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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‘Ten Commandments’ for the TV Nation
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree For decades now, Cecil B. DeMille’s cinematic extravaganza, “The Ten Commandments,” has held pride of place on television screens across America, its timing sandwiched between Pesach and Easter. An invented holiday tradition if ever there was one, the annual broadcast of a nearly four hour film given over to…
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Ex-Haredi Artists Grapple With Their Pasts
‘Protection’ by Leah Vincent A photo of a woman wrapped in phylacteries might not seem very bold after Leonard Nimoy’s “Shekhina” project. But to many of the artists at the opening of a new art exhibit called “All in the Eye,” a photograph of a woman adorned with tallit and tefillin, eye to the camera…
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Haifa Starts Rocking
Crossposted from Haaretz A festival being held for the first time is an idea. A festival being held for the second time is already a fact on the ground. Haifolk, Haifa’s indie music festival, had its second run this weekend and can, therefore, safely be declared an established festival on the Israeli indie music scene….
The Latest
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Moses Brings Them Out to the Theaters
It doesn’t have the glamour of Cannes or the indie cred of Sundance, but it does boast Moses as its mascot. In the lead-up to next month’s Toronto Jewish Film Festival, organizers have released a series of ads featuring the biblical forefather in a humorous mix of modern situations – a publicity effort that has…
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Anti-Semitic Guard Won’t Serve At Royal Wedding
Bad ideas if you want a role in the royal wedding: insult the bride, write about your anti-Semitic fantasies and slur England’s Pakistani immigrants. One of the would-be guards during this Friday’s festivities has managed all three, getting himself removed from his duties along the ceremonial parade route. Cameron Reilly was to have joined several…
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Man Reclaims Klimt Painting Stolen By Nazis
A Montreal man will finally get to reclaim a prized Gustav Klimt painting the Nazis stole from his Austrian grandmother. The Montreal Gazette reports that the Austrian government and the Salzburg Modern Art Museum have agreed that Klimt’s “Litzlberg am Attersee” was the rightful property of the late Amalie Redlich – and that as her…
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Yet Another Mel Gibson Revival
With a new movie about to open, Mel Gibson is attempting a comeback – again. He – and we – have been here before. The “Braveheart” star tried a similar move last year with the release of “Edge of Darkness,” a thriller that underwhelmed at the box office, and wasn’t helped by Gibson’s hostile reaction…
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National Poetry Month: Robert Pinsky’s ‘Samurai Song’
Today, in honor of National Poetry Month, The Arty Semite is featuring “Samurai Song” by Robert Pinsky. In the spirit of Passover, one can read “Samurai Song” as a kind of inverse “Dayenu.” It is often asked of the latter text, that if God had not given us the Sabbath, the Torah, or brought us…
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Friday Film: Bridge to Kashmir
Courtesy of Artists Public Domain As a child, Tariq Tapa learned to read while traversing Manhattan’s First Avenue to and from school. His mother designed logos for a living (Sky-Line Taxi and Limousine in the Bronx still uses the one she created for the company 25 years ago), and as they walked she would pay…
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Matzos for Lord Byron
On January 2, 1815, the 27-year-old Lord Byron married the odious Annabella Milbanke, daughter and heiress of Lord and Lady Wentworth. Their daughter, Ada, was born on December 10. On January 15, 1816, Lady Byron took Ada and returned to her parents. The “first popular media scandal” erupted, and rumors spread that Byron beat and…
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Brave New Concrete World
Crossposted from Haaretz I experienced my own great architectural revolution in 1955, when my family moved from a rural area in the heart of the Sharon to an apartment block in a Histadrut labor federation cooperative housing project, on the outskirts of Givatayim. The moment we unpacked our bags on the gravel — which later…
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Fast Forward ‘I will not be silenced’: Josh Shapiro invokes assassination attempt in address on rising hate violence
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