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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Hipsters Embrace Hasidic Headwear
When Hasidim and hipsters have shared headlines in recent years, it’s most often been because of tensions dividing the two communities. So it’s nice, for a change, to see a story about something the two groups have in common — specifically, their love of a distinctive type of headwear. The New York Times reports that…
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Of Beastie Boys, Kafka, and the Hot Sauce Academy
Getty Images I imagine the hot sauce committee to be a studious and dour group, as dispassionate in their judgment of peppers and spices as the academy is of Red Peter the talking ape in Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy.” Which is to say, that if the Beastie Boys are not quite the heir…
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Dusting Off an Eichmann Documentary
Crossposted from Haaretz In 1979, Channel One broadcast “Memories of the Eichmann Trial,” a documentary directed for the Israeli television station by David Perlov. The movie, shot on 16mm film, was aired only once and for the 32 years since has remained unseen in the channel’s archives. The director, who passed away in 2003, did…
The Latest
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Celebrities Get Twitter-Happy With News of Bin Laden’s Death
Always hyperactive, the Twitterverse went into overdrive with the news of Osama bin Laden’s death — and Jewish celebs and notables were among the most active broadcasters. Not surprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, via the Israeli Consulate’s feed, called it “a victory for justice, freedom and common values of all democracies.” Director Albert Brooks,…
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Monday Music: Trailing Clouds of Glory Does He Come
Photo by Frank Vena Like many of his klezmer contemporaries, Geoff Berner, the Vancouver-born accordionist and songwriter, has a lyrical flair for pairing social commentary with the comically absurd. And he’s been able to do it with tongue-in-cheek storytelling and a Tom Waits-ian sense of balladry. Two of his most recent studio releases, “The Wedding…
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Gal Gadot Talks Growing Up In Israel & Her Controversial Maxim Photo Shoot
Every high-speed action flick needs a scantily clad woman to help kick some criminal butt. In the case of the newly released “Fast Five” and following Wonder Woman that woman just happens to be a former Miss Israel. Model and actress Gal Gadot, a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces and numerous magazine covers, plays…
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Remembering My Mother, Artist Shirley Moskowitz
“Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague” (1966). Sepia and ink drawing by Shirley Moskowitz. Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments It is hard for me to accept that it has been four years this weekend since my mother, artist Shirley Moskowitz, died in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 86. I’ve written about some…
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Books Testifying for the Holocaust
Last week, Deborah Lipstadt wrote about eerie anniversaries and Hannah Arendt. 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: This blog entry appears during the time that we mark Yom…
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Time Mag’s Attack Against ‘Jewish Food’
Criticize any national or ethnic cuisine and you’re spoiling for a fight. So writer Josh Ozersky knows he’s stepping on a land mine when he writes, on the Web site of Time, that “Jewish food is awful.” Having launched his attack, however, the Jewish Ozersky quickly retreats, clarifying that he’s limiting his discussion to “the…
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Monday Music: Prime Time for Eprhyme
At the New York release party for Eprhyme’s first CD a few years ago, the audience was an unusual blend of angel-headed Jewish hipsters bopping along to neo-Hasidic hip-hop, along with a smaller African-American crowd which was there to check out the new record drop. Eprhyme straddled two communities — the New-Jew one, and the…
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A Win for Israel at Tribeca Film Festival
Crossposted from Haaretz The film “Bombay Beach” by Israeli director Alma Har’el took first prize on Thursday at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival in the category of documentary feature film. The prize comes with a monetary award of $25,000. The jury, which included actress Whoopi Goldberg, actor Michael Cera and documentary filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev, among…
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