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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Syracuse Coach Accused of Sex Abuse
Hot on the heels of the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State, Syracuse University announced late last week that it had put its associate head basketball coach on administrative leave in response to allegations that he sexually molested ball boys from the 1970s to the 1990s. ESPN reports that Syracuse police have opened an…
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Books A Grandmother’s Secrets
Anna Solomon’s debut novel, “The Little Bride,” is now available. Her 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: I’ve been thinking about my grandmother recently. This is my paternal grandmother, the…
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Students: Can Optimism Hurt Your Test Scores?
Think positive — but only if you’re a woman. New research from Ben Gurion University of the Negev concludes that optimism boosts performance for female students. According to a study just made available to journalists, female students who were more optimistic were found to achieve significantly higher grades than their less optimistic course mates. Not…
The Latest
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Mila Kunis Named ‘Knockout of the Year’
With that leaked-photo scandal behind her, Mila Kunis can bask in the glory of being officially dubbed “Knockout of the Year” by GQ. The GQ photo of Milena Markovna Kunis (a native of Chernovtsy, Ukraine — which was part of the USSR when she was born) features the actress posing seductively on a backyard swimming…
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Monday Music: Haredi Hip-Hop Rocks Tel Aviv
Crossposted from Haaretz The mostly secular crowed at Mike’s Place in Tel Aviv had a religious experience last week when the five-piece Haredi Hip Hop band Shtar took to the stage, traditional wardrobe intact. It wasn’t long before the crowed began to sway to the rhythm of rapper Ori M’Ori’s tassels, as he hammered out…
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Out and About
Hipster Jew does The Big Lebowski, Sesame Street style. The Jewish Week gives its first Excellence in Journalism Award to photojournalist Ruth Gruber. Twelve tracks recorded by Amy Winehouse are being held in the Island Records vault, and the record label intends to keep them there. Jonathan Lethem talks to Laura Miller about the literary…
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Is a Holocaust Music Video a Good Idea?
The noted “second generation” author Thane Rosenbaum has rejected the label “Holocaust writer,” saying that Holocaust narratives can only be written by those who personally lived through its horrors. He’d probably say the same about Holocaust music videos — that is, if he could even wrap his head around the notion of such a thing….
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Friday Film: Allen Bares All
Image courtesy of PBS Woody Allen has always been something of an enigma, slipping effortlessly and Zelig-like from one persona to the next. He started as a gag and television writer (most famously for Sid Caesar), became an extremely successful stand-up comic, wrote humorous essays for The New Yorker (many of which were collected into…
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‘Hitler’ Haircuts All the Rage
A lot of young guys have been walking lately into barbershops all over the world asking for a certain hairstyle. It’s not a new one. In fact, if you are at all familiar with archival film footage and still photographs from Germany in the 1930s, you will recognize it immediately. Older people may cringe at…
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Revealed! Henry the K Blasted Jews
It seems Henry Kissinger had little patience for Jews who were fighting for the rights of their brethren in the Soviet Union or lobbying for Israel. Britain’s Daily Mail reports that newly-released State Department documents indicate that in 1972, when he was National Security Advisor in the Nixon administration, Kissinger called such Jews “bastards.” At…
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Mouse Sperm Breakthrough Could Help Cure Infertility
In a tale of mice and men, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers have made a breakthrough in rodents that could eventually help infertile male humans. The group, led by professor Mahmoud Huleihel, has produced mouse sperm from germ cells using in-vitro techniques. The researchers at Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the…
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