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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Last East London Jewish Hospital Demolished
Despite opposition, the last remaining Jewish hospital building in London’s East End will be torn down to make way for a five-story housing development. The Tower Hamlets council agreed for the Jewish Maternity Hospital on Underwood Road, Whitechapel, to be demolished because it does not have landmark status. It is neither listed by English Heritage,…
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‘Good Girls’ Rewarded With Sticker of Boys
It’s just the prize that every seven-year-old girl wants. Not a teen-pop record or a Barbie doll, but a sticker with the faces of her male contemporaries. Take kids to the physician here in Israel and they are often rewarded for their cooperation with a sticker. If you belong to the Clalit health maintenance organization,…
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Auschwitz Opera in London
Crossposted from Haaretz The hall of the London Coliseum theater in the West End was packed. A few minutes before the English National Opera was due to begin its evening performance, a varied audience had taken its seats in the elegant hall. In addition to the smartly dressed opera buffs were quite a number of…
The Latest
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Books University of the Ghetto
Gloria Spielman‘s most recent book, “Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime,” is now available. “Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime” won a silver medal in the 2011 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. 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. For more…
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Out and About
An HBO film directed by Oliver Stone and about New York City “master builder” Robert Moses is in the works. David P. Goldman explains what makes Don Giovanni a Jewish opera. The National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis gave its 2011 award for best stage production to Mark St. Germain’s “Freud’s Last Session.” Read…
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In Song: Noach
Photo by Mike Dillon Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — to a classic work of rock ‘n’ roll. This week’s parsha, Noach, tells the story of God’s disappointment with humanity and its destruction by flood. Noach, his family and the animals are saved in the ark. After landing…
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Friday Film: Israel Under the Yiddish Microscope
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. Three short Yiddish films created by students at the Ma’aleh School of Television, Film and the Arts, an Orthodox film school in Jerusalem, have recently become available for rental on the Internet, sparking interest from fans of Yiddish cinema worldwide. Many of the Ma’aleh students’ films…
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Sabbath Dilemma: Should Jews Watch Game 7?
The St. Louis Cardinals’ miraculous, epic 10-9 win over the Texas Rangers last night is already being called one of the greatest baseball games ever played. But within minutes of the win, it provoked one of those soul-searching conflicts for St. Louis’ Orthodox Jews: to watch or not to watch the game on Friday night….
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New Golden Age For UK Jewish Film?
The film historian Kevin Gough-Yates once asked: “Why is it that UK cinema, which has continued to have a large number of Jews working within it, should have produced so few films with Jewish themes?” Certainly, U.K. cinema would not be what it is but for the contribution of ground-breaking Jewish directors and producers such…
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Henri Borlant on Language that Destroyed and Saved Lives
In 1995, Serge Klarsfeld described Henri Borlant, a French Jewish doctor born in 1927, as “the sole survivor out of 6000 French Jewish children under age 16 who were deported to Auschwitz in 1942.” On March 3, Borlant published a lucidly eloquent memoir from Les editions du Seuil, “Thanks for Surviving” (Merci d’avoir survécu). The…
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Bar Refaeli To Launch Lingerie Company
Israeli model Bar Refaeli is going into the underwear business. Jewish celeb-gossip site 6DegreesNoBacon reports that Refaeli will launch online lingerie retailer Undeez.com with fellow Israeli mannequin Dudi Balsar. Undeez has raised $1 million from Israeli angel investors, according to Israeli financial newspaper Globes. “Undeez will apply a sophisticated e-commerce model, which was developed over…
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