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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Camel Race and the Erosion of the Bedouin Culture
When Israeli filmmakers Ezry Keydar and Nadav Ben Israel began making a documentary about a Bedouin man hoping to repopularize camel races, they had no idea his cause would become their fight, too. Now, Keydar reveals, in a wide-ranging Los Angeles Times interview, his view that camels, and the disappearance of the once widely beloved…
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Forward Staffer is Named to Jewcy 100
Not to toot our own horn or anything, but our staffers are a pretty awesome. And turns out, others agree. Yesterday, Jewcy named Forward web editor and Sisterhood blog founder, Gabrielle Birkner, as part of the Big Jewcy: “A list of 100 people that we think deserve to be recognized, like The Forward 50, Time…
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Flotilla Fight Moves to Video Game Format
If the media firestorm surrounding Israel’s raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla last week didn’t do it for you, online video game developer Kongregate gives you a chance to get in on the action. Kongregate recently released a four-button, overhead-view action game aptly called “Flotilla Raid.” Players of the online game have to navigate an unarmed…
The Latest
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Mike Nichols Nabs the AFI Life Achievement Award
After the honorifics at last year’s MOMA festival and the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors, someone must have decided director Mike Nichols has not been praised enough lately. Riding to the rescue is the American Film Institute, which will present Nichols with its 38th AFI Life Achievement Award today. Nichols will thereby be placed alongside great…
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American Jewish Soccer Players Gunning For Sports Glory
As Jordan Farmer plays a steady back-up role for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals and Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler all rank in the top five in MLB All-Star voting at their respective positions – Braun, a Milwaukee Brewer, leads all National League outfielders – three other Jewish American athletes…
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Amid Cancellations, Editors Host Israeli Music Festival
Despite high-profile cancellations by the Pixies, Gorillaz and the Klaxons, the PiC.NiC music festival in Tel Aviv played host yesterday to Editors — and the band took to its online forum after the concert to call the performance “one of the most memorable shows of our career.” Lead singer Tom Smith, writing for the band…
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Books YIVO Encyclopedia Launches Online Edition
Geese were a staple of Jewish life in Eastern Europe and Jewish women knew how to get the most out of their fowl of choice. The feathers were sold as quills for writing and stuffing for bedding, fat used as an alternative to butter or the Jewish version of lard, and the birds themselves were…
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‘Keeping it From Collapse’: The Sculptural Visions of Dina Recanati
Until June 16, Manhattan art lovers will have the unusual experience of visiting a gallery exhibit by a banker’s widow who also happens to be an evolving, gifted artist. Dina Recanati, born in Cairo in 1928, married the banker and philanthropist Raphael Recanati in Tel Aviv in 1946, after which she pursued art studies in…
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Bollywood Does Eva Braun
Something tells me this will not end well. Bollywood filmmaker Rakesh Ranjan Kumar is directing a Hitler biopic focusing on the Fuhrer’s relationship with Eva Braun, to be released at the end of this year. Titled “Dear Friend Hitler,” the film takes its name from the term used by Gandhi in a letter begging the…
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Jurek Becker: Forget the Films, Read the Books
Judging any author by the film adaptations of his books is perilous, but few examples are as unfair as Jurek Becker (1937-1997), a German-language Polish Jewish writer who survived the Łódź Ghetto, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen. Becker’s most famous novel, 1969’s “Jakob the Liar” (Jakob der Lügner) still merits rereading, despite the uneven 1999 movie adaptation…
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The Best Intentions: The Culture Project’s ‘Blueprint for Accountablity’
Monday night at New York University’s Skirball Center, The Culture Project presented its sold out “Blueprint for Accountability: Rule of Law: Torture, Democracy, Privatization, Habeas Corpus,” another of their decade-and-a-half long string of attempts to mix social activism with artistic production. As Brecht and Orwell and Abbie Hoffman showed, when art and politics are united…
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In Case You Missed It
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Music Anyone who tells you that you shouldn’t meet your heroes never met Jill Sobule
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Opinion Can we say Donald Trump’s Middle East nuclear strategy is dangerous — if it isn’t even a strategy?
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Opinion ‘Israel is seen as violent’ — and Israeli chefs, once global culinary icons, are feeling the heat
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Culture As Mel Brooks turns 99, his wisdom matters more than ever
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