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’s Comments on Jews Met With Tepid Responses
It’s hard to decide what’s more disturbing — yesterday’s race-baiting comments about Jews from a board member of Germany’s central bank, or the tepid responses from almost all quarters of the German establishment. According to today’s New York Times, Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin told an interviewer that “all Jews share a particular gene [that]…
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A Sweet New Year
Stacey Ballis’s newest book, “Good Enough to Eat,” will be available September 7. 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: When people ask me what I love most about…
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Interfaith Freshman Frolics Fail to Inspire or Amuse
Oh to be a freshman once again! To run down to the dining hall for some afternoon munchies, to study long into the night, to be young and reckless and unfamiliar with everything! Were we ever that naive? Were we ever that unprepared? Were we ever that confused? Yes, we were. And thanks to the…
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When Hitler Became a Hipster
Did you ever wonder when someone would come along and make fun of Hitler and hipsters in the very same web comic? Well, wonder no more. Hilarious? Offensive? Hilariously offensive? Tell us what you think in the comments.
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At Long Last, Montreal Gets a Jewish Music Festival
Montreal is a city with a packed music calendar. From the Montreal International Jazz Festival to Pop Montreal to Francofolies, the city has something for every kind of fan. While Jewish bands and artists have cropped up at all of these events, until now the city has been missing its own full-fledged Jewish music festival….
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Australia School Apologizes for Hitler Costume Prize
Here’s a twist on Hitler Youth. A Western Australian Catholic school has been forced to apologize for handing a costume prize to a pre-teen boy dressed as Adolf Hitler. A class of 9- and 10-year-olds at a Perth school “had been asked to dress up as famous people,” the BBC reported Friday. The boy’s winning…
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Benjamin Ivry retrospects to the work of surrealist painter Felix Nussbaum. Philologos unpacks the reference to Cordoba in “Cordoba House.” Joel Schalit sends a letter from Berlin about living in “Eurabia.” Jerome A. Chanes reads Robert Alter’s reading of the King James Bible. Forward Editor Jane Eisner reviews Sharon Pomerantz’s debut novel “Rich Boy,” a…
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Chabad Hits the Streets for Facebook Votes and Cash
A few weeks ago, while walking past the fountain at Lincoln Center, a young Lubavitch teenager approached me with a laptop in his hands. He asked if I had a second to vote for his school on the Kohl’s Cares for Kids Internet contest, in which the department store chain is giving away a total…
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Jewish Hospital Live Tweets Hand Transplant Surgery
Doctors at the Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center in Louisville successfully performed a double-hand transplant earlier this week. As Med City News reported, it was the third double-hand transplant (that’s right: the patient got two new hands) in the U.S. and the first ever to be live-tweeted. The surgery began at 7pm on Tuesday and…
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Iran Declares War — On Pets
Dogs may be man’s best friend, but they have now been added to Iran’s ever-growing list of enemies. This week, the Los Angeles Times reported, a powerful Iranian cleric issued an anti-pet fatwa. Pets have become increasingly popular in Iran, but the fatwa cites Islamic texts that classify dogs as unclean. The same cleric, Ayatollah…
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German Ballerina Spy Blamed by M15 for WWII Defeat
The ballerina with an alias! The landlady with a weak heart! A mystery agent called “von Finckenstein”! In a movie script, it would sound so bad it’s good. But these are real characters in once-secret Word War II files from Britain’s M15 spy agency released this week by the UK’s National Archives. A former ballerina…
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