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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Nonesuch Pulls Steve Reich’s Controversial ‘WTC 9/11’ Album Cover
“[It] looks like something swiped from Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign press shop circa January 2008,” Seth Colter Walls wrote in a July 21 piece for Slate about the cover for Minimalist composer Steve Reich’s “WTC 9/11.” Walls had no problem with “WTC 9/11” itself; he called Reich’s composition for three string quartets combined with recorded…
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French Feminist Cathy Bernheim Investigates a Hypnotic Ancestor
An interest in family roots can appear without warning. A new biography, “Hippolyte Bernheim: a Destiny Under Hypnosis” (“Hippolyte Bernheim, un destin sous hypnose”), appeared in March from Les éditions Hugo & Cie, recounting the life of a French Jewish neurologist and pioneer of hypnotic therapy. Its author is French novelist and essayist Cathy Bernheim,…
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The Real Reason for the September Baby Boom
Planning on trying for a baby? Get ready for the winter. Everyone knows there’s a spike in births nine months after the coldest and dreariest time of year — when people look for ways to spend the long evenings. But it seems that this may not be the only reason for the September rush on…
The Latest
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Books The Greatest Jewish Basketball Team
Douglas Stark’s The SPHAS: The Life and Times of Basketball’s Greatest Jewish Team is now available. 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 visit: When I told friends and colleagues that…
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Arnold Schoenberg and the American Dream
Coming to America is normally shorthand for the opening of opportunity: apparently not for Arnold Schoenberg. Commentators on modern music have long undervalued the Vienna-born composer Arnold Schoenberg’s years in America, from 1934 until his death in 1951. Admittedly, there were some disappointments, such as when the Guggenheim Foundation notoriously refused to grant Schoenberg a…
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On Getting Sholom Aleichem’s Name Wrong
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree I’ve been called many things in my day: Jocelyn, Jennifer, Jen, Joselit Weissman and on occasion (and hopefully in jest) even Gender Weissman Joselit, a name designed to highlight my stalwart embrace of feminism in matters large and small. Little wonder, then, that I sympathize with the fate that…
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Friday Film: Israel’s Slacker King
A shaggy-haired director is reclining on a couch in his parents’ home, watching the boob tube while he enjoys another bout of funemployment. Such a description could easily apply to the beginning, middle or end of a Kevin Smith movie or to El Duderino himself, Jeff Bridge’s famous character from the cult hit “The Big…
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On Sale: iPad Cases Made of Bernie Madoff’s Clothing
Bernie Madoff has already inspired his own hot sauce, so why not a line of iPad covers? Frederick James, a company that specializes in iPad cases, has unveiled a new line with an unusually intimate connection to the “notorious felon,” as the Ponzi schemer is described on the firm’s website. In addition to collections including…
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Christian Palestinians Moving Back to Holy Land
There’s no place like home when it comes to the Holy Land. These are the sentiments of millions of Jews, but also of the many Christian Palestinians now choosing to return there after having lived abroad. American-Israeli freelance journalist Michele Chabin reports in the National Catholic Register that recent statistics show that for the first…
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In Song: Va’etchanan
‘You shall make them known to your children, and your children’s children.’ Iillustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company. Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — with a classic work of rock and roll. In this week’s parsha, Va’etchanan, Moses continues his historical review…
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Books Just Like Comrade Karl Marx
Earlier this week, Michael Levy wrote about Jews and Chinese food and what Chinese people think about Jews. 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 visit: Central China is a strange…
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