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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Ethiopian Jewry’s Journey, in Dance
On October 14 at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael, California, at a performance for 400 middle school students from six different Bay Area Jewish day schools, the members of the Beta Dance Troupe seemed to defy the laws of human kinetics. Their shoulders pulsed, their heads bobbed and their elbows flapped, while their…
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Out and About: David Mamet on ‘A Life in the Theater’; the Big Band’s Big Comeback
The once-seedy Tel Aviv suburb of Holon has become a major tourist destination thanks to its arts scene. The Milken Archive of Jewish Music has launched a virtual museum. A Jewish big band in New York’s East Village is attracting jazz talent from all over the Tri-State Region. British Jewish filmmaker Mike Leigh has canceled…
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Michael Goldfarb celebrates the Man Booker Prize win by English Jewish novelist Howard Jacobson. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences plans on giving an honorary Oscar to Jean-Luc Godard. But will they be honoring an anti-Semite? Benjamin Ivry investigates. Fifty years after his initial rise to fame, novelty songwriter Allan Sherman is as…
The Latest
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Rangers’ Jewish GM Is Conquering the Major Leagues, But Not as a Batter
The Texas Rangers’ Jewish general manager, Jon Daniels, idolized the Mets while growing up in Queens, but he always assumed his future wouldn’t include being a star ballplayer for the team. It became that much more apparent when he tried out for the freshman baseball team at Hunter College High School in Manhattan. As he…
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Scotland Honors Nazi-Fighting Polish Bear
It’s kind of astonishing that the World War II-era exploits of Private Wojtek haven’t earned greater glory. He served in the Polish army in the fight against the Axis. He voluntarily braved Nazi fire to help soldiers unload artillery shells. And the good-natured Wojtek provided “much-needed entertainment and distraction during brutal desert warfare,” according to…
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Jewish Principals of Brooklyn Health Care Company Under Fire
A stinging indictment of a Brooklyn-based home-health-care company in this week’s Village Voice shines a spotlight on its Jewish principal — and the two “wily operatives out of Williamsburg’s Orthodox Jewish community” who have apparently abetted his “routine looting of public resources.” The “misnamed” Excellent Home Care Services “has been happily pillaging state coffers for…
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Paladino’s Apology Sticks in Rabbi Levin’s Throat
New York gubernatorial hopeful Republican Carl. P. Paladino should be more relieved than distressed after Rabbi Yehuda Levin loudly, publicly — and colorfully — renounced his support for Paladino’s New York gubernatorial bid, telling the New York Times that the GOP nominee “folded like a cheap camera” in the face of backlash over remarks about…
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The Question
In his last posts, Gregory Levey wrote about late-night Middle East radio commentary and Amazon recommendations with his book. He is the author of the recently published “How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment.” His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty…
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Dueling Funeral Homes Fight Over Mandel Name
The Chicago Tribune is reporting trouble in Skokie, Illinois, as two Jewish funeral parlors duke it out in court for the use of one man’s name. It goes something like this: Service Corp. International, the company that owns the original parlor, Lloyd Mandel Levayah Funerals, is suing Lloyd Mandel himself, the former owner of Levayah….
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Journals to the Wind
Upon viewing “The 1,000 Journals Project” at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, I thought of chickens and eggs. Launched by San Francisco graphic designer Brian Singer in 2000, the project sent out one thousand, 220-page blank notebooks across 40 countries and all 50 states with the intention of fostering a global creative community…
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Did Netanyahu Predict Chile Mine Collapse 23 Years Before It Happened?
Crossposted from Haaretz Several months ago, at the 100th birthday celebrations for his father Benzion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that the centenarian had predicted the events of September 11, 2001, in the early 1990s. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu himself had predicted the collapse of the Chilean copper and gold…
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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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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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Culture Alfred Dreyfus was not the man you think he was — and the history of Jews in France is a little different too
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Yiddish World This synagogue ‘gets’ why you need Yiddish on Yom Hashoah
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