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
-
Milk Masters: Israeli Cows Overcome Odds To Become Most Productive
In 1962 Jewish Agency officials declined to give Kibbutz Yotvata a grant to set up a dairy herd. The kibbutz is in the hot desert near Eilat, and experts said that cows couldn’t live in such a climate. Similar skepticism was voiced decades earlier, when Zionists first started dairy farming in this dry part of…
-
Books Para Español, Oprima el Dos!
Earlier this week, Lévana Kirschenbaum blogged about domestic disputes and gourmet food and Spanish chocolate-chip cookies. 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 more information on the series, please visit: As a language enthusiast, I have…
-
Friday Film: The Netherlands’ Mile High Club
Courtesy of Music Box Films Reputed to be the most expensive Dutch-language film ever made, “Bride Flight,” a sensual melodrama with something of a Jewish theme thrown in, debuts commercially in the United States on June 10. The film recounts the experiences of four Dutch expatriates who meet on a KLM airliner in 1953, wending…
The Latest
-
Israelis Can’t Get Enough Facebook
We all know that Israelis spend more time than the rest of us on certain things, like defending their country, starting cool hi-tech start-ups, and eating really good hummus. What we might not have guessed is that they also spend more time on social networking websites than we do. According to a global survey conducted…
-
Village Voice Turns Spotlight on Jewish-Staffed Adult Home
A 4,500-word story in this week’s Village Voice tells the tale of Solange Lambert and Cosmo Salerno, coupled residents of Brooklyn “adult home” Surf Manor who are fighting to move into a state-subsidized apartment. But the story carries a heavily Jewish subtext. “As with most other adult homes in the city, Surf Manor’s operator, Robert…
-
Darren Aronofsky Pitches ‘Edgy’ Noah’s Ark Flick
There must be something in the water. A week after The Shmooze noticed a minor surge in Noah’s ark-themed construction, it turns out that one of Hollywood’s biggest directors is floating a movie about the Biblical tale. Darren Aronofsky, an Oscar nominee earlier this year for “Black Swan,” wants to make a big-budget blockbuster about…
-
Stay Up All Night!
Happy Shavuot, everybody!
-
Listening in Portland to the Voice of Bugs Bunny
He was a Portland Jew who dropped out of high school to find fame and fortune in New York. And while he never became a household name, his alter egos — Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Pepé Le Pew, and Barney Rubble, among hundreds of others — became part of pop culture lore. Now,…
-
Israeli Museum to House Original Drawings of American Cartoonist Joe Kubert
The third wave of the comic book craze may soon be reaching Israeli shores, with 1960s comic book icon Joe Kubert scheduled to visit the country in August. During his first visit to Israel, Kubert is expected to donate some of his original artwork to the Israeli Cartoon Museum in Holon. Kubert is a comic…
-
Israel To Participate in 2013 World Baseball Classic
It might be high time for Major League all-stars like Ryan Braun and Kevin Youkilis to fully embrace their Jewish heritage — and they wouldn’t even have to leave the field to do so. Yes, Shavuot begins Tuesday night. But perhaps a more compelling argument for solidarity among baseball’s top Jewish performers is that Israel…
-
Books Hungarian Modernist László Krasznahorkai’s Inner Animal
For almost a decade now, [New Directions Publishing][1] has doggedly been bringing the late, late Hungarian modernist László Krasznahorkai’s novels of impassioned decrepitude and finely cadenced apocalypticism into English. Next year will see the much-anticipated translation of his “Satantango.” To tide us over until then we now have the publication in the Cahiers Writing and…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
- 2
Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
- 3
Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
- 4
Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion What Democrats fighting Trump should learn from Germany’s failure to stop Hitler
-
Fast Forward 31st anniversary of AMIA bombing marked by ceremonies in Argentina, Israel and, for the first time, Congress
-
Fast Forward Mike Huckabee to Israel: End hostile treatment of Christian allies
-
Fast Forward Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
