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The Schmooze

Out and About: J.D. Salinger’s Favorite Burger; Talmud in Italian

  • J.D. Salinger was a fan of Burger King, according to letters by the deceased author released today.

  • Forward contributor Sarah Wildman writes in Slate about the “Hitler and the Germans” exhibit at the German Historical Museum in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

  • Google has partnered with Yad Vashem to provide access to the museum’s documents and allow the public to fill in missing information.

  • Anne Applebaum writes about “The Way Back,” the first Hollywood film about the Soviet Gulag.

  • The Denver Museum of Contemporary Art is exhibiting a collection of Russian avant-garde paintings discovered in an “unclaimed shipping container in German customs.”

  • A collection of Leonard Cohen’s home videos and concert footage is up for sale.

  • A new biography of Ernest Gellner shows how the philosopher “regarded his Jewish identity as an obstacle to be overcome rather than an inheritance to be cherished.”

  • A book of responsa by influential German rabbi David Zvi Hoffman has been republished, with a previously censored responsum re-instated.

  • A collection of short profiles pays homage to Europe’s Reform rabbis.

  • The Talmud is being translated into Italian.

  • Evan R. Goldstein, an editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education, has been named the new editor of Arts and Letters Daily following the death of the website’s previous editor, Denis Dutton.

  • Sociologist and public intellectual Daniel Bell and German filmmaker Bernd Eichinger, director the Hitler biopic “Downfall,” have died.

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