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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Arthur Szyk: A ‘Master Illuminator’ Illuminated
I spent a couple of informative hours last Tuesday evening at “Methods of a Master Illuminator,” a new exhibit of Arthur Szyk’s art showing at the Broome Street Gallery through April 25. Irv Ungar, a dealer and foremost expert on Szyk’s work, and co-curator Allison Chang, have assembled an impressive collection of original art, prints,…
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A Jewish Mob Tour
Max “Kid Twist” Zwerbach, “Big” Jack Zelig, Monk Eastman. These aren’t the Jewish historical figures you study in Hebrew school. All three were notorious gangsters from the early-20th-century ramshackle days of the Lower East Side. And now they’re being commemorated in the “Jewish Mob Walking Tour,” organized by the Museum of the American Gangster in…
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The Tragic Visions of Author Jakov Lind Re-Examined
The Austrian-British writer Jakov Lind, (born Heinz Landwirth to a Viennese Jewish family) led a wildly adventurous life of the kind which other authors, like Jerzy Kosinski, merely invented for themselves. After the 1938 Anschluss, Lind (1927-2007) was sent on a “kindertransport” (children’s train) to Holland. There, in 1943, he went underground, posing as a…
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Jewish Superhero, Protecting the Weak
Chaim Lazaros is a real-life superhero. Several nights a week he transforms into an alterego named Life. Donning a black domino mask, fedora and skinny tie, he stuffs a backpack full of drinks and snacks, and patrols the streets of New York City while distributing the life-saving goods to the homeless. Life, 25, is one…
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Mel Brooks Moves to Walk of Fame
Over 30 years after opening our ears to the musical quality of franks-and-beans flatulence, actor and director Mel Brooks will finally receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 83-year-old “Blazing Saddles” director, will place his hands in cement on April 23. Brooks, who was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, won an Oscar…
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Rivka Miriam: Silence as Midrash
To an American reader, accustomed to individualistic poetry of Walt Whitman or the confessional writings of Silvia Plath, the recently published collection of Israeli poet Rivka Miriam, “These Mountains: Selected Poems of Rivka Miriam” (Toby Press) may seem like a deliberate insult. Throughout the collection, there is a constant sense of removal — or, perhaps,…
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Who is a better $5000 date: Stephen Sondheim or Robert Rubin?
The not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons, ever alert to finding new fundraising attractions, has decided that this year’s Online Auction — which ends April 29 — will include dinner with songwriter Stephen Sondheim, who turned 80 on March 22. The only hitch is that the leading bid so far is already $5,200.00. For bidders eager…
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A 124-Mile Jewish Relay Race
When you think of Jews and running, you might imagine Dustin Hoffman chugging along in Central Park in the 1976 movie “Marathon Man.” Or if you’re really savvy, you might be reminded of Abel Kiviat, the middle-distance runner who held a slew of world records in the 1920s. But JRunners, a new Brooklyn-based group, aims…
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Robbers Target Israel’s Past
Speak to any elderly Israeli, and one of the first things they will say regarding how the country has changed over the decades is that there has been an increase in crime. We used to leave our doors open, they are likely to say, before going on to discuss the numerous locks they have installed…
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Nancy Spero and Leon Golub: A Politically Relevant Artistic Couple
The painters and married couple, Nancy Spero and Leon Golub, epitomize the concept of engaged political action through art. The problems addressed in their works, from political torture to ethnic cleansing, are ever-more timely and unresolved. Although Golub died in 2004 and Spero last year, it is only natural that both are present in New…
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Israel’s Keshet Eilon: a Musical Center for Greats and Beginners Alike
The Keshet Eilon Music Center, founded in the Western Galilee at Kibbutz Eilon in 1990, is known internationally for its three-week Summer International Violin Master Course, a benefit concert for which will be held at New York’s Zankel Hall on April 24. Recent students at Keshet Eilon have confronted a terrifyingly vigorous teacher, octogenarian violin…
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