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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Books
Everything We Need to Know
On Monday, Ruth Franklin wrote about sharing a stage with Yann Martel. She is the author of “A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction.” 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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Embracing Judaism in Indonesia
A 62-foot menorah graces a mountaintop. Israeli flags flutter from taxi stands. The local synagogue shines after a government-sponsored renovation. The images don’t immediately bring Indonesia to mind. But a tiny northern outpost in the nation with the world’s largest Muslim population “has become the unlikely setting for increasingly public displays of pro-Jewish sentiments,” reports…
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Israeli Hit Sitcom ‘Ramzor’ Wins International Emmy
Crossposted from Haaretz The Israeli hit sitcom “Ramzor” (“Traffic Light”) won Monday night the International Emmy award for best comedy at the award ceremony in New York. This follows the hit show’s earlier coup of having rights for an American version bought by the Fox television network. “Ramzor” was submitted as a candidate by Keshet,…
The Latest
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Books 30 Days, 30 Texts: ‘On Being a Jewish Feminist’
In celebration of Jewish Book Month, The Arty Semite is partnering with the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) and the Jewish Book Council to present “30 Days, 30 Texts,” a series of reflections by community leaders on the books that influenced their Jewish journeys. Today, Nigel Savage writes about “On Being a Jewish…
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Don’t Donate to “Charlatans and Extremists,” Kristof Warns
Solicitations from Jewish non-profit organizations may peak during the High Holy Days, but mailboxes at American homes are now filling up with mail from every manner of charitable organization. Those groups are trying to tap into the “season of giving” spirit and nudge people to send in their tax-deductible donations before the end of the…
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Books Video: What Freedom Meant in Europe
When we talk about the Enlightenment, or the Haskalah, in Europe, we have a general historical sense that all Jews were in ghettos and then the walls came down. One day pogroms, the next Einstein, Freud and Kafka. The period of time was indeed extraordinary, as Michael Goldfarb elucidates in his book “Emancipation: How Liberating…
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Mayim Bialik Returns to TV as a Regular on ‘The Big Bang Theory’
Whoa! Mayim Bialik (of “Blossom” fame) is making a comeback. The Jewish actress and mother of two, who took some time off from Hollywood to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience, has joined the cast of CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory.” Throughout season four, Bialik will continue to play the nerdy Amy Farrah Fowler, Sheldon’s love…
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An Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration in Pleasantville
In a news year that’s brought us a fundamentalist, Koran-burning Christian preacher, pan-religious outcry against a proposed mosque near Ground Zero and threats of an exclusive Israeli conversion bill, leave it to the New York Times to celebrate the holiday season with a story about ecumenicalism. Deputy Metropolitan Editor Peter Applebome traveled to Pleasantville, N.Y….
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Books Holes
Ruth Franklin is the author of “A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction.” 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: Ah, fall — the season of hot…
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Monday Music: David Amram at 80
“There isn’t an after party because I know pretty much everyone here,” composer David Amram announced at the end of his 80th birthday celebration at Symphony Space on November 11. “I figured that with 500 of you, plus your dates, plus the 60-piece orchestra, the rest of the performers and our families, we’d need Madison…
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Israeli Students Appoint Themselves ‘Bus Police’ To Enforce Manners
Crossposted from Haaretz While students in Great Britain set fire to London to protest tuition hikes, in Israel a different kind of student protest is surfacing. No, it’s not against the scandalous “avrekhim law,” which differentiates between students in post high school educational institutions and yeshiva students. The cause that has inspired some students to…
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