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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Amos Luzzatto’s Fictional View of Jews in Hectic Postwar Rome
Lovers of Jewish culture know about Italy’s Luzzatto family, including the 19th century theologian Samuel David Luzzatto, known as Shadal, and (by marriage) the prolific author and teacher Dante Lattes. Shadal’s great-great-grandson, Amos Luzzatto, has followed in the family tradition. Born in Rome in 1928, he spent the war years with his family in Jerusalem,…
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7 Questions for ‘Bear Jew’ Gabe Carimi
If Goliath were around today, he might look something like 22-year-old Gabe Carimi. The 6-foot-7-inch, 320-pound all-American left tackle was chosen as this year’s No. 1 draft pick by the Chicago Bears. But for this football player, religion and academics seem to be just as important as athletics. He still remembers the parashah from his…
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Israeli Model To Audition for ‘James Bond’ Film
The next Bond girl might be Israeli. Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Esti Ginzburg has been invited to audition for the next James Bond movie, Israel’s Ynet news site reports. The role would mark a professional breakthrough for the 21-year-old, who had a small role last year in the little-seen “Twelve,” whose biggest star was Chace…
The Latest
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Hebrew Ink: Justin Bieber’s New ‘Yeshua’ Tattoo
A month after his first visit to Israel, Justin Bieber has gotten a Hebrew tattoo. The 17-year-old pop star showed off the new ink during a visit to Hawaii with his girlfriend this week. (Because that’s what normal 17-year-olds do: get tattoos and go to Hawaii with their girlfriends.) The letters spell out “Yeshua,” or…
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For Women in Ultra-Orthodox Williamsburg, No Cell Phones in Public
First it was an “out of sight-out of mind” approach as Haredi Jews in Israel relegated women to the back of the bus and restricted them to walking on only one side of the street in certain Jerusalem neighborhoods. Now, the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn appear to prefer that women be seen, but not…
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Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan!
Seventy does not mean old or young. As Bob Dylan says in Floater: The old men ’round here, sometimes they get On bad terms with the younger men But old, young, age don’t carry weight It doesn’t matter in the end In the imagination of the Jewish sages of Late Antiquity, 70 means quality, not…
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Books Q&A: Canadian Jewish Book Award Winner Alison Pick
For Canadian author and poet Alison Pick, it was her personal journey of discovering and reclaiming her Jewish identity that led to her greatest professional success. The 35-year-old recently won the 2010 Canadian Jewish Book Award for fiction, being presented May 30 in Toronto, for her historical novel, “Far to Go,” about a Czechoslovakian Jewish…
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Father of Four Switches Synagogues, Gets Burned in Arson Attempt
Some Jews talk about getting burned by synagogue memberships. But Aron Rottenberg wouldn’t be exaggerating. The Orthodox Jewish father of four is hospitalized with third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body after another Orthodox Jew allegedly tried to torch his house — all because Rottenberg started taking his family to a different synagogue, Gothamist…
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Almost Contemporary Kiev
There are Orthodox Jews versus secular Jews; accusations that wealthy philanthropists are trying to control Jewish organizations staffed by overworked, underpaid communal professionals; charges that certain Jewish institutions are sucking up the lion’s share of communal funds, leaving others to languish. Sound familiar? Something like New York, or any other large American Jewish community, in…
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Rocker Gene Simmons Not a Fan of Obama’s Israel Policy
It appears that President Obama can cross “Rock and Roll All Night” off his list of potential 2012 campaign songs. The president’s recent speeches on Israel have made a critic of KISS rocker Gene Simmons, who implied on CNBC that Obama has “no [expletive] idea” about how to solve the Arab-Israeli impasse. “If you’ve never…
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Israeli Rabbis Get a Raise
Being a young rabbi in Israel just got a whole lot more lucrative. Starting salaries for Jewish clergy will rise by up to 250 percent in the coming years, according to a new set of raises approved today by Israel’s treasury. Because the salaries will be paid by the government — Israel doesn’t separate synagogue…
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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 Why a Gaza doctor’s striking video about starving babies has gone viral
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Fast Forward Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist and ‘father figure’ to Barbra Streisand, dies at 99
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Nazi collaborator monuments Nazi collaborator monuments in Poland
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Nazi collaborator monuments Nazi collaborator monuments in Mexico
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