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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Books
The Kosher Student
On Monday, Efrat Libfroind wrote about being a mother and being a full-time pastry chef. Her new cookbook, “Kosher Elegance: The Art of Cooking With Style” is now available. Her blog 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…
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Was a Festival’s Funding Cut for Putting On a Terrorist Play?
It would be an understatement to say that Michael Rubenfeld, artistic producer of SummerWorks, was surprised to learn last week that the Federal Government of Canada was pulling its funding from Toronto’s 21-year-old indie theater and arts festival. It was even more of a shock for him to learn about this only five weeks before…
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Sarah Silverman Strikes Comedy Gold in Tel Aviv
Crossposted from Haaretz Just like Bob Dylan’s show here, in which two warm-up acts — one a local with connections abroad and the other entirely American — preceded the main performance, so it was with comedian Sarah Silverman at Zappa in Tel Aviv this week. In her case, there were two stand-ups: the excellent ultra-Orthodox…
The Latest
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Looking Back at a History of Pseudonyms
Nom De Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms By Carmela Ciuraru Harper, 331 pages, $24.99 Writers are always looking for new ways to tell stories, and Carmela Ciuraru has found hers in “Nom De Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms.” In her latest book, Ciuraru, editor of eight poetry anthologies, chronicles the role of the…
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Estee Lauder’s Synagogue Gets a Facelift
Estee Lauder and her parents once worshiped at Congregation Tifereth Israel in Corona, Queens — the borough’s oldest synagogue. So it’s about time that the century-old wooden shul is getting a makeover. The landmarked building, “a rare survivor of the earliest vernacular synagogues in the borough” according to Crain’s NY Business, will undergo a major…
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Slideshow: A Sculptor at Work
Arnold Newman, Chaim Gross with ‘Happy Mother,’ 1942. Courtesy of the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation and the Arnold Newman Archive. During the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, sculptor Chaim Gross (1904-1991) spent two summer months outdoors, working in front of crowds that totalled some 80,000 people. “I would look them over and if they…
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Gabrielle Giffords ‘Did Not Look Sick’ in First Public Appearance Since Injury
“She did not look sick at all,” an ABC reporter said of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who made her first appearance at a public event today after having been shot in the head nearly seven months ago in Tuscon. Although there were no television cameras on site at Space Center Houston, where Giffords’s husband Mark Kelly…
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Crowds Protest the Arrest of Rabbi Who Endorsed Controversial Book
It wasn’t rioting Palestinian protesters making headlines yesterday, but rather right-wing religious Jews opposing the arrest of Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba. Lior was detained by police and questioned in relation to his endorsement of the controversial book “Torat Hamelech” (The King’s Torah) by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, which justifies the killing of…
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For ‘Royal Pains’ Star Mark Feuerstein, the Next Best Thing to Being a Doctor Is Playing One on TV
Courtesy of USA Network Mark Feuerstein did something he knew would thrill his, and every other, Jewish mother. Though lacking any aptitude for biology, Feuerstein became a doctor. Three times. Circuitously. “The only way I could find a way to a respectable profession was to come to an unrespectable one,” he said. By “unrespectable” he…
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Punk Icon Jello Biafra Defies Fans to Come to Israel
Crossposted from Haaretz Devout listeners to Michal Niv’s program on Army Radio, Hafsakat Esser (10 a..m. Break), will never forget the voice that shouted “California Uber Alles” on her show. The queen of 1980s alternative radio, Niv often devoted airtime to punks and hardcore musicians, but even among her extreme group of fans, a place…
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My Call From Columbo
On June 14, 1997, I was assembling the Summer issue of The Columbo Newsletter when the phone rang. “Sheldon?” an extremely recognizable gravelly voice rumbled over the line. “This is Peter Falk.” I was surprised, but not shocked. I had written to Falk — who died June 23 at age 83 — to pose a…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward A Jewish nonprofit may have accidentally caused Michigan to drop charges against pro-Palestinian activists
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Culture For Christian nationalists, Trump’s pope picture isn’t a joke
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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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