 MONTREAL — If a little Jewish boy in Boston circa 1940 had not disobeyed his father and peeked during the High Holidays, the world might never have become acquainted with the “Vulcan” greeting of joining two fingers to form a V on each hand.
Actor Leonard Nimoy, aka Spock, dons a tallit during an appearance at a Combined Jewish Appeal function. [Howard Kay photo]
Actor Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s enigmatic humanoid Spock, told a major Combined Jewish Appeal event last week that it was indeed he who suggested to the 1960s television series’ director that this ancient Jewish ritual be part of the character.
It first appeared in the episode when Spock returned to his home planet to wed his betrothed. Nimoy thought Vulcans should have a distinctive gesture of welcome.
The only hitch was that Jewish actress Celia Lovsky, playing his bride, could not get the hang of simultaneously separating her fingers, and some sleight of hand had to be introduced to make it work, he said.
To the delight of his audience, which included more than a few die-hard Trekkies, Nimoy pulled a tallit out of a bag and put it around his shoulders. He then demonstrated what he had seen as a boy in synagogue and placed the prayer shawl over his face, raised his two hands in the sign, and chanted in the fervent, if somewhat off-key, manner the blessing of the kohanim, as he remembered it from all those years ago.
That V actually stands for the Hebrew letter shin, the first letter of one of the names of God, he explained. “I practiced that gesture for a long time as a kid. I never thought it would come in handy some day… To this day people everywhere I go greet me with it.”
A master storyteller, Nimoy, 77, spoke at length about his life, his attachment to Judaism and family, and what it was like to play one of the most fascinating characters on TV (and later in movies).
He came across as warm and humble, a little abashed by the introduction by McGill University astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi, who described Spock as her hero along with Golda Meir, although at 41, she is too young to have seen the original Star Trek series when it was first broadcast. She came with a pair of pointy ears in hand.
Nimoy said the Spock role felt right for him because growing up in “such a Catholic city” as Boston and in a neighbourhood that was 75 per cent Italian, he felt like an outsider, if not an alien.
He was born into a close-knit, Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrant family. His father was a barber, and three generations lived in a two-bedroom, third-floor walk-up.
Despite their poverty, tzedakah was a part of daily life, he said, and the concept “became a part of my being.”
At one point, Nimoy recited a Yiddish poem by Itzik Manger to convey the bond he felt with his mother.
His parents, however, were not thrilled when he left home at 18 for Los Angeles to become an actor.
Despite its huge popularity and the conviction of many fans that the science fiction series was inspired by Jewish values, “my folks never did understand what Star Trek was all about.”
He said they finally did “shep naches” when, after the series ended, he toured in a production of Fiddler on the Roof, in which he played Tevye.
In 1987, Nimoy visited the shtetl in western Ukraine where his parents had come from and had an emotional reunion with distant relatives.
Nimoy spent 16 years in Hollywood taking minor TV and movie roles, and sometimes driving a taxi, before he landed a leading part in Star Trek, which debuted in 1966.
“In a short time, Spock became enormously popular, which was a surprise, because NBC did not want the character up front. Spock was devilish, and they felt viewers in the southern Bible Belt might not want him in their homes,” he said.
Much to his surprise, Nimoy quickly became a sex symbol.
“People often ask if Judaism was part of Star Trek,” he said. “The answer is definitely yes. Education is a Jewish value, and all of the members of the Starship Enterprise were highly educated, and so are individual dignity and social justice, which were a big deal in Star Trek.
“As a Jew, I had a strong sense of comfort with the series. I felt at home.”
To Nimoy, Spock was “the classic Diaspora” character, because he was living far from his ancestral home and never completely fit in either on planet Vulcan or on Earth, because he was half-human and half-Vulcan.
“Only on the starship does he feel accepted, because it is a meritocracy. I totally identified with that.”
Nimoy suggested the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, the theme of the 2008 CJA campaign, underpinned the show because the crew was always going off to help others.
After Star Trek, Nimoy played Morris Myerson, the hapless husband of Golda Meir, in the TV film A Woman Called Golda in 1982, a role he initially was not keen on until he found out he would be playing opposite the great Ingrid Bergman. Bergman was already ill with cancer and would die a few months later.
Nimoy took a few questions, and when asked by ardent Trekkie and Spock fan Sheryl Halpern, who grew up with the series, if he had brought anything else Jewish to his role besides the hand greeting, the actor replied, “one word – neshamah” –Hebrew for soul.
|
