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
-
Q&A: Mandy Patinkin on Yiddish and the CIA
Mandy Patinkin has yet to meet a medium he cannot conquer. He first hit national prominence as Che Guevara opposite Patti LuPone’s Eva Perón in the Broadway production of “Evita,” for which he won a Tony Award. His film credits include “The Princess Bride,” in which he uttered the iconic lines: “My name is Inigo…
-
‘Sukkah in the City’ Comes to Times Square
Times Square just got more crowded…at least for the next week or so. Stonehenge Partners, owners and operators of luxury apartment buildings in New York, are building “Sukkah in the City,” reportedly the first sukkah ever to be erected at the Crossroads of the World. Inspired by the unique designs that were on view at…
-
The Lions of Zion, Chapter 12
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 11 chapters here. Zumer-Feygeles The first thing…
The Latest
-
Bootlegged Lulavs, Etrogs, for Sukkot?
Produce harvested in the dead of night, smuggled and sold for high prices under the radar of authorities. Warehouses burglarized. Tourists hiding the good stuff in suitcases and getting found out by customs. No, this isn’t a story of drug rings, but rather of lulavs and etrogs, the plant species waved during synagogue services on…
-
Books Sukkot and Social Justice
Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the author of “Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community.” 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: My initial…
-
Anti-Biennial in Herzliya
Crossposted from Haaretz The third Herzliya Biennial of Contemporary Art, which opens this week, challenges every expectation of the urban biennial art event: It does not strive for grandiose dimensions, it does not boast virtuoso works that celebrate art, and as a whole, it is not a celebration at all. “Second Strike,” curated by Ory…
-
Monday Music: Russian Klezmer Orchestra Tours Stateside
It’s no coincidence that The Klezmasters are highly reminiscent of The Klezmatics. The former band, which bills itself as Russia’s only klezmer orchestra, was inspired by the latter. Having been created in 2003 by a group of classical music students who met through Hillel in Moscow, The Klezmasters have been gaining notoriety in recent years…
-
Not in Her Sister’s Footsteps
Crossposted from Haaretz “I come from a very musical home, but one that is also quite traditional in its approach to art and did not push me to ask a lot of questions,” says Odeya Nini in an attempt to find the source of the contemporary art she is creating in the United States, in…
-
Yom Kippur Solidarity for Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore
The couple that prays together stays together — right? That’s what celebrity Kremlinologists have been trying to figure since Friday, when reportedly feuding Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher attended services together at the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles. People Magazine reports that the pair sat on opposite sides of the aisle during the service —…
-
Should Arts Venues Honor a Nazi Hostess?
New York’s French Institute Alliance Française boasts a Florence Gould Hall while San Francisco has a Florence Gould Theater, both named after a French society hostess and philanthropist whose largesse, since her death in 1993, has been distributed by The Florence Gould Foundation. These venues were named before three histories of wartime France established that…
-
Out and About: New York’s ‘Power Congregations’; ‘Maus’ at 25
Paul Buhle wonders whether comics are the Jewish art form. Jeff Newelt picks the top 11 comic books of 5771. Ruth Franklin looks back at Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” on its 25th anniversary. Foster Kamer picks New York’s top 10 “power congregations.” In a newly published lecture, Saul Bellow ponders the role of “A Jewish Writer…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Is ‘Andor’ about Jews, Palestinians — or both and/or neither?
-
Fast Forward Judge dismisses lawsuit against Zionist Organization of America leader Mort Klein
-
Fast Forward US reaches truce with Houthis hours after Israel bombs their airport in Yemen
-
Fast Forward Trump says only 21 hostages remain alive in Gaza: ‘3 have died’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
