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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Los Angeles Jews Imagine the Future
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles concluded its 2011 centennial celebration with an event headlined “Imagining Our Future,” drawing more than 600 people to the Sheraton Universal Hotel for a “day of Jewish learning and culture” and a promise of a glimpse of the next hundred years of Jewish life in L.A. But if…
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The Lions of Zion, Chapter 20
What would have happened had there been a Jewish team in the Major Leagues? In an original novel serialized on The Arty Semite, Ross Ufberg imagines the trials and triumphs of The Lions of Zion, an all-Jewish team competing in the National League in 1933. Read the first 19 chapters here. Tukhes Afn Tisch Since…
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Gallim Dance Makes Waves in Manhattan
Photo by Franziska Strauss Every morning on her way to dance rehearsal with the Batsheva Dance Ensemble, Andrea Miller would walk along the beach and breath in the cool, saline air. Hatayelet, Tel Aviv’s beach promenade, gave her a perfect view of the surfers. “Surfers understand the world in this perfect way,” said Miller. “They…
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In the Recording Studio with Itzhak Perlman
Photo by Mark Berney Itzhak spoke to Yitzchok in Hebrew. Hankus spoke to Yitzchok in Yiddish. The conductor made puns in English with a heavy Australian-South African accent. And this all happened in the recording studio where Bruce Springsteen recorded “Born to Run” and Madonna laid down her vocal tracks for “Like A Virgin.” We’re…
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‘Christmas’ Menorahs Popular in Ireland
A surprising fact about the Irish: they love menorahs, apparently. So says IrishCentral, which reports that “you can count them by the hundred” each December between Dublin and Galway. It’s unlikely the candelabras belong to actual Jews — just 2,000 of the country’s 4.4 million citizens are Jewish, the piece says. The trend has gone…
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Art Mimics Social Networking
Crossposted from Haaretz It’s nothing new for an artist or gallery to harness Facebook and other social media to spread the word and bring people in, but now the Tel Aviv Museum of Art has taken it a step further, by mimicking the platform for a new art exhibit. “Facelook” is intended for the whole…
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Larry King Plans To Freeze Himself
For some of us, it is difficult to discuss, even with those closest to us, our own mortality. But Larry King isn’t afraid to talk about death — and about what he wants to happen to his body after he’s gone. Sunday night, King and his wife, Shawn, were seen on “CNN Presents: A Larry…
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Claire Danes: Tel Aviv is a ‘Party Town’
Claire Danes surprised TV talk show host Conan O’Brien by telling him what Tel Aviv nightlife watchers already know — that it’s “a party town.” She told O’Brien that she learned this when she went to Israel to shoot the pilot for her psychological thriller Showtime series, “Homeland”, which is based on the Israeli series…
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Books Publishing a Real Life Old Fashioned Book
Matthue Roth’s latest book, “Automatic,” 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: Here’s the thing about being both an author and a blogger: It makes you…
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Books Jewish Jesus, Now and Then
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Not since the 1939 debut of Sholem Asch’s “The Nazarene: A Novel Based on the Life of Christ,” has so much media attention been showered on the Jewish perspective on Jesus and the New Testament. The recent release of “The Jewish Annotated New Testament,” an Oxford University Press publication…
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Monday Music: Songs for the Jewish Jet Set
A non-for-profit organization comprised of music-loving Jews, The Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation illuminates the forgotten corners of Jewish music in America. The Society is perhaps best known for “Jewface,” a collection of vaudeville-era minstrelrsy like “Cohen Owes Me 97 Dollars” — songs that strike present-day listeners as the Jewish version of Uncle Tomming. Other…
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