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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White House Switchboard Swamped With Calls for Pollard’s Temporary Release
Supporters of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard jammed the White House’s switchboard over the weekend, demanding his temporary release so that he could attend his father’s funeral today. Morris Pollard died at the age of 95 in South Bend, Ind., on the morning of Saturday, June 18. Angry that President Obama did not heed requests to…
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Two Old Jews Squabbling About Art at the Met’s ‘The Old Masters’
Devotees of the fine arts and even finer acting will hurry to the Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight or on June 27 for a staged reading of Simon Gray’s 2004 play “The Old Masters.” Gray’s opus portrays a stormy encounter between two Jewish art experts, Bernard Berenson (born Bernhard Valvrojenski in present-day Lithuania) and the…
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Monday Music: Sephardic Rock for the Hour and the Age
Over the past decade world music has made a veritable comeback, trickling into the mainstream and infusing the indie and alternative rock scene with eclectic and unexpected rhythms. From the emergence of bands like Golgol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box to the return of Brazilian psychedelic rockers Os Mutantes, world music has become more popular,…
The Latest
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Megan Fox Fired From ‘Transformers’ for Comparing Director to Hitler
It’s never a good idea to compare your boss to Hitler — even more so when his boss is Steven Spielberg. Actress Megan Fox apparently learned this lesson the hard way, getting fired from one of Hollywood’s most popular film franchises after likening the series’ director, Michael Bay, to the Nazi dictator. In an interview…
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Books One-Paragraph Novels
David Albahari is the Serbian-born Canadian author, most recently, of the novel “Leeches.” The book is a feat of magic, an existential philosophical novel that’s also funny and with enough mysteries to keep the reader guessing. It’s also one long paragraph — that’s right, a 300-page-long paragraph. Here, Albahari explains the motive behind his madness….
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Smoking Declines in Palestine as Israelis Keep Puffing Away
There aren’t many facets of healthcare in which Palestinians are progressing faster than the far better-resourced Israelis. But it turns out that that Palestinians do seem more prepared to kick the tobacco habit. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics has just reported that among Palestinians, there has been an enormous decrease in smoking over recent…
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Blogger Spreads News of Anti-Semitic ‘Jew Count’ at University of Toronto
With all the Israel-related new anti-Semitism taking place on college campuses lately, people might forget that there is still some good old-fashioned, early 20th century-style anti-Semitism out there, too. Richard Klagsbrun, a Canadian social media entrepreneur and writer, reported on June 13 on his “Eye on a Crazy Planet” blog on anti-Semitism and a “Jew…
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A Less-Than-Perfect Marriage at Givatayim’s FestiJazz Festival
Crossposted from Haaretz Toward the end of their performance, the quartet of Anat Fort and Abate Barihun played an arrangement of a popular Ethiopian passage called “Gadaye.” “What’s ‘Gadaye?’” Fort asked Barihun on stage, and the saxophonist became a little confused and in the end said “It’s a wedding song.” The encounter between Barihun and…
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Out and About: Darren Aronofsky’s New Pilot; Oskar Schindler’s Art Museum
On Killing the Buddha, The Arty Semite contributor Gordon Haber adds a personal reflection to the circumcision debate in California. Bucharest is getting its very first Jewish Film Festival. Oskar Schindler’s factory in Krakow has been turned into a contemporary art museum. Meet Xu Long, a Chinese chef with a passion for ancient Jewish coins….
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Dan Friedman goes to see “Queen of the Sun,” a film about the potentially-catastrophic plight of North American bees. Nathan Jeffay looks into the controversy surrounding the first Jerusalem performance of “Jérusalem,” the Verdi opera about the Crusades. Yevgeniya Traps reviews “You Must Go and Win,” a memoir about trying to make it in the…
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Slideshow: Brooklyn, the Shtetl
On her website, artist Ali Spechler describes her interest in “the notion of family and how shared experiences, whether positive or negative, breed strength and support.” That may not be the intuitive reaction to most of the works in “Brooklyn Shtetl,” Spechler’s current show at New York’s Hadas Gallery. After all, most of the paintings…
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Culture Rabbi, get your gun
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Opinion How I got AI to create fake Nazi memos — and what that means for the future of antisemitism
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Fast Forward How the Jewish commandment to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ could help a woman challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban in court
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: יוטוב־פּערזענלעכקייט רעדט אויף ייִדיש וועגן אַ משפּחה־טראַגעדיעVIDEO: Youtube personality speaks in Yiddish about a tragedy in the family
מאַטי מענדלאָוויטשעס ברודער, וואָס האָט יאָרן לאַנג געליטן פֿון דעפּרעסיע, האָט הײַיאָר זיך גענומען דאָס לעבן. .
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