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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Monday Music: Making a Loving Mockery of Modern Orthodoxy
It all started with a video that went viral. Shortly after The Groggers’ frontman L.E. Staiman got back from studying in yeshiva in Israel, he began recording punk songs with quirky Jewish-themed concepts. The demos got positive feedback from friends, but he was told that there was no demographic that would “get” his songs. Then…
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Obama Makes New York Magazine Cover as ‘First Jewish President’
Barack Obama may be America’s “first Jewish president,” this week’s New York magazine cover provocatively suggests. The publication sets the phrase in quotation marks, placing it over a cover photo of Obama’s kippah-wearing head. The accompanying article — entitled “The Tsuris,” and written by staff political analyst John Heilemann — looks at at Obama’s relationship…
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Israeli Military Snubs Domestic Shofar Merchants
Israel’s shofar merchants consider it a low blow, but the country’s defense ministry isn’t backing down. Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported Friday that local shofar sellers are red in the face over a decision by the defense ministry to purchase 150 of the rams’ horns from suppliers in China and Morocco. Going abroad for the…
The Latest
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A Night of Music, Poetry, and a Whole Bunch of Jews
Artists and audience members filled The Living Theatre last night for the Forward’s Jewish Art for the New Millenium event, featuring Jessica Lurie, Ammiel Alcalay and Marc Ribot. In addition to stellar performances by each of the artists, the audience was treated to a spontaneous collaboration between the three performers, as well as a rousing…
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Dead Sea Scrolls To Be Shown in Times Square
An exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls is scheduled to go on view in New York on October 28. The exhibit, titled “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times,” was put together by the Israel Antiquities Authority and will take place at Discovery Times Square in Manhattan. According to a press release, the…
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Books Mourning My Arab Spring
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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Cultural Cross-Pollination in Wroclaw, Poland
Crossposted from Haaretz The three bronze dwarf sculptures that greet visitors to the museum of the city of Wroclaw, Poland are a relatively new reminder of the city’s turbulent history. If the dwarf statues scattered across the city perpetuate the Orange Alternative opposition movement that was founded there in the 1980s and daubed graffiti of…
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Out and About: Hating on Jon Stewart; George Clooney in Haifa
The publication of “Truth and Consequences,” an inside look at the Madoff family, has been moved up to the end of October. “Modern Family” took home five Emmy Awards at last night’s ceremony, while other awards were taken by “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” “The Good Wife” star Julianna Margulies, Kyle Chandler from “Friday…
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Abra Cohen goes looking for Jews at Burning Man. Renee Ghert-Zand takes a look at the effect of Israeli artists on the J14 protests in Israel, and vice versa. Gwen Orel profiles playwright Itamar Moses on the launch of his new play, “Completeness.” Gorden Haber reviews a collection of essays by Polish Jewish leader Adam…
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Amy Winehouse’s Last Song
This week, in honor of what would have been Amy Winehouse’s 28th birthday, her duet with the legendary crooner Tony Bennett was released. The two recorded the jazz standard “Body and Soul” last March, just four months before Winehouse’s untimely death, to which no definitive cause has been attributed. In a video about the recording…
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In Song: Ki Tavo
Photo by Jim Summaria, via Wiki Commons Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — with a classic work of rock ‘n’ roll. In this week’s parsha, Ki Tavo, the Israelites are commanded to bring their first fruits to the Temple and present them along with a recitation (which is…
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