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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Why Israel’s New Oscar Entry Is a Disaster
“The Human Resources Manager” is an odd film. That it was recently announced as Israel’s entry into the Academy Awards’ Foreign Language category, after winning five Ophir Awards including Best Feature, says less about the movie itself than it does about the goodwill accrued by director Eran Riklis for more accomplished features such as “The…
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Conn. Supermarket To Retain Kosher Departments
There’s a happy ending for a kosher-food melodrama that played out in West Hartford, Conn., this week. After the local Waldbaum’s was sold by owner A&P to an outfit called Big Y Supermarkets, local news outlets reported that Big Y might jettison kosher food from the rechristened store. “Waldbaum’s Closing Creates Concerns About Kosher in…
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Next Stop, Academy Awards?
Maybe the fourth time will be a charm. Israel’s film industry handed out its top honors September 21, naming as the year’s top movie “The Human Resources Manager,” a comic drama about a Jerusalem bakery worker. The film’s victory at the Ophirs — the annual awards ceremony of the Israeli Film and Television Academy —…
The Latest
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Jews Dominate Forbes Rich List
Forbes released its annual list of 400 richest Americans on Wednesday and Jews took 30 of the top 100 spots (thanks Gawker, for doing the demographic breakdown for us). The price of admission onto the 29th Rich List was a staggering $1 billion, and, not surprisingly — as far as minorities go, at least —…
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A Yom Kippur Play From Belfast
Though Yom Kippur has come and gone, minds are still turned to the past year’s wrongdoings, large and small infractions alike. But what happens when you must evaluate your whole life? What do you apologize for? What do you regret? Whom do you forgive? These are the questions that are asked in Gavin Kostick’s “This…
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America’s Next Top Modern Orthodox Jew
It’s all fun and games until Tyra Banks asks you to give up orthodoxy. Okay, that’s not really what happened on the first episode of this season’s “America’s Next Top Model,” but what did happen had the blogoshphere abuzz over an 18-year-old Modern Orthodox Jew competing on a show known for sexy photo shoots. When…
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Initiative Gives Boston-Area Jewish Families Day School Tuition Aid
Boston-area Jewish day schools got a major boost this week — in the form of $2.1 million. For the next three years, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston will use the funds to help Jewish families send their children to one of 10 local day schools, including the Maimonides School in Brookline and the MetroWest Jewish…
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The Big Life of a Small Woman
Tearful laughter, raunchy story telling, and punchy witticisms are not the typical ingredients one expects to find in a tribute to a late literary legend. Then again, Grace Paley and ‘typical’ never met. Last Tuesday the Center for Jewish History and Jewish Women’s Archive paid homage to the poet, short story writer and political activist,…
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Did You Take Your Caffeine Suppository at Yom Kippur?
Yom Kippur is about atonement, cleansing your soul and starting anew. And since atonement doesn’t come easy, it also requires self-affliction, mostly performed through fasting. But if the fasting and the no washing and the no wearing leather shoes and the ban on sexual relations isn’t enough, next year you might try to inserting a…
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West Bank Settlements Can Now be Tracked on Your iPhone
Crossposted from Haaretz Want to know what’s happening in the West Bank settlements in real time? In addition to ‘Sudoku’ and ‘Street Fighter,’ iPhone owners will now be able to install the “Facts on the Ground” application, which monitors the expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria, created by Americans for Peace Now. “This new…
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Conservative Machzor Makes Room for Gay Jews
“His/her death left me with a legacy of unhealed wounds, of anger and dismay.” This emotional phrase describes a “parent who was hurtful.” Now it appears in a groundbreaking new High Holidays machzor whose prayers aim to include lesbian and gay Jews, for whom the words might carry even more of an emotional charge. The…
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Yiddish World How my grandparents met: a Yiddish-American romance
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Yiddish אַ טור פֿון דער אויסשטעלונג „מגילת־אסתּר אין דער רעמבראַנדט־תּקופֿה“ — אויף ייִדיש!A tour of “The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt” exhibit — in Yiddish!
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Opinion If Trump is being compared to Hitler, who was Hitler before he was Hitler?
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