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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Gustav Metzger: Staving Off Humanity’s Self-Destruction
The doughty old UK counter-culture artist and agitator Gustav Metzger is more active than ever. Last year’s exhibit, “Gustav Metzger: Decades 1959–2009,” at London’s Serpentine Gallery recently traveled to west-central France, where it was seen from March 10 to June 15 at Rochechouart’s Musée départemental d’art contemporain. Its next scheduled stop is in northern Italy,…
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Lady GaGa Gets the Hasidic Treatment
From the opening explosion to 360 degrees of streimels, there’s nothing less than stellar about this Yoel Brach production. Faced with, on the one hand, overwhelming demand from Hasidic partygoers to hear the mellifluous warbling of Stefani Germanotta and, on the other, the blanket prohibition on listening to semi-naked gentile women who are writhing on…
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Israel and Turkey Tensions Affect Tourism
Post-flotilla, Turkey is seething at Israel and Israel is furious with Turkey. Friction between the two nation’s politicians is higher than ever, and in both countries shoppers are boycotting goods from the other (Turkish coffee is currently having a Freedom Fries moment in Israel). But there seems to be one winner in all the tension…
The Latest
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Streisand Offered Up To $4.5 Million for Israel Performance
If anything can be had for a price, then Barbra Streisand — the best-selling female recording artist in history, who to some will always be Yentl — just might make a stop in Israel. Ynetnews is reporting that producers are offering the peerless Barb up to $4.5 million for a single performance on Jewish soil….
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Old Jews Not Telling Jokes
After the website and DVD “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” it can be a relief to find Jewish elders who are not trying to be adorable or cutesy. The publisher S. Fischer Verlag in Frankfurt, Germany has reprinted 1989’s “Jüdische Portraits” (“Jewish Portraits”), 80 interviews and accompanying photographs by Herlinde Koelbl, to go along with an…
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Israelis To Learn About American Jews in School
Growing up, American Jews spend hours learning about their Israeli counterparts. They descend on the Jewish state in droves, where they kiss the ground (and sometimes the soldiers). But – until recently – Israeli schools have given little attention to their country’s biggest fans. That’s about to change. As part of a new effort to…
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Evry Schatzman: From the Earth to the Stars
When Evry Schatzman died two months ago at age 89, France paid tribute to its “Father of Astrophysics,” one of the pioneering specialists in white dwarf stars, the solar corona, novae, and the interstellar medium. In books like 1992’s “Our Expanding Universe” from McGraw-Hill Publishers and 1993’s “The Stars” from Springer Verlag, Schatzman also focused…
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Ex-Con Jack Abramoff Works at Tov Pizza
On June 8, Jack Abramoff, the former bigshot lobbyist convicted of fraud, tax evasion, conspiracy and corruption, was released from prison and – economy be damned – he already has a job. Thanks to the good graces of Baltimore restaurant owner Ron Rosenbluth, Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, will be working at a Tov Pizza 26-year-old…
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Yiddishe Momma (No Longer) For Sale
James Doyan, A British man from North London, has done what generations of harassed Jewish sons only wish was possible: put his mother up for sale on eBay. “My Yiddishe Momma for sale. Beautiful, great cook, educated, articulate, family focused, caring — priceless,” read the ad, according to a recent article in Britain’s Jewish Chronicle….
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Montreal’s First Yiddish School
With the recent rise in antisemitic violence in Montreal, Canada, such incidents are at an “all-time high” nationwide, according to B’nai Brith Canada. Even a century ago, however, Canada offered protection to Jews’ “households and rights,” to quote the French version of the Canadian national anthem. A reminder of such days recently appeared from Les…
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Dutch Police May Dress Up As Jews To Combat Violence
In a creative move aimed at curbing a recent spike in anti-Semitic violence, Dutch police are considering dressing up as religious Jews to bait potential attackers. The idea was first suggested on Wednesday by Ahmed Marcouch, a Moroccan-born Dutch legislator who has previously taken heat for his support of liberal causes. “I say send fake…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Culture She was my Hebrew school bully — and I finally learned what happened to her
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Music Remembering Ozzy Osbourne’s Jewish vow renewal
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward The largest Reconstructionist synagogue is set to cut ties with the movement over Israel tensions
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Culture The Melania Trump Opera House won’t change hearts and minds — not even the president’s
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Fast Forward Columbia suspends, expels and revokes diplomas of students involved in Butler Library takeover
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Fast Forward Youth wing of the Democratic Party passes amendment opposing Israel’s ‘ongoing genocide in Gaza’
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