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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Palestinian Anthem for Statehood
A Palestinian living in France has written a song that has arguably become the anthem for the upcoming Palestinians bid for statehood in the United Nations later on this week, according to a Ma’an report. The songwriter, Ahmed Dari, who worked for the United Nations’ Educational, Social and Cultural Organization until recently, composed “Mestani Dawla…
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Out and About: World’s Oldest Actress; Heart of Harold Bloom
Israeli Hanna Maron has become the world’s longest performing actress after 83 years on stage. William Deresiewicz explains why Harold Bloom is much like Conrad’s Mr. Kurtz. A new collection by Shel Silverstein is coming out this month, 12 years after the author’s death. Can Mel Gibson actually be good for the Maccabees? Oxford’s Bodleian…
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Books Art Spiegelman: ‘Why Comics? Why Mice? Why the Holocaust?’
The book trailer is out for Art Spiegelman’s much-anticipated “MetaMaus,” a look at the creation of his iconic “Maus” graphic novel, now celebrating its 25th anniversary. In the video Spiegelman says that “Maus” is more about the relationship between a father and son “trying to understand each other” than it is about the Holocaust. In…
The Latest
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The Official Toothpaste of Jewish Comedians?
A pair of Jewish comedians are going the extra smile for the father of a friend. Sarah Silverman and Adam Sandler are both endorsing Supersmile, a tooth-whitening product invented by dentist Irwin Smigel, whose website proclaims him “the father of aesthetic dentistry.” The pair provided testimonials in keeping with their comic styles, with Sandler claiming…
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Tailor Makes ‘Kosher’ Suits for Rosh Hashanah
It turns out an Indian-born tailor has a yiddishe kop when it comes to making suits for observant Jews. He has attracted many customers concerned about upholding the prohibition against wearing shatnez by making a line of suits that are certified as free of the mixture of wool and linen forbidden by the Torah. Mohan…
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Impressionistic Paintings With a New York Kick
The rhythm and verve of working-class New York street life is vividly displayed in artist Dena Schutzer’s new solo show at the Bowery Gallery in Chelsea. In almost two dozen drawings and oil paintings — on view through October 1 — Schutzer gives an impressionistic glance into daily urban life: a woman braids a man’s…
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An End to Chickens as Kapores?
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree When Alexis de Tocqueville traveled around America in the 1830s, what most impressed him was the nation’s penchant for sociability. “Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations… religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive,” he wrote bemusedly. “The Americans make associations…
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Books An Arrogant Revolution
Lucette Lagnado’s most recent book, “The Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn,” is now available. Lucette won the 2008 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her memoir “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World.” Her posts…
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Czeslaw Milosz Honored at Festival in Lodz
Crossposted from Haaretz Since 2002 Lodz, an industrial city in western Poland, has been holding a festival called Four Cultures, which packs into a few days in September events from all areas of the arts, including interdisciplinary arts, representing the four major cultures of the inhabitants that make up the city: Polish, German, Russian and…
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Q&A: Cellist Alisa Weilerstein on Winning ‘Genius Award’
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein was at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival last week when she received an unexpected phone call from the MacArthur Foundation telling her she was a recipient of their 2011 fellowship. The “Genius Award,” as it is called, is a no-strings-attached grant of $500,000, paid out over five years. Weilerstein, 29, is…
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Send Us Your Nominations!
For our upcoming special section on philanthropy, the Forward will profile American Jews aged 21 and under who are making a difference, locally or globally, with cool new approaches to helping others. We are looking for young people who are having a direct impact on their community in the novel way they are confronting poverty,…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish קאָנצערט לכּבֿוד דעם ייִדישן שרײַבער און רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלערConcert honoring Yiddish writer and editor Boris Sandler
דער בעל־שׂימחה האָט יאָרן לאַנג געדינט ווי דער רעדאַקטאָר פֿונעם ייִדישן פֿאָרווערטס.
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Fast Forward Trump’s new pick for surgeon general blames the Nazis for pesticides on our food
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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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