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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Who is Itta Shedletzky, ‘Kafka Specialist’?
A scrum of Israeli lawyers and Swiss bank clerks crowded a Zurich bank vault recently, after a Tel Aviv family court ordered the opening of four safe deposit boxes belonging to the heirs of Max Brod’s secretary containing manuscripts by Franz Kafka. A similar crowd had already visited safe deposit boxes in a Tel Aviv…
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Mourning and Madness in the Warsaw Ghetto
The year is 1943. The place is Warsaw. The ghetto uprising has been crushed, but one man, a Hasid by the name of Yosl Rakover, is still alive, and he is busy recording his sordid tale for posterity. After recounting the events of the last few years — the deaths of his children and grandchildren,…
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Frédéric Chouraki’s Yom Kippur Comedy
France’s Frédéric Chouraki is one of Europe’s most frivolous and insouciant young Jewish novelists. Chouraki’s 2008 “Ginsberg and Me” (“Ginsberg et moi”), from Les Éditions du Seuil, is a fictional jape about Simon Glückmann, an observant young French Jew who meets and seduces the elderly American poet Allen Ginsberg in a Paris gay sauna. Hijinks…
The Latest
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Alain Elkann Remembers Mama
Alain Elkann, born in 1950, is perhaps best known for his “Life of Moravia,” in which he was the chosen interlocutor of the famed novelist Alberto Moravia.The Jewish Italian author and journalist has also published two books of conversations with the chief rabbi emeritus of Italy, Elio Toaff, “To Be A Jew” and “The Messiah…
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Clintons: Surviving as MOTB, FOTB and Converting
“If you can survive being an MOTB, being the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism seems like a relief,” Hillary Clinton quipped recently to fellow MOTB – Mother of the Bride – U.S. Special Envoy To Combat Antisemitism Hannah Rosenthal at an event honoring Rosenthal in Washington. Clinton has been taking time from Middle…
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Cartoon Rabbi vs Cartoon Shteyngart
We’ll probably be reaching Gary Shteyngart saturation soon, what with our recent review of “Super Sad True Love Story,” our forthcoming Yid Lit podcast, and of course, Shteyngart’s absurd little book trailer. But we would be remiss not to mention the new cartoon interview by Steve Sheinkin’s Rabbi Harvey with a cartoon version of Shteyngart,…
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Inbal Abergil Goes to the Movies
Photographing movie stills, where the images are essentially held captive in a confined, measured space, might seem like predictable work. Not so for Inbal Abergil, whose absorbing new exhibit, “24 Frames Per Second,” opened at New York’s Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects in Chelsea on July 15. To capture the eleven 33-square-inch images that make up…
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This Week in Forward Arts and Culture
Nadja Spiegelman interviews Miryam Kabakov, author of the essay collection “Keep Your Wives Away From Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires.” Zohar Tirosh-Polk goes to see “Hapless Holigan in ‘Still Moving,’” a collaboration between cartoonist Art Spiegelman and the modern dance company Pilobolus. Paul Buhle remembers Harvey Pekar and Tuli Kupferberg, two counter-cultural Jews who died…
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Musical Hasbarah, The New In Thing
It seems that musical hasbarah — Israel advocacy — is the new in thing, after the flotilla “We Con The World,” an angry — and some say offensive — caricature of the flotilla activists, went viral on YouTube. It’s still online here and has received more than 2 million hits. Now, a composition student at…
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The Day I Called Mel Gibson a Nazi
Long before Mel Gibson’s racist, sexist rants to girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva went public, I had been a victim of Mel’s, in a way. Gibson’s fans seem to be surprised at his transformation from legendary action hero to belligerent drunk. Yet, throughout his decadent decline — from making 2004’s “Passion of the Christ” to slurring Jewish…
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Bernard Frank: France’s Much-Missed Literary Wit
In 2006, when the French Jewish author Bernard Frank dropped dead of a heart attack while dining with a cardiologist friend at a fancy Paris restaurant, readers felt it was a fitting end for this waspish gourmet with a fine talent for conviviality. Since his death at age 77, Frank’s articles on books, gourmet food…
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