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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German Police Shut Down Neo-Nazi Radio Station
How many German police officers does it take to shut down one neo-Nazi radio station? More than 270, according to the BBC, which reported this week that authorities arrested 23 people suspected of involvement in a hate-mongering, far-right Internet broadcasting operation. Widerstands Radio — the name means “resistance” — had been under investigation since October…
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Canadian Drug Store’s Removal of Magazine Stirs Debate on Anti-Semitism
The Anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters accused the Canadian Jewish Congress Tuesday of successfully lobbying Canadian drug store chain Shoppers Drug Mart to put a halt on all future sales of the bi-monthly publication. Adbusters’ current issue, still on shelves, features a photo essay, titled “Truthbombs on Israeli TV,” which pairs an image of Nazi destruction of…
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An Electric Simcha With Omar Souleyman
Omar Souleyman is a singer from Hasakah, Syria, who plays a techno-ish version of dabke, an Arabic folk music usually heard at weddings. He performs in a red-and-white checkered keffiyeh, dark glasses, and a moustache. Not the most likely artist to take the American hipster-indie music scene by storm, you say? Think again. Now on…
The Latest
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Busted: Cabbie Littered NY Streets With ‘Kill Jews’ Notes
Not content with tossing mundane litter like cigarette butts or gum out his car window, Demetrios Apolonides decided to jazz up his trash with notes that read “kill Jews.” Unfortunately for him, the police caught his trail; the former Brooklyn livery driver was arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge of aggravated harassment, according to…
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Tel Aviv: ‘The San Francisco in the Middle East’
“Tel Aviv is the total flipside of Jerusalem, a modern Sin City on the sea rather than an ancient Holy City on a hill.” In its 2011 list of the world’s top 10 cities, Lonely Planet, the world’s largest travel guidebook series, has pinpointed what many tourists to Israel knew already. Israel has a dichotomous…
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Books Making Kosher Food Is an All-Night Affair
Earlier this week, Sue Fishkoff wrote about watching a goat get slaughtered and people who only keep kosher on holidays. She is the author of “Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.” Her blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish…
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30 Days, 30 Texts: ‘Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number’
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, Rachel Brodie writes about “Prisoner Without a Name,…
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May You Be Like Jerry and Like Joseph
Yesterday I was watching Nightly News with Brian Williams and was surprised to see that Sparky Anderson got a five-minute tribute but Jerry Bock, the beloved composer of “Fiddler on the Roof,” didn’t get a mention. I have a personal stake in this, as I write musicals and often worry about posterity. Mr. Bock leaves…
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Helena Rubinstein’s Face Cream and Chutzpah
In the world of beauty, Helena Rubinstein is still a legend, yet the details of the tycoon’s life, from her birth as Chaja Rubinstein in the Jewish Kazimierz district of Kraków, to her death in her mid-90s in 1965, are comparatively little-known. A new biography from Les éditions Grasset in Paris, “Helena Rubinstein: The Woman…
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The Messiah Cut-Up
Each Thursday, The Arty Semite features excerpts and reviews of the best contemporary Jewish poetry. This week Jake Marmer writes about the surrealist dialogues of Adam Shechter and Daniel Y. Harris. The family of Jewish Surrealists and Dadaists is extensive, ranging from Dada’s founding poet Tristan Tzara, to French filmmaker Nelly Kaplan, to American media…
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All Treats, No Tricks, at Matt Darriau/Katie Down Wedding
It was no run-of-the-mill Halloween-themed wedding when Jewish musical royalty married on Sunday, October 31st. The bride, Katie Down, is a sound artist, composer, performer and sound designer, and her groom was Grammy winner Matt Darriau, of Klezmatics and Paradox Trio fame. The couple met three years ago at Barbes, a Park Slope bar and…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish מחשבֿות פֿון אַן אַהיים־געקומענעם (אַ מלחמה־טאָגגבוך)Reflections of a soldier after returning home (a wartime diary)
דער מחבר איז אַ סטודענט אינעם ירושלימער העברעיִשן אוניווערסיטעט, אינעם צווייטן יאָר ייִדיש־לימוד
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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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News At Harvard, reports on antisemitism and anti-Palestinian bias reflect campus conflict over Israel
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Opinion Is JB Pritzker’s very Jewish toughness the key to fighting Trump?
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