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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Mothers in War at Rehovot Women’s Film Festival
Crossposted from Haaretz “How handsome he will be in uniform,” gushes Nina, the Polish mother at the center of the film “Beyond the Steppes,” about her infant son. “He will be the most handsome officer, like his father,” she adds to her girlfriend. The statement is not uttered in the idyll of peace but rather…
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When Israeli Dance Goes Abroad
“Jewish people were historically a people of the book, reading Torah and studying,” said Noa Wertheim at the recent panel discussion, “The Diaspora of Israeli Dance.” “Now reconnecting with their ancient Mediterranean, working and cultivating the land, they have rediscovered their bodies and it is like an explosion.” The idea that the physicality of Israeli…
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Jerusalem Judge to Jews: Don’t Spit On Christians
Some Christian clergymen in the Old City of Jerusalem have taken matters into their own hands after being spat at by Haredi Jews, and they are finding sympathy among Israeli judges. Last week the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court threw out an indictment against an Armenian seminarian who punched an ultra-Orthodox man who spit on him. Siding…
The Latest
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Video: Hebrew Prayer in Papua New Guinea
At this point, the Shmooze is used to seeing videos posted on social networking sites of cute little Hebrew school or Jewish day school children reciting the Sh’ma. But this Sh’ma video spotted and published by Israel National News the other day is quite unusual. You will not see little ones dressed in blue and…
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Monday Music: Moshe Hecht’s Spiritual Pop
The song titles tell you a lot about this album: “Master Of The World”; “The Soul”; “Father in Heaven.” Even Moshe Hecht’s last name suggests Orthodoxy. But the sounds of his first album, “Heart Is Alive,” are surprisingly diverse. While the lyrics of Hecht’s compositions come from a devout mindset, the sonic colors are those…
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Band From the North Country
Crossposted from Haaretz The Louisa band is still not so well known in Tel Aviv, but in the north of the country the rock band that Idan Talmud and Itay Sacharof formed has drawn a devoted audience for more than a year, despite their cautious abstention from too much publicity and exaggerated digital hype on…
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Books Autism and God
Tom Fields-Meyer is the author of “Following Ezra,” a memoir about learning from his autistic son. His 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 was a guest on a radio…
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Out and About
Robert Deniro might play Bernard Madoff in a possibly forthcoming HBO film. Another soon-to-be-completed movie tells the story of Yoni Netanyahu, who was killed during the Entebbe Operation in 1976. NPR looks at “The Radical Camera” exhibit at The Jewish Museum. WNYC listens to the Forward’s first-ever radio show, which was on… WNYC! Jenna Weissman…
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In Song: Lech Lecha
Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — to a classic work of rock ‘n’ roll. In this week’s parsha, Lech Lecha, Avram is told to go up to the land of Canaan and settle in the land which will belong to his offspring. Due to a famine, Avram temporarily…
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Friday Film: Movies That Make You Want to Read
Both Jonathan Lee’s “Paul Goodman Changed My Life,” a biography of the now obscure New York Intellectual, and Pony Brzezinski and Lina Chaplin’s “Writing as I Should,” a documentary about the late Israeli author Batya Gur, make you want to read more of their subjects’ work, though for opposite reasons. The two films screened November…
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Books Silence, Blessed Silence
Earlier this week, Gloria Spielman wrote about finding fellow writers on the Internet and the University of the Ghetto. Her most recent book, “Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime,” is now available. Spielman‘s posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite, courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series….
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