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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Israeli Newspaper Bashes Clinton Wedding
Still kvelling about Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, complete with keutba and tallit? Well the Israeli newspaper Yated Neeman wants you to stop. The ever-earnest Yated Ne’eman never runs items on celebrities – it is one of the two rabbinically-endorsed newspapers of Israel’s Haredi community. But when it came to Chelsea, it made an exception. “We were…
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Bungalow Days in Rockaway
The debut screening last week of Jennifer Callahan’s hour-long documentary “The Bungalows of Rockaway” at the Museum of the City of New York opened with an informal poll: How many people in the audience either grew up in, or owned a home in the Rockaways? About a third of the crowd raised their hands, and…
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Hey, Rabbi: The Catskills Called. They Said They Miss You.
Dear Rabbi: Thanks for the double-bar-mitzvah Saturdays, the two-shift High Holy Day services, the grief counseling, Hebrew school teaching, Torah study leading, hospital visiting, song leading and sermon writing, but seriously now — do us both a favor: Take a vacation. An article in the New York Times reports that recent research has shown the…
The Latest
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Books Susan Shapiro’s Book Becomes a Book Mitzvah
Last night, Susan Shapiro’s latest novel, “Overexposed” (St. Martins, August 2010), was “Book Mitzvahed” in an elaborate and touching candle lighting ceremony at Greenwich Village’s Arte Restaurant. A hilarious book about the intertwined lives of two women who are battling big-city ambitions, “Overexposed” took 13 years to be published. In the interim, Shapiro published successful…
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Producers Plan To Dispute Holocaust Film’s R Rating
What does a new Holocaust documentary have in common with “The Kids Are All Right,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “Predators”? An R rating, according to the Classification and Rating Administration of the Motion Picture Association of America. Yesterday’s New York Times reports that “A Film Unfinished,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance…
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Café Culture in Weimar Berlin
In the 1920s, Yiddish was more than just a lingua franca for East European Jewish émigrés; it was also a language of high culture, as demonstrated by a brilliant new book, “Yiddish in Weimar Berlin: At the Crossroads of Diaspora Politics and Culture” (Legenda Books), edited by New York University Yiddish scholar Gennady Estraikh and…
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Brooklyn’s Brand-New 97-Year-Old Music Sanctuary
Michael Winograd is mostly known as a star klezmer clarinetist, as well as for his multi-instrumental work with bands such as Yiddish Princess and Xylopholks. But this October Winograd, together with percussionist Richie Barshay, will don a different hat as the curator of a new acoustic music space in Brooklyn, Ditmas Acoustic. The venue is…
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A Judge’s Mixed Ruling on Israel’s Cat Problem
It’s as divisive as the “are you a cat or a dog person?” question in America. Every Israeli has an opinion on the hundreds of thousands of ownerless cats that wander the country, rummaging through garbage and screeching at all hours. Now the courts are getting involved. In a precedent-setting ruling a judge has just…
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A ‘Degenerate’ Composer at Bard
Franz Schreker, an Austrian composer of Jewish descent who was hounded to an untimely death by the Nazis, has long been considered an unjustly forgotten genius. In recent years, however, Schreker’s works have received some long-overdue attention. In 2005 American music director Kent Nagano conducted a darkly impressive revival of Schreker’s 1918 opera “The Marked…
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The Rant as Jewish Art Form
There is a plastic rooster and a frog to the left, and the hind legs of two brown horses to the right. It’s a spooky old merry-go-round, set against a yellow backdrop, and crowned with an appropriately morose title: “Sitting Shiva For Myself.” Welcome to Renee Blitz’s latest poetry collection (Regent Press), the underrated gem…
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Chelsea’s Ketubah (and Her Dress)
Check out Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky’s ketubah, the groom’s tallis — and, of course, the bride’s dress.
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