Rachel Thomas

Rachel Thomas OBE (10 February 1905 - 8 February 1995), was a Welsh character actress.

Born in the village of Alltwen, near Pontardawe, Glamorgan, Wales, she appeared in such classic films as The Proud Valley (1940) with Paul Robeson, Blue Scar (1949) and Tiger Bay (1959). In 1943, she appeared as Maria Petrovitch in the Ealing war film Undercover, an account of the guerrilla resistance movement in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. In 1954 she was part of the original BBC Radio cast of Dylan Thomas' radio play Under Milk Wood, playing the roles of Rosie Probert, Mary Ann Sailors and Mrs. Willy Nilly. She played Mary Ann Sailors in the 1972 film version.

She almost always played the stereotypical Welsh mother (or grandmother in her later years) and appeared on both Welsh and English language television.

In 1968 she was awarded the OBE for her services to Wales.

She died two days before her 90th birthday following a fall in her home in Cardiff.

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Rachel Thomas (skydiver)

Rachel Thomas is an Indian sportsperson, known to be the first woman skydiver from India. A former employee of Indian Railways, she is reported to be the first international woman judge from India and has the record of skydiving over the North Pole in 2002. She is known to have effected 650 jumps in 18 countries in her career since her first jump in 1979. She has been a member of the team that did practice jumps into the Olympic Stadium, Seoul, Korea, one year prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics. A winner of the National Adventure Sports Award, she was honored again by the Government of India, again in 2005, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.

Rachel Thomas is married to Thomas, an Indian Army officer and the family lives in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The couple has two children, a son, Dennis, and a daughter, Annie who is a Femina Miss India winner in 1998.

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Rachel

Rachel (Hebrew: רָחֵל, Modern Rakhél, Tiberian Rāḥēl) (Arabic: راحيل‎) was the favorite of Biblical patriarch Jacob's two wives as well as the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. The name "Rachel" is from an unused root meaning: "to journey as a ewe that is a good traveller." Rachel was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife. Rachel was a niece of Rebekah (Jacob's mother), Laban being Rebekah's brother, making Jacob her first cousin.

Marriage to Jacob

Rachel is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is about to water her father's flock. She was the second daughter of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. Jacob had traveled a great distance to find Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his furious twin brother, Esau.

During Jacob's stay, Jacob fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for Laban in return for her hand in marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride was veiled and Jacob did not notice that Leah, Rachel's older sister, had been substituted for Rachel. Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful," "Leah had tender eyes". Later Jacob confronted Laban, who excused his own deception by insisting that the older sister should marry first. He assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her. When God “saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb”, (Gen 29:31) and she gave birth to four sons.

Rachel Bluwstein

Rachel Bluwstein Sela (September 20 (Julian calendar), 1890 – April 16, 1931) was a Hebrew-language poet who immigrated to Palestine in 1909. She is known by her first name, Rachel, (Hebrew: רחל‎) or as Rachel the Poetess (Hebrew: רחל המשוררת‎).

Biography

Rachel was born in Saratov in Imperial Russia on September 20, 1890, the eleventh daughter of Isser-Leib and Sophia Bluwstein, and granddaughter of the rabbi of the Jewish community in Kiev. During her childhood, her family moved to Poltava, Ukraine, where she attended a Russian-speaking Jewish school and, later, a secular high school. She began writing poetry at the age of 15. When she was 17, she moved to Kiev and began studying painting.

At the age of 19, Rachel visited Palestine with her sister en route to Italy, where they were planning to study art and philosophy. They decided to stay on as Zionist pioneers, learning Hebrew by listening to children’s chatter in kindergartens. They settled in Rehovot and worked in the orchards. Later, Rachel moved to Kvutzat Kinneret on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where she studied and worked in a women's agricultural school. At Kinneret, she met Zionist leader A. D. Gordon who was to be a great influence on her life, and to whom she dedicated her first Hebrew poem. During this time, she also met and had a romantic relationship with Zalman Rubashov—the object of many of her love poems —who later became known as Zalman Shazar and was the third president of Israel.

Rachel (singer)

Rachel, born in Cavaillon, Vaucluse, is a French singer best known in Europe for representing France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964.

Biography

She entered a singing competition organised by Mireille Hartuch who had invited Rachel to her 'Petit Conservatoire'.

She went on to sign a contract with the Barclay Records label, and released her first (45 rmp) recording entitled Les Amants Blessés in 1963.

In 1964, she represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen with her entry called "Le Chant de Mallory", which was her greatest hit. She did not win, but scored 14 points and finished in fourth place.

Discography

45 rpm

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