Theme: Judaism and Judaic Mythology

Judaism is the religious practice of the Jewish people (the only religion that manages to belong to an ethnic group, although not all Jewish people are practitioners of Judaism). Judaism essentially covers the first half of The Bible (The Old Testament), which is an ethnographic history covering the creation of the universe, Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden, Moses leading the Jewish people from the yolk of slavery in Egypt to their chosen home in the desert (Israel), the Ten Commandments and so forth. There are many different branches of Judaism and the practice covers everything from morality and social law, diet, clothing, sexuality and belief in the coming of The Messiah.

There are not many genre films that can be considered to be about Judaism per se, although most films about The Afterlife, God, Angels and Heaven are sufficiently nebulous that they can be said to apply to both Judaism and Christianity.

Judaism does lend several aspects of its mythology that have proven popular on screens. One of these is the Ark of the Covenant (which contains the scrolls of the law given to Moses). Another figure is that of Lilith, supposedly Adam’s first wife, who is often incarnated as a demonic femme fatale.

From later rabbinic teaching comes the figure of The Golem, an artificial creature of clay that can be brought to life to protect the Jewish people, and the demonic spirit known as The Dybbuk.