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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Slideshow: Nir Hod’s Cigarette-Smoking Child Geniuses
In “Genius,” the current exhibit by Israeli artist Nir Hod at New York’s Paul Kasmin Gallery, pouty, fat-cheeked little boys glare out at the viewer, lit cigarettes dangling insolently from their sausage-like fingers. The series of more than 50 paintings, on view until June 18, is the latest installment in Hod’s growing body of arresting,…
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Jewish Cop Transferred After Busting Prosecutor for DWI
The NYPD transferred Officer Elliott Zinstein from the Bronx to Greenpoint, Brooklyn because the neighborhood supposedly needed more Jewish cops, according to today’s NY Daily News. But there are a couple of reasons why Zinstein — an Orthodox Jew — wasn’t buying the explanation. For one thing, the Jewish population is much higher in the…
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Generational Upset at a One-Act Wedding
Erik Lieberman and Delphi Harrington in ‘For Elise.’ Photo by Gerry Goodstein. Weddings are the best. There is food, drink, music, organized dancing, and cake. What could be better? My favorite part of any wedding is watching the old and new generations interact. Nothing is more priceless than the look on my grandmother’s face when…
The Latest
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David Mamet: ‘Crazy About’ Sarah Palin?
That celebrated playwright David Mamet has taken a hard turn to the right is old news by now. He has written about it in his newly published book, “The Secret Knowledge: On The Dismantling of American Culture” (Sentinel, 2011), and has been shouting it from the mountaintops in all the related press coverage. Mamet sums…
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Moving From the Gut at La MaMa Israeli Dance Week
‘Quiet’ by Arkadi Zaides, featuring Rabie Khoury and Ofir Yudilevich. Photo by Gadi Dagon. In his welcoming remarks on the opening night of the the La MaMa Moves! Festival’s Contemporary Israeli Dance Week (June 8-12), Edo Ceder, of the New York-based YelleB Dance Ensemble, talked about “dancing from the gut.” That evocative phrase could have…
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Customs Officials as Curators
Crossposted from Haaretz One day designer Eyal Burstein was asked to submit a proposal for the design of the Camper shoe store in Berlin, where he lives. For that purpose he visited the store, spoke to the salespeople and finally even bought a pair of shoes in order to use them as part of the…
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Eighty-Two Years Later, Anne Frank Remains the Subject of Commemoration and Dispute
If Anne Frank hadn’t died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March, 1945, she might have turned a grand 82 years old on June 12. It’s useless to try and imagine what she — or the world — would have been like had she survived. What is certain, however, is that Frank is…
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Jewish Men’s Clubs Boycott Scotch Whisky
You know things are serious when Kiddush clubs are willing to give up their scotch. The Federation of Amazing and Jewish Men’s Clubs, an affiliate of the Conservative movement, has called upon its North American members (250 clubs; 25,000 individual members) to boycott scotch whisky made in distilleries located in West Dunbartonshire in Scotland. Among…
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Celebrating Jewish Difference in the Dead of Night
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Many moons ago, when I was in college, I rarely pulled an all-nighter. I had too hard a time staying up until the wee hours of the morn. But now, when my internal clock sees to it that I’m wide awake in the middle of the night, I have…
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Monday Music: Furious Hip-Hop for Comp. Lit. Majors
Courtesy of Yitz Jordan/Shemspeed Records. Photo by Jonathan Hunter. Y-Love, also known as Yitz Jordan, is a black Jewish convert from Baltimore who feels just as comfortable at underground freestyles as he does at the Sabbath table. The son of a Puerto Rican mother and an Ethiopian-American father, Y-Love converted in 2000 at Brooklyn’s Conversion…
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A Museum Director to Play Ping-Pong With
Crossposted from Haaretz Former Tel Aviv Museum of Art director Professor Mordechai Omer was complex, comprehensive, multilayered, beloved and controversial at one and the same time. In his various roles, he influenced thousands of people. “We’re left with a large black hole, and it will be a tough assignment to find a replacement who can…
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Books In ‘Something We Said,’ Richard Pryor’s daughter finds words to discuss the unspeakable
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Opinion It’s time for Jews who love Israel to give up on Zionism
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Opinion Trump’s humiliation of Netanyahu marks a sea change in the US-Israel relationship
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward This Israeli filmmaker harshly criticizes his country. Pro-Palestinian activists boycotted him anyway
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Fast Forward Trump is imagining an Israel after Netanyahu. So are many Israelis. Netanyahu isn’t biting.
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Fast Forward Spain reports 86% rise in antisemitic incidents, as interior minister takes aim at ‘xenophobia’
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Fast Forward Cara Trager, beloved Queens Jewish communal leader and lifetime journalist, dies at 71