The Kaddish, also transliterated as Qaddish or Qadish, is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy, different versions of the Kaddish are functionally chanted or sung as separators of the different sections of the service.
Bernard Malamud was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer, about antisemitism in the Russian Empire, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role in Ancient Judaism. In Christianity, the hierarchy of angels was extensively developed in the 5th century by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The theology of angels and tutelary spirits has undergone many changes since the 5th century. The belief is that guardian angels serve to protect whichever person God assigns them to.
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration. He is known for The Cradle Will Rock and for his off-Broadway translation/adaptation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. His works also include the opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes; the Broadway musical Juno, based on Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock; and No for an Answer. He completed translation/adaptations of Brecht's and Weill's musical play Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children with music by Paul Dessau. Blitzstein also composed music for films, such as Surf and Seaweed (1931) and The Spanish Earth (1937), and he contributed two songs to the original 1960 production of Hellman's play Toys in the Attic.
Gail Carson Levine is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998.
Vayeira, Vayera, or Va-yera is the fourth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 18:1–22:24. The parashah tells the stories of Abraham's three visitors, Abraham's bargaining with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's two visitors, Lot's bargaining with the Sodomites, Lot's flight, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, how Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father, how Abraham once again passed off his wife Sarah as his sister, the birth of Isaac, the expulsion of Hagar, disputes over wells, and the binding of Isaac.
Vayetze, Vayeitzei, or Vayetzei is the seventh weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 28:10–32:3. The parashah tells of Jacob's travels to, life in, and return from Harran. The parashah recounts Jacob's dream of a ladder to heaven, Jacob's meeting of Rachel at the well, Jacob's time working for Laban and living with Rachel and Leah, the birth of Jacob's children, and the departure of Jacob's family from Laban.
Asenath Barzani, was a Kurdish Jewish female rabbinical scholar and poet who lived near Duhok, Kurdistan.
Sodom and Gomorrah is a 1962 epic film directed by Robert Aldrich from a screenplay by Hugo Butler and Giorgio Prosperi, loosely based on the Biblical reading of Sodom and Gomorrah. An international co-production between France, Italy and the United States, the film stars Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Rik Battaglia, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart and Anouk Aimée.
Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer is an aggadic-midrashic work of Torah exegesis and retellings of biblical stories. Traditionally, the work is attributed to the tanna Eliezer ben Hurcanus and his school. Modern research suggests that the text is pseudepigraphic from the Geonic period of the eighth century, written in or near the Land of Israel.
The Malachim is a small Hasidic group. It adheres to the Chabad school of Hasidic thought which emphasizes in-depth Torah study, uses the Chabad nusach of prayer, and focuses on the study of Hasidic mysticism.
Bernard Malamud’s short story "The Mourners” first appeared in Discovery in January 1955. The story was included in Malamud's first collection of short stories, The Magic Barrel, published in 1958.
Crying Ladies is a 2003 Filipino comedy-drama film directed by Mark Meily based on his Palanca-winning screenplay Bayad Luha. The film stars Sharon Cuneta as Stella, Hilda Koronel as Aling Doray, and Angel Aquino as Choleng, who are hired as professional funeral mourners by a wealthy Chinese-Filipino family in Manila's Chinatown, while they deal with their personal problems.
The Angel Levine is a 1970 American drama film directed by Ján Kadár and starring Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte, Ida Kamińska, Milo O'Shea, and Gloria Foster. It is based on a short story by Bernard Malamud about Morris Mishkin, an elderly, impoverished New York City tailor who becomes unable to work due to health problems. His wife has also been seriously ill for two years, and their situation is now desperate. The tailor's Jewish faith, or lack of it, is challenged when a man calling himself Alexander Levine enters his life, claiming to be his guardian angel. Levine says that he must make the tailor believe in his mission, or fail to earn his angelic wings.
Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition is the fifth published novel of Bernard Malamud. It is a novel in the form of a short story cycle, which gathers six stories dealing with Arthur Fidelman, an art student from the Bronx who travels to Italy, initially to research Giotto, but also with the hopes of becoming a painter. It was published in 1969 and includes stories from Malamud's earlier collections The Magic Barrel (1958) and Idiots First (1963), plus two previously uncollected stories and one previously unpublished story.
Woman Times Seven is a 1967 sex comedy anthology film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It consists of seven segments, all starring Shirley MacLaine, most of which deal with aspects of adultery.
The Tenants is the sixth novel of Bernard Malamud, published in 1971.
Magic Camp is a 2020 American fantasy comedy family film directed by Mark Waters. Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, Matt Spicer, Max Winkler, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand serve as co-screenwriters, with an original story written by Gabe Sachs, Jeff Judah, Spicer and Winkler. It stars Adam DeVine, Jeffrey Tambor and Gillian Jacobs. The film was released on Disney+ on August 14, 2020. The film was removed from Disney+ on May 26, 2023.
Tales of Malamud is the name of two, one-act operas by Marc Blitzstein based on two stories by American writer Bernard Malamud. Namely, “Idiots First” and “The Magic Barrel.” At the time of his death in 1964, Blitzen had yet to formally finish both of the operas. The project was completed by American composer Leonard Lehrman and subsequently premiered in March 1977 in Bloomington, Indiana.
