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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Rachel the Poetess To Appear on New Israeli Banknotes
Culture on your currency – the Bank of Israel has chosen poets over politicians. Rachel the Poetess, or Rachel Bluwstein as she was born, was one of those tragic artists who didn’t receive nearly enough recognition in her lifetime. Well now, she has been given the ultimate mark of prestige: her image is to appear…
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Friday Film: In Search of the 36
In “36 Righteous Men,” Argentinian director Dan Burman, who goes in this film by his newly discovered Hebrew name, David ben Leah, joins an organized tour of Orthodox Jews visiting the gravesites of Hasidic leaders across Eastern Europe. What brings Burman, a thoroughly secular Jew, on board a bus where only strictly kosher food is…
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Isaac Stern Called him ‘Petunia’
The pianist Eugene Istomin, born in New York in 1925 to a Russian Jewish mother and Russian Orthodox father, is mostly remembered as a stellar chamber musician. Istomin, who died in 2003, anchored the celebrated Istomin-Stern-Rose trio (alongside superstar violinist Isaac Stern and cellist Leonard Rose) which is still remembered thanks to superb DVDs from…
The Latest
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Religious Israeli Teens Frequent Inappropriate Websites, Survey Reveals
Being religious doesn’t prevent Israeli teens from looking at pornography, a new survey has revealed. According to numbers released by Olam Katan, a Shabbat publication devoted to the country’s religious youth, just under 30 percent of of religious teens look at “religiously inappropriate” Web sites, while an even higher number – 37 percent – admit…
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Israel Vs. US: A Purim Music Video Battle
Apparently the world of Jewish a capella is more competitive than you think. After achieving overnight success with “Candlelight,” the Maccabeats, Yeshiva University’s all-male a capella group, is back with another surefire YouTube hit, “Purim Song” (no points for creative naming, guys!). This time, the story of Esther, Ahasverosh, Haman and Mordechai is set to…
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Dreams and Disillusion: ‘Mayn Rue-Platz’ by Morris Rosenfeld
Something happens to the human psyche when an event reaches the 100 year mark, as is the case this month with the Triangle Factory Fire. It’s as if it can finally be relegated to the “dust bin of history” or tales of “long, long, ago.” But we can choose to remember, and we can read…
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Out and About: Rodin Stolen from Israel Museum; Michael Chabon’s ‘Hobgoblins’
A new exhibit at Brandeis University displays two works by Felix Lembersky, painter of the Babi Yar massacre. Has there been an effort to downplay Anne Frank’s Jewishness? “Naked Balzac With Folded Arms,” a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, has been stolen from the Israel Museum. Husband-wife team Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are developing a…
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Eva Braun Blackface Photo Reveals Her Love of Jewish Film
Hitler’s girlfriend apparently loved a film focused on the struggle to maintain Jewish tradition. A recently released photo now making the rounds online shows Eva Braun in 1937, in an image the dictator’s mistress titled “Al Jolson and Me.” Internet chatter about the picture has focused on Braun’s use of blackface, citing it as further…
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Books Q&A: Maira Kalman on the Illustrating Life
On March 11, “Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World),” the first museum exhibition devoted to New York illustrator and author Maira Kalman, opens at the Jewish Museum. The show, which debuted in Philadelphia last summer and then traveled to the West Coast, gives Kalman’s fans a rare opportunity to see the original artwork behind her…
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Avigdor Arikha: An Artist ‘Fervent in Adhesion’ to His Subjects
In April, 2010, when the Israeli artist Avigdor Arikha (born Dlugacz in Romania) died at age 81, he was praised for his sensitive figurative art, as well as his heroic life story. In 1941, after Arikha’s family was deported to Romanian-run concentration camps, his drawings of deportation scenes, shown to International Red Cross representatives, won…
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American Apparel Exec Made Teen His ‘Sex Slave,’ Lawsuit Says
“We love AA!” exclaims the handwritten note posted on American Apparel founder Dov Charney’s personal home page from a staffer named “Krystal.” But Charney got a less sanguine message yesterday from another female subordinate: Irene Morales, a former American Apparel store manager, is suing the bicoastal schmatte mogul for making her his “sex slave” and…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
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