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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In Song: Nitzavim-Vayelech
WikiCommons Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — with a classic work of rock ‘n’ roll. In this week’s double parsha, Nitzavim-Vayelech, Moses gives his final warnings to the People of Israel about the pitfalls that await them in the Land of Israel. Leadership of the people is ceremoniously…
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Dancing Don Quixote in the Psychiatric Ward
Crossposted from Haaretz The Eifman Ballet is practically a regular guest in Israel; this time it brought two splendid works, “Onegin,” which played the Opera a year ago, and “Don Quixote,” performed here for the first time. Don Quixote to the music of Ludwig Minkus deals with the escape from reality toward a dream: a…
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Books Eighteen Solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
How many ways are there to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Given that none so far have definitively worked, the number doesn’t seem high. But in a new anthology, “United States of Palestine — Israel” (Sternberg Press, 2011) a group of Israeli, Palestinian and European left-wing writers and artists present no less than 18 solutions to…
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‘Footnote’ to Represent Israel at the Oscars
‘Footnote’ director Joseph Cedar arrives at Cannes Film Festival in May. Courtesy of Getty Images. After sitting out the Academy Awards in February, Israel is hoping for its fourth nomination in five years with “Footnote,” a drama that combines the worlds of academia and Talmudic study. The film won top honors tonight at the Ophirs,…
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Leonard Cohen’s Yiddish Song
We were remiss in not wishing Leonard Cohen a happy birthday yesterday, but the 77-year-old Montreal poet, novelist and singer-songwriter has other consolations. On October 11, Legacy Recordings will re-release 17 discs of Cohen’s back catalogue as a box set, including all of his studio albums and a few live ones, as well. The “Complete…
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Jewish Freshman Makes U. Maryland Hoops Team
Jacob Susskind “gave it a shot to just walk on” to the University of Maryland’s NCAA Division 1 basketball team, and that is exactly what this talented athlete ended up doing. The 18-year-old recent graduate of the Golda Och Academy (formerly known as the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex & Union) in West Orange,…
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Bob Holman’s Poem for Rosh Hashanah
Bob Holman is one of New York’s poetry legends. He pioneered the performance poetry scene a few decades ago, opened and is still running his world-renowned Bowery Poetry Club, is a professor, publisher, lecturer and much more. Today, in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, The Arty Semite is featuring Holman’s 1994 poem “A Jew…
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Jews Lag Behind Arab Israelis in Child Vaccination Rates
The Center for Disease Control of Israel’s Health Ministry has analyzed medical and health trends over the past decade and issued a report with some significant findings. One of the most glaring pieces of data was the fact that Arabs in Israel vaccinate their children at a higher rate than do Jewish Israelis. The overall…
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How Felix Lembersky Smuggled Jewish Motifs Into Soviet Art
The Ukrainian Jewish painter Felix Lembersky (1913-70), whose works are currently on view through December 23 at the Rubin-Frankel Gallery at Boston University, offers ideas and issues to contemporary viewers aside from the simple beauty of his work. As I will explain in a lecture this evening, Lembersky came of age and spent his career…
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Sandra Bernhard Enraged Over Troy Davis Execution
The execution by lethal injection late last night of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate convicted of the killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989, gained the attention of many in the U.S. and throughout the world. Among those protesting the impending execution earlier this week were a number of celebrities, including Jewish…
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In the Beginning There Was Abstraction
It may be a miracle: A biblically themed exhibit has opened in Brooklyn without any mention of Adam and Eve. This month the new “Genesis” exhibit opened at the Hadas Gallery in Fort Greene. The absence of the imagistic leaf-clad duo on the white walls of the intimate space was a welcomed departure from typical…
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