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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Bar Refaeli Typecast as Sushi Waitress in First Feature Film!
She’s been a red-carpet regular for years, but Monday marked the first time that Bar Refaeli attended the premiere of one of her own films. The Sports Illustrated cover girl, equally well-known as the girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio, celebrated the new film not in Hollywood but in Rishon Lezion, where a large crowd turned out…
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Books A Birthday and an Anniversary: A Book and Its Inspiration
On Monday, Erika Dreifus, the author of “Quiet Americans,” wrote about Jewish-American Literature as Multicultural Literature. 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: Today is a special day: It’s…
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Could ‘The King’s Speech’ Oscar Hopes be derailed by Holocaust-Themed Smear Campaign?
The Holocaust, for better or worse, turns up at the Academy Awards as often as Meryl Streep. The genocide has been so ubiquitous in recent years — in movies ranging from “The Reader” to “Inglourious Basterds” — that next month’s Oscars will be notable partly for the absence of films that address it. That hasn’t…
The Latest
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Books Canada Remembers Holocaust Role With Daniel Libeskind Monument
Daniel Libeskind’s ‘Wheel of Conscience’ in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Courtesy Canadian Jewish Congress. The ill-fated voyage of the MS St. Louis, the Hamburg-based ocean liner intended to transport 907 mostly German Jewish refugees to Cuba in May 1939, has always played a central role in early Holocaust history, and not only because it unraveled, tragically,…
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Bagels and Pigskin
They don’t look that appetizing in photos. But Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz swears that green bagels from a Canarsie bakery taste like “heaven” with a little butter or cream cheese. It’s a good thing Markowitz has a taste for the emerald-colored dough rings; Brooklyn’s Bell Bakery is producing a million of them to cheer…
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Yehuda Lancry’s Memoir Written in the ‘Ink of his Tears’
The diplomatic career of Yehuda Lancry includes postings as Israel’s Ambassador to France in the 1990s, followed by service as a member of the 14th Knesset, and in 1999, as Israel’s representative to the United Nations. Yet before these lofty responsibilities, Lancry, who was born in Bujad, Morocco and emigrated to Israel in the 1960s,…
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Ian McEwan to Recieve Jerusalem Prize
Israel will give its highest literary honor next month to Ian McEwan, the English author behind books including “Atonement” and “Saturday.” A winner of the Man Booker Prize for his 1998 novel “Amsterdam,” McEwan will accept his latest honor, the Jerusalem Prize, at the start of the Jerusalem International Book Fair on February 20. Given…
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Images of Ben-Gurion and Ahmadinejad Update Ancient Frescoes
King David is a smiling child in a red T-shirt and corduroys. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fills in for Haman. David Ben-Gurion is leading Holocaust survivors across the Red Sea. That’s the aim of the Dura Europos Project, on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art until March 27 — to present a decidedly modern take…
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Singing Yiddish Songs in Belarus
On the Yiddish Song of the Week blog, Dmitri Slepovitch writes about “Ikh vel nit ganvenen” (“I Will Not Steal”), a song he recorded in his native Belarus: I recorded “Ikh vel nit ganvenen” (“I Will Not Steal”) in Mogilev, Belarus, from Sterna Gorodetskaya, born in 1946 into the only Jewish family that got reunited…
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Writing on Faith
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree During the Q&A period of a December 1 event at the National Press Club titled “Why journalists must understand religion,” I asked Sally Quinn, founder and moderator of the Washington Post’s On Faith, if it was an advantage for reporters to approach the religion beat with insider knowledge of…
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Sun Sets on ‘Israel Horizons’
If Jews are the people of the magazine, there is now one fewer in the tribe. Meretz USA has pulled the plug on Israel Horizons, a voice of left-wing Zionism for more than a half-century. The final issue of the 58-year-old quarterly rolls off the presses this month. The periodical had already been limping along,…
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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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Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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