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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On Christmas Trees and the ‘Menorahment’ Craze
Star of David tree-toppers aren’t necessarily meant for Hanukkah bushes. In fact, they are reportedly favored by both evangelical Christians and intermarried couples looking for just the right thing to place high atop their Christmas trees. Leave it to Jews to be the ones to come up with the idea of Christmas “menorahments.” The Jerusalem…
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Herzl at the Supersol
Denis Lachaud is a multitalented French actor, playwright, and novelist. One of his previous novels for young adult readers, “I am Learning German” from Les éditions Actes Sud in 1998, investigated how, for a French boy of German extraction whose parents refused to discuss the Second World War, learning an ancestral language could be a…
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Halle Berry To Play a 1930s Jew
She’s been a Bond girl and a superhero, and now Halle Berry’s set for a very different type of role: “a Jewish woman in the 1930s,” the Oscar winner says in Tuesday’s New York Times. Little else is known about the role, one of several Berry will play in “Cloud Atlas,” a big-budget drama about…
The Latest
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Books Writers Should Get Up Early
Yesterday, Matthue Roth blogged about publishing a real life old-fashioned book. 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: As a glutton for torture (and as a recent parent, which…
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Hanukkah Rap Battle
The Shmooze is pretty certain that these off-the-cuff Hanukkah raps by Too Short and Jim Jones are not going to become part of the Hanukkah song canon. Somehow, it seems unlikely that these ditties commissioned by TMZ for an “It’s Dreidel Time, Bitch!” rap battle will have as much longevity has “I Have a Little…
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Artists Say No to Zionist Prize
Crossposed from Haaretz Hundreds of dancers, authors, filmmakers and other artists have signed a petition calling to cancel the NIS 50,000 prize initiated by Culture Minister Limor Livnat intended to “reflect Zionist values and history” and give the prize money to “the meager coffer supporting free artistic work in Israel.” The artists say a prize…
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Award-Winning Israeli Film Headed for U.S. Stage
Americans have grown accustomed to seeing Israeli entertainment adapted for U.S. screens big and small, and now an Israeli production is making its way to the stage. Ynet reports that “The Band’s Visit,” a 2007 movie that won three prizes at Cannes, will be staged as an off-Broadway play, with a cast that includes the…
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Long-Awaited Victory for Jewish Soccer Star
Stanford’s women’s soccer team won its first NCAA championship on Sunday, and senior Camille Levin was instrumental in making it happen. “Levin had one of the strongest games of her career and was arguably the best player on the field today for either side,” wrote Joseph Beyda in the New York Times. The 1-0 win…
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Books How a Holocaust Survivor Escaped Into Comics
Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer By Trina Robbins, Illustrated by Anne Timmons and Mo Oh Graphic Universe, 96pp., $7.95 This is quite a remarkable little book, by quite an artist-writer duo, on quite a subject. Miriam Katin, Holocaust survivor and comic artist herself, reviewed “Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From…
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She Knew Mitch Albom When
While the critics savaged and the rest of the world yawned, Jews in Cherry Hill, New Jersey eagerly tuned in to ABC to watch “Have a Little Faith,” by Mitch Albom, best-selling author of “Tuesdays With Morrie.” The Jewish community there is hopeful that now, when an outsider asks about “that Rabbi,” they’ll be able…
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Israeli Author Kicked off French Literary Panel
Crossposted from Haaretz There was a stir at a conference of Mediterranean writers in Marseilles yesterday when Israeli author Moshe Sakal was booted from a panel discussion at the request of Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish. The director of the conference, French-Jewish author Pierre Assouline, said Sakal’s participation in the panel, which was on the Arab…
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