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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Tent Protests Immortalized in Taiwanese Cartoon
Israel’s “tent protests” have joined the ranks of America’s recent sex scandals by earning the attention of Taiwanese animators. Cartoonists for the country’s NMA media company have depicted the protests in a new video, which provides background about the demonstrations in the local language, as well as in English subtitles. The clip features a look-alike…
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Two Words: ‘Plastic Judaica’
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments For the past year I’ve been curator of the Plastics Collection at Syracuse University, and while I have not given up my research and activism vis-a-vis Jewish art and architecture, I have launched into to a new work area. Usually, I just split my interests — plastics…
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Video: Healing Wounds of 9/11
How does one heal from a traumatic event on the scale of 9/11? That’s the question tackled by artist Tobi Kahn in his exhibit, “Embodied Light: 9/11 in 2011,” on view at The Educational Alliance in Downtown Manhattan until November 23. Kahn, a painter, sculptor and professor at the School of Visual Arts in New…
The Latest
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Books Meet Our Production Assistant, Zadie
Earlier this week, Avrom Honig shared a behind-the-scenes look at the photoshoot for “Feed Me Bubbe,” and talked about coming to the big city. His 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…
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Israeli Scientists Isolate Nearsightedness Gene
Most people take nearsightedness, or myopia, for what it is — and deal with it by donning a pair of fashionable glasses, getting fitted for contact lenses or getting Lasik surgery. Dr. Ohad Birk and his team of genetics researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, on the other hand, have wanted to know exactly…
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Drought Year for Israeli Music?
Crossposted from Haaretz If there are no thunderbolts in the three weeks remaining until the end of the Hebrew calendar year, this year will be remembered as pretty much a drought year in the history of Israeli music. No new and interesting message has come from the major and semi-major vocalists of what in better…
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Out and About: Jews and 9/11; ‘Old Mother’ Mandelbaum
Smithsonian Mag revisits the life and crimes of one of the Lower East Side’s most notorious criminals, “Old Mother” Mandelbaum. Yahoo! News spotlights the Ger Mandolin Orchestra. Adam Kirsch reflects on the lingering anti-Semitic associations of 9/11. A Jewish life insurance salesman has unveiled a four-tonne steel statue in memory of 9/11 in London’s Battersea…
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Israeli Guitarist Yair Yona Plays Hopscotch Fest
Photo by Tal Argov September 2011 marks the beginning of a new and promising year in Israeli Jazz. While the Forward has already covered the story of young Israeli jazz prodigy Gadi Lahavi making waves in the international jazz scene, a news item with greater impact for the local Israeli music scene was the launch…
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Orthodox IDF Men Boycott Women Singing
Where are the limits to Israeli multiculturalism? This is the question that the Israeli military woke up to today, after a seminar focused on the Gaza War last night turned controversial. Cadets who will soon become officers were seated in the audience at the event, when two female soldiers got up to sing. Orthodox Jewish…
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Education Case Studies That Are Also Comics
If it could work for the Holocaust, an Algerian rabbi’s cat, and a Birthright Israel trip, then it could also work for a Jewish day school governance and administration case study. So thought Ken Gordon, social media manager at the Boston-based Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, and he was right. Looking for a way…
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Shabbat Dinner: NBC’s Next Sitcom Premise?
As Jews, we know that comedy and drama often unfolds over the Shabbat table. And it seems the TV networks are catching on. “The Office” executive producer Greg Daniels is said to be developing a series for NBC called “Friday Night Dinner,” based on the British series of the same name. The British series revolves…
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