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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Rabbi Says Sleeping With the Enemy Is Okay For Israelis
“Valentine operatives,” “honey traps” and “honey pots” have devilishly sweet names for a reason: The phrases refer to those men and women who seduce enemy operatives to gain key information or facilitate their capture. And according to a new ruling by Rabbi Ari Shvat, sleeping with the enemy goes “above and beyond” and is a…
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A ‘Srugim’ Star’s Zionist Dream
“Srugim,” the hit Israeli TV show about the lives of five young Modern Orthodox Jews, took the American scene by a storm when The Jewish Channel began broadcasting it last February. Now in its second season in Israel, “Srugim’s” first season continues to be aired on TJC, while its latest episodes are being screened at…
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Israeli Orchestra Canceled at Wagner Festival
Crossposted from Haaretz The Israeli Chamber Orchestra’s participation in the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany has been canceled after news of the would-be historic visit was leaked. The cancellation is unlikely to be overturned. The visit was to be announced by Katrina Wagner, great-granddaughter of composer Richard Wagner, during a visit to Israel next week….
The Latest
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Pamela Anderson’s New Israeli Dancing Gig
Pamela Anderson is set to become TV’s biggest prime-time star — in Israel. The former “Baywatch” actress has signed on to serve as a guest judge and dancer on “Rokdim Im Kochavim,” Israel’s version of “Dancing With the Stars.” According to an October 4 report in the country’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper, the former model and…
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Document Shows Philippe Petain’s Influence on Anti-Semitic Policies
Little had been known about French collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain’s influence on anti-Semitic policies in Vichy France, where he governed from 1940 to 1944. But according to The Guardian, a draft of a memo, recently revealed to the Holocaust Memorial in Paris, shows Pétain went to great efforts to extend the brutal treatment of French…
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Holocaust Diary Sparks Tift
Polish officials are refusing to return the Holocaust diary of survivor Baruch Milch at the request of his daughter, Israeli composer Ella-Milch Sheriff, citing the diary as an important historical artifact that belongs to the nation. The diary provides a detailed account of the Nazi’s occupation of Poland during World War II as well as…
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Elderly Couple Placed on ‘Cabin Arrest,’ Booted From Cruise Ship After Jewish Taunts
Surliness and course language, not to mention public drunkenness, have always been a part of a sailor’s life on the high seas. But those associations tend to call to mind 18th-century pirates, or maybe Massachusetts fishermen, not East Side octogenarians. But it turns out little old ladies can swear like sailors too. Just ask passengers…
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Jewish Body Cleanup Crews’ Bitter Fight
Two groups dueled it out on Kings Highway and West Sixth Street in Flatbush, Brooklyn, slinging insults (“I’m going to cut your balls off”) and fighting over rights to a dead motorcyclist’s body. Police intervened and tempers eventually cooled, though only momentarily. This is not the plot to a new action movie. Last April, Chesed…
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Mad’s Al Jaffee’s Little-Known Ties to Chabad
One of the more shocking revelations in Mad magazine artist Al Jaffee’s biography – reviewed in the Forward last week — is the secret identities of several contributors to The Moshiach Times, a 25-year-old kids’ magazine published by Chabad. According to a post on the New York Times’ City Room blog, Jaffee himself drew the…
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Jazz Jews and Classical Wunderkinder
This autumn’s Manhattan concert calendar contains celebrations both of Jewish musical youth and age, as if offering alternating songs of innocence and experience. Experience comes first, from October 19 to 24, when Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola presents an 85th birthday party for Newport Jazz Festival impresario George Wein. Among the celebrants will be Jazz Jews such…
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Is an Ancient Menagerie Pagan or Jewish?
Though it features illustrations of a menagerie of animals that carry Jewish symbolism, an ancient Roman mosaic discovered in Lod, Israel, in 1996, is not a religious work, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the fourth-century artifact is on exhibit for the first time until April 3, 2011. According to the museum’s press…
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Fast Forward Germany formally classifies far-right AfD party as extremist, in blow to Nazi-linked populist movement
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Fast Forward Trump taps shock jock Sid Rosenberg and a Haredi newspaper publisher for Holocaust Memorial Council
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