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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‘Boardwalk Empire’ Exec Dishes on Character’s Anti-Semitism
If you drown a Jew while trying to baptize him against his will, are you anti-Semitic? That was the discussion brewing in the blogosphere after the penultimate episode of the HBO hit series “Boardwalk Empire” aired on November 28. The show, set in the 1920s in Atlantic City, follows the people who run the city…
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Slideshow: Paintings That Hang in the Balance
As you stand in the Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, you can’t be sure if the figures in Joshua Meyer’s multi-layered oil paintings are emerging toward you or receding away into a complex sea of colors. That lack of certainty suits the artist just fine, as he considers his paintings to reside in “a…
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Pyramid Scheme in Be’er Sheva
Crossposted from Haaretz Before green construction became a buzz word with architects declaiming the virtues of solar collectors and styled louvers, Israeli architects had already experienced planning for an extreme climate. In the golden age of public construction — the 1950s and 1960s — the Housing Ministry initiated experimental residential projects focused on the sun,…
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Pierre Dac, a Humorist in the French Resistance
Born André Isaac to an Alsatian Jewish family (his father was a butcher), the French humorist Pierre Dac became an unlikely hero of the French Resistance. After serving in the French army in World War I and being severely wounded — his brother Marcel died on the field of battle — Dac became a performer…
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Welcome to Subway, Would You Like a Falafel?
With hummus sweeping grocery stores across the nation, perhaps it’s not surprising that a major fast-food chain is experimenting with falafel. The Subway sandwich chain has gotten into the act with its new falafel sandwich, which the company is currently testing in the Chicago area. The chain is billing the meal as a healthy option,…
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Books In the Shadow of a Saint
In her final days, in the last letter she sent home, Simone Weil reassured her parents: “You have another source of comfort.” She was referring to her niece, Sylvie Weil. Sylvie — with her myopia, pale complexion and dark, cropped hair — bears an unnerving resemblance to her aunt, and has spent her life battling…
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Books Is Buchenwald Survivor’s Israel Criticism ‘Abnormal’?
According to the Israeli government, the 93-year-old Buchenwald survivor is a liar. Decried by French embassy spokesperson Yaron Gamburg for spreading falsehoods about the Jewish state, Stéphane Hessel’s criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians apparently does not correspond with reality. “It is a literary fad which will have no affect on the real world,…
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Ukrainian Association Objects To Rights Museum’s Special Treatment of Holocaust
What’s so special about the Holocaust? That’s the question a Ukrainian association is asking after the soon-to-be-built Canadian Museum of Human Rights revealed plans that include a separate gallery for the Holocaust. According to the Toronto Sun, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) is claiming the current plan “elevates some cases of human suffering…
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Study: Being Jewish Is Good For Your Health
Being Jewish is good for your health. So says the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a newly released survey that asked more than half a million Americans about their physical and emotional health, workplace satisfaction and health-related behavior. Jews scored the highest of any religious group, achieving an overall score of 69.8, placing them above the atheists…
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Monday Music: God, the Devil, and a Couple of Sheriffs
On the new record by the Israeli quintet Fogel and the Sheriffs, Jesus packs a gun, the Pope is a woman, and the Second Coming occurs in the bedroom. One song calls the Holocaust a “soiree”; another orders a Muslim woman to “put on a burka, baby” to hide her body, from her head to…
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Step Into the Light
Crossposted from Haaretz It’s not quite clear whether Yanai Toister’s new show is a photography exhibition without any photos or a photo exhibition without any photography. Now on display at Dvir Gallery in Tel Aviv, Toister’s latest effort is the result of thoughts that have occupied him for several years now, about the way architecture…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ קורס וועגן די ייִדישע דיאַלעקטן אינעם אַלטן ייִשובֿA course about the Yiddish dialects of the ‘Old Yishuv’
דער ירושלימער ייִדיש שטאַמט פֿון ליטוויש ייִדיש בעת דער צפֿתער ייִדיש שטאַמט פֿון אוקראַיִניש ייִדיש.
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Opinion Don’t be grateful two hostages’ bodies were recovered. Be furious
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Culture Persecuted by the KGB, a Jewish master soared to new heights in the West
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Fast Forward Run for Their Lives, the Israeli hostage solidarity movement, presses on after Colorado firebombing
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