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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Jewish Photos Laced With Gold
In the world of Jewish museums and art collections, there is no more iconic landscape than Jerusalem. But how many ways can one see the Dome of the Rock, the Old City gates or the shuk at Mahane Yehuda before they become static tropes? With such a heavily charged backdrop, photography of Jerusalem often devolves…
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Books Jewish Children’s Ephemera Where You Least Expect Them
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Princeton’s Cotsen Children’s Library is justly celebrated for the range of its holdings, the imaginative reach of its curators and its stimulating conferences, like the one I had the good fortune to attend just the other day, which explored the ephemera — the stuff — of childhood. From its…
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Books ‘Obama’s Secrets’ at the Jerusalem Book Fair
Crossposted from Haaretz The Jerusalem Book Fair may be the only place where you can get from Russia to India via Angola. With a maze of stands representing publishers both local and foreign (this is Angola’s first showing at the biennial convention) you’ll need a GPS to find your way around, or at least a…
The Latest
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Sounds of Chutzpah on CD for February
Sometimes music achievement is directly associated with a degree of chutzpah. Generations have been moved by the stirring 1881 setting for cello and orchestra of “Kol Nidre” by Max Bruch, especially as performed with granitic Old Testament authority by Pablo Casals on Emi Classics. Only an audacious composer would dare to rival Bruch’s achievement, as…
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H&M Gets Tallit-Chic
We wouldn’t recommend wearing this to synagogue if you want to stand out. Recently we were taken aback when we saw this poncho in the window of retailer H&M (could it stand for Haim & Moshe?). Now we’re left wondering if this will set off a new Tallit-chic trend. Will H&M start carrying kippot next?…
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Why Matisyahu Is More Interesting Than His Music
Last week on an adorable TMZ segment, former Degrassi child actor and current ubiquitous pop radio presence Drake called himself “one of the best Jews to ever do it,” where “it” presumably meant spitting lines. Conveniently timed to coincide with the release of his new album, “Live at Stubb’s Vol. II,” peyot-sporting rap-reggae-pop singer Matisyahu…
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On NCIS, the ‘New Jew’ Is Much Like the Old
I can’t help but think that NCIS officer Ziva David is not what Max Nordau had in mind when he developed the concept of Muskeljudentum (Muscular Judaism). Living in an environment of anti-Semitic discourse that saw the Jewish male as sickly and weak, Nordau advocated a physical Judaism that would challenge anti-Semites by carving a…
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Slices of Sderot Life — and Death
Crossposted from Haaretz There is a lot of festivity in the family scene that opens the film, “Edges.” Three of the brothers are smiling; another, who looks ill, congratulates his mother on her birthday; and the person holding the camera, director Tal Avitan, asks everyone to say something to Mom. But the joy does not…
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Philologos wakes up and ponders his identity. Vladislav Davidzon evaluates the continuing influence of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets. Ed Rampell goes to see “Mlle. God” by Nick Kazan, son of famed director Elia Kazan. Benjamin Ivry revisits the work of Italian Jewish painter Carlo Michelstaedter. Allan Nadler contests the notion that the tradition of Jewish secularism…
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Mon Semblable, Mon Père: Likenesses Found on the Lindon Tree
The French Jewish publisher Jérôme Lindon, who died in 2001 at age 75, introduced such authors as his friend Samuel Beckett and the 1950s Nouveau Roman (new novel) school, including Nathalie Sarraute and Claude Simon through his Les Éditions de Minuit. Growing up as Lindon’s son is the subject of an elegant new memoir by…
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Friday Film: Phil Ochs Finally Gets His Biopic
Last month, fans of 1960s singer-songwriter Phil Ochs got some long-delayed gratification when the film “Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune,” directed by Kenneth Bowser, opened in limited release at New York’s IFC Center. With reviews ranging from good to excellent, the movie is now scheduled for runs at 57 theaters nationwide. Aficionados are optimistic…
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Film & TV In Jerusalem, everything is political — even the stone architects used to design the city
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