufacturing plant is history. Its iconic Upper West Side store is but a memory. And it now faces the loss of its only remaining space — a West 46th Street plant and shop. But H & H Bagel — once New York’s dominant producer of Jewishy baked…
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Sami Rohr Finalists Include Forward Editor
This year’s Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature finalists were announced this morning. Five nonfiction authors were on the shortlist for the biggest prize in Jewish letters ($100,000 for the winner and $25,000 for the runner-up), including Gal Beckerman, the Forward’s own opinion editor. The prize alternates between fiction and nonfiction. Beckerman’s inclusion was not…
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Challenging Aesthetics at The Jewish Museum
Subverted representations of the Holocaust, the Israeli army, and gender roles characterize a new photography exhibit at The Jewish Museum in New York. “Composed: Identity, Politics, Sex,” showing until June 30, incorporates works by seven artists from Israel, the United States and elsewhere, and challenges viewers’ perceptions by confronting pillars of Jewish identity. The first…
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Terezín Legacy Endures Through Dance
Photo by Julie Lemberger “I am a child of survivors, so I think about the Holocaust every day,” said Carolyn Dorfman at the recent “In the Spirit of Terezín Artists” dance showcase at the 92nd Street Y. “My family’s trauma and triumph comes out in my dances. It is impossible to escape it.” Dorfman’s “Cat’s…
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