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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Out and About: Midrash and the Megillah; Einstein’s Archives Unleashed
How Yiddish poet Itzik Manger brought midrash to the Megillah. Bob Dylan, Brandeis University, 1963: Coming soon to a record store near you. In other Dylanalia, Bob’s upcoming Asian tour now includes stops in both China and Vietnam. David Kaufmann on new poetry by Adrienne Rich. The Hebrew University is putting Albert Einstein’s archives on…
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Power Company to the People
Crossposted from Haaretz Legendary city engineer Yitzhak Ben Sira planned Tel Aviv’s Yad Eliyahu area to be a neighborhood of public housing with an industrial area at its northern edge. Beginning at the end of the 1940s, high-quality housing projects were constructed alongside public buildings, including arts and recreation centers. Some of them, like the…
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April Classical Concerts Turn Cruelest into Coolest Month
A notoriously anti-Semitic poet claimed that April is the cruelest month; all the more reason for Manhattanites to sweeten it with delightful classical concerts redolent with Yiddishkeit. On March 29, the Israeli-American violinist Yuval Waldman will perform “Music Forgotten and Remembered” at Merkin Concert Hall, including such rarities as Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s 1952 “Rhapsody on Moldavian…
The Latest
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Shifra Lerer, 95, Yiddish Star of Stage and Screen
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish. On March 12 the Yiddish theater lost one of its most beloved stars. Shifra Lerer, an Argentine-born actress who toured the world and who later appeared in films by Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet, died in Manhattan at the age of 95. I met Shifra during my…
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Orthodox Neighbors Angry Over Pornographic Exhibit on Lower East Side
While adolescent yeshiva students may not share their dissatisfaction, Orthodox Jewish neighbors of a Lower East Side art gallery have issued a chorus of complaints over a current exhibition involving pornographic images According to the New York Post, the Allegra LaViola Gallery’s new “Pornucopia” show “features a slew of sexy nude images of men and…
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Books Miss Venezuela Material
On Monday, Reyna Simnegar, the author of “Persian Food from the Non-persian Bride: And Other Sephardic Kosher Recipes You Will Love,” wrote about Sephardim Strike Back! 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…
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Books Living Letters From the Past
Before the telephone and the Internet, those separated from each other by great distances depended on letters to communicate. Although gifted writers have brought the form to the level of high art, for many people, the letter served more essential purposes. With it, they shared ideas, expressed feelings, collaborated on plans, and communicated information both…
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Rappaport Prize Awarded to Artists Asaf Ben Zvi and Michael Halak
Crossposted from Haaretz The Tel Aviv Museum of Art announced the selection of painters Asaf Ben Zvi and Michael Halak as the winners of the 2011 Rappaport Prize. This is the sixth prize awarded since its establishment in 2006 in honor of Ruth and Baruch Rappaport. The prize is awarded annually to two painters, an…
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How the Violin Became the ‘Jewish National Instrument’
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Just the other night, amidst the glorious surroundings of the Music Room of The Phillips Collection, whose walls are bedecked with one masterpiece after another, over 100 people gathered together under the aegis of George Washington University’s Program in Judaic Studies to hear Professor James Loeffler of the University…
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Penn, De Niro Attend U.N. Screening of ‘Anti-Israel’ Film
Over the objections of the Israeli government and the American Jewish Committee, the United Nations yesterday hosted the American premiere of a movie sure to generate further controversy with its depiction of Israel’s 1948 founding. Based on a novel by Palestinian writer Rula Jebreal, “Miral” tells the stories of several Palestinian women over the course…
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Bob Geldof To Play Rival Bernard-Henri Levy on the Big Screen
Here’s one way to make an old rival nervous: play him in a movie. Musician and activist Bob Geldof has signed on to portray French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy on the big screen, according to French news reports. The role could serve as the latest salvo in the fraught relationship between the two men, who have…
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: אונגערישע אויסשטעלונג ווײַזט רמזים פֿון הילצערנער שיל פֿון 18טן י״הTidbits: Exhibit displays remnants of 18th century wooden synagogue
אינעם 18טן יאָרהונדערט איז די קהילה אין נאַזנאַ געווען די צווייט גרעסטע אין גאַנץ טראַנסילוואַניע.
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News Is the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism the new Red Scare?
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Opinion Trump’s cuts are a war on Jewish literature, thought and history itself
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