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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Lawyer Explains Claim That Film Is Anti-Semitic
To help us better understand the merits of the ridiculous lawsuit Michigan resident Sarah Deming is filing against the producers of the new film “Drive” — which stars Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Bryan Cranston — her lawyer has decided to spell out its bizarre logic in the comments section of a movie blog. In…
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Stricter Gender Rules at Western Wall on Sukkot
During the Jewish festival season, which finished yesterday here in Israel (and draws to a close tonight in the States), thousands have descended on the Western Wall. All sorts have made their way to the popular pilgrimage site, from secular to Haredi Jews, as well as a sizable contingency of Christians from around the world…
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Justice Kagan Goes Hunting
Ever since the Torah characterized Jacob as “yoshev ohalim,” a tent dweller, most people do not usually use “Jews” and “hunting” in the same sentence. But the truth is that there are Jews who hunt, and it is now known that Justice Elena Kagan is among them. In a talk at Beth Tfiloh Congregation celebrating…
The Latest
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Israeli Scientists Learn to Levitate
You know that scene in “Back to the Future 2” when Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly skates on a hover board? It’s no longer just movie magic. Tel Aviv University scientists demonstrated quantum levitation at the Association of Science-Technology Centers annual conference held last week at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. The researchers…
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You Know It’s a Jewish Football Team When…
When most Americans think Jews and team sports, they think basketball and baseball. Israelis think basketball and football — the European kind. But we should also be paying attention to Jews in American football — at least in the case of two rival Jewish day school teams in Florida. It was Monday Night Football at…
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Conductor Yoav Talmi Is Marching to Glory
In Israel, Yoav Talmi won immortality early on, writing a jauntily high-spirited 1963 band composition selected as “The Tzahal March,” played on all state occasions since. Talmi, who was born in 1943 on the Merhavia kibbutz, went on to an international career as conductor and composer and his as-told-to memoirs, “A Conductor’s Career: From Kibbutz…
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A Song to Welcome Home Gilad Shalit
Israeli music legend Arik Einstein has released a song to welcome Gilad Shalit home. The song, “Now That You Are Here,” was written by Einstein’s longtime collaborator Guy Bocati. It is a heartfelt ballad telling the returned soldier how much it means for the entire nation that he is back, and that he should take…
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Bar Refaeli To Appear on E! Reality Show
Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli is avoiding Prince Harry’s rumored affections for her by keeping busy with work. One of her current assignments is not for modeling, but for mentoring. Fear not, though: The job still involves wearing haute couture and posing for the camera. Refaeli has been tapped to appear in an episode of a…
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Books Serious Biblical Thought, in Paperback
Avivah Zornberg’s classic studies of Genesis and Exodus are now available in paperback. That itself is a strange thing, because if you enter the home of most scholars of ancient Jewish texts, the books lining their walls will be leather-bound volumes with titles printed on the spine in gold or silver lettering — a Jewish…
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Bibi, Shalit and the ‘Forrest Gump’ Effect
Some tech-savvy Israelis thought that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hogging the spotlight yesterday as the nation celebrated the return of Gilad Shalit after five years and four months in Hamas captivity. So, they started a creative Facebook meme to express their frustration with Bibi’s perceived need to be in so many photos of the…
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In Song: V’Zot HaBeracha
Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — to a classic work of rock ‘n’ roll. In this week’s parsha, the last in the Torah, Moses takes his farewell from his people by blessing them as a nation and also on a tribal basis, as Jacob did, many years earlier….
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Most Popular
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News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
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Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times
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Fast Forward First American pope, Leo XIV, studied under a leader in Jewish-Catholic relations
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Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
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BINTEL BRIEF Can a man convert to Judaism without being circumcised?
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