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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Ivanka Trump, Jewish Mother
She’s certainly not your typical Jewish mother, but she’s a Jewish mother no less. Ivanka Trump — Donald’s daughter, ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ judge and jewelry designer — and her husband, New York Observer owner Jared Kushner, welcomed a baby girl on Sunday. Trump took to Twitter on Monday to announce the baby’s name: “Jared and I…
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Jennifer Love Hewitt To Star in ‘Jewtopia’ Film
In the spirit of cheesy rhymes, maybe she’ll change her name to Jennifer Love Jewitt. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt has signed on to play a Jewish woman looking for a Jewish husband in the big-screen version of “Jewtopia,” an onstage comedy billed as the “longest-running comedy in Off-Broadway history.” The “Party of Five” and “Ghost…
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Monday Music: Swedish Fleshquartet Plays Steve Reich in Jerusalem
Nikita Pavlov Steve Reich’s 1988 composition “Different Trains” is immediately recognizable, even to those with just a passing interest in modern music. The piece has technical virtuosity, a melody intricately constructed using archival speech recordings, and indisputable aesthetic soundness. Beyond these virtues, one senses that deeply personal undertones inform the work. These include Reich’s peripatetic…
The Latest
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Young Israelis Camp Out for Housing Reform
Israelis traditionally fill their city squares during warm summer nights. This week, young Israelis in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities are doing just that — but they’re not going home at the end of the night. Israel’s “cottage cheese revolution,” having spurred a number of economic protests, has now led to a young people’s…
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Books What Are the Three Weeks, Anyway?
Dr. Erica Brown is the author of “In the Narrow Places,” a daily meditation for each day of the Three Weeks. Her 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: I recently…
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Scandal at ‘Israeli Idol’ Raises Ratings Overnight
Crossposted From Haaretz “A Star Is Born,” Israel’s version of the hit TV show “American Idol,” has found itself at the center of a scandal over voting as its ninth season comes to a close — and its popularity has increased overnight. Tamar Yahalomi, a 17-year-old contestant with a sweet voice and an agreeable disposition,…
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Jewish Mogul’s Girlfriend Found Dead in Grisly Scene
The female companion of a Jewish pharmaceutical mogul — whose company manufactures wrinkle-filler Restylane — was found dead Thursday at his 13,000-square-foot San Diego mansion, Reuters reports. The body of Rebecca Nalepa, 32, was discovered on Wednesday morning at the historic seaside mansion owned by Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp chief executive Jonah Shacknai in Coronado, “an…
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Monday Music: Do You Know Where the Party’s At?
Purgar Peter It would not be hard to make a party game of picking out the global influences in the New York-based band Hazmat Modine’s new album, “Cicada.” There’s a Latin groove here; a klezmer-ish flourish there; a hint of Jamaican rocksteady; an intermittent country twang; whole tracks featuring a West African brass band. Music…
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Out and About: Woodstock in Jerusalem; Seinfeld on Twitter
Jo Ellen Green Kaiser ponders the death of JDub and the future of new Jewish media, if there is one. How William L. Shirer, author of “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” was a better journalist than historian. Jerusalem celebrates a Woodstock revival. Jerry Seinfeld has joined Twitter. Today is the 17th anniversary of…
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Jake Marmer pores over two collections by the “poet’s poet’s poet” Louis Zukofsky. Olga Gershenson checks out the Jewish-themed films at the Moscow International Film Festival, including a documentary about the great Soviet director Mark Donskoy. Shaul Magid reviews Aryae Coopersmith’s personal history of Shlomo Carlebach’s House of Love and Prayer. Allison Gaudet Yarrow reviews…
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Are Hasidic Singers Exploiting Leiby Kletzky’s Death?
There is a time for mourning and there is a time for PR. The shocking murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, z”l, in Borough Park this week, is an unspeakable horror. And yet, with what seems to be a total lack of sensitivity regarding what kind of public reaction is or isn’t appropriate, Haredi artists are…
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News Why Zohran Mamdani believes he’ll win over Jewish voters, as Israel critic surges to second behind Cuomo in NYC mayoral race
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Opinion Is Israel really going to reoccupy Gaza? Ask Trump
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Yiddish World A photo of my bubbe when Jewish stores still had Yiddish signs
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