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
Chocolate Chip Cookies: CCC? Sisisi!
Yesterday, Lévana Kirschenbaum blogged about domestic disputes and gourmet food. 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: We all think of cookies as a short-lived and vaguely illicit pleasure….
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Weiner Headlines: The Best of the Best
The Anthony Weiner scandal has been a dream come true for headline and late night comedy writers everywhere. A Congressman with the last name of Weiner involved in a Twitter crotch shot scandal? We couldn’t make this stuff up. Yesterday, Weiner admitted to sending racy photos of himself to Internet admirers, despite a string of…
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Jean-Jacques Duval’s Connecticut Synagogue Stained Glass Still Dazzles After 50 Years
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments In 2009 I wrote an article for Tablet Magazine about Abstract Expressionist artist Adolph Gottlieb’s stained glass windows in the Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn (this article has just been republished, without slide show, in a special Shavuot synagogue issue of The New York Jewish Week). I…
The Latest
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Books Evangelical Group’s Attempt To Convert Dominique Strauss-Kahn Misfires
If he’s getting bored under house arrest, accused sex offender Dominique Strauss-Kahn can at least look forward to receiving some Hebrew-language reading material. The former head of the International Monetary Fund, who pleaded not guilty yesterday to sexually assaulting a maid in a New York City hotel, was the intended recipient of a package of…
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Fine Arts Students in Haifa Think Outside the Box
From Danielle Itzhaki’s “Haya.” Photo by Danielle Itzhaki. Crossposted from Haaretz So flexible is the graduate program in creative arts at the University of Haifa that its students do not share a background in the same discipline. Sharon Poliakine, who heads the Fine Arts Department, says that nine of the 10 graduates this year previously…
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Weiner Admits to Online Relationships, Sending Twitter Photo
It was painful to watch. After Rep. Anthony Weiner became the latest politician to fall prey to the allures of the wicked Internet, the congressman held a press conference on Monday afternoon to address the scandal. “I have made terrible mistakes that have hurt the people I care for the most,” Weiner told the world,…
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On TV in ‘LaLa Land’: Israeli Singers Vie For Record Deal
“I’m travelling to L.A. with a dream in my suitcase and butterflies in my stomach. I’m looking for the end of a string to grab and create an opportunity to conquer the world,” sings Dudu Aharon in the first seconds of the opening sequence for “Chai b’LaLa Land” (“Living in LaLa Land”), a new Israeli…
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Monday Music: Daniel Kahn and the Relevance of Yiddish Protest Songs
Courtesy of Daniel Kahn We all know people who seem to have been born in the wrong decade — or even in the wrong century. Only very few of them, however, attempting to connect their society with that of another world, stretch across eras, and become giants — artists and thinkers like Sun Ra, Walter…
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More Alleged Photos of Anthony Weiner Surface
It looks like Anthony Weiner is headed for serious trouble. We’re hearing that more photos of the congressman have surfaced, this time at least one of which is much more explicit than the now-infamous Twitter underwear photo. Weiner is expected to hold a press conference in a few minutes to address the situation. Stay tuned.
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Following Facebook Fury, Coldplay Removes ‘Freedom for Palestine’ Link
Coldplay appears to have changed its mind about the Arab-Israeli conflict — at least when it gets in the way of promoting the band’s latest single. A week after promoting a song called “Freedom for Palestine,” the English pop/rock group has removed the link from its Facebook page, where it attracted thousands of comments, some…
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A Marriage Made at the Museum
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Now that June is upon us, it’s high season for weddings — and reason enough for The Jewish Museum in New York to mount an exhibition of ketubot, Jewish marriage contracts. “The Art of Matrimony” showcases 30 different versions of the age-old document. Some hail from the Cairo genizah…
Most Popular
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Culture She was my Hebrew school bully — and I finally learned what happened to her
In Case You Missed It
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Culture In this Holocaust story, there are few words, no swastikas, no yellow stars — just movement, passion and empathy
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Opinion What Democrats fighting Trump should learn from Germany’s failure to stop Hitler
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Fast Forward 31st anniversary of AMIA bombing marked by ceremonies in Argentina, Israel and, for the first time, Congress
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Fast Forward Mike Huckabee to Israel: End hostile treatment of Christian allies
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