definitely would come to Michigan. •
She said Nimoy "drew 1,000 peo-
ple at the University of Texas Hillel
recently. In Florida, they gave him
standing ovations when he walked
onto the stage. I foresee no problems
with upcoming visits to New York,
Indianapolis, St. Louis and the
Washington, D.C., area."
The photos will shown Nov. 16 at
the Jewish Book Festival of the
Marcus JCC in Atlanta, deemed a
"cosmopolitan, educated, open socie-
ty" by JCC director Harry Stern.
Nimoy was traveling and couldn't
be reached for comment.
In an interview with the Jewish
News before the controversy arose,
Nimoy said he spent seven years
working on the concept of shechinah,
which he explains as God's feminine
counterpart.
"According to the Kabbalah [Jewish
mysticism]," he said, "evil came into
the world once God became separate
from the shechinah, and the shechi-
nah came to -be understood as a cru-
cial element of both divine and
human spirit, symbolizing compas-
sion, creativity and wisdom.
"Because men are uncomfortable
about the idea of a woman as God, I
focus on the unclothed female forrrl to
evoke the divine spirit that lives in all
of us. "
Nimoy's first encounter with the
shechinah took place as a young boy
with his family at an Orthodox service
in his native Boston.
"At the height of fervent prayer, my
father forbade me to look as the entire
congregation covered their heads with
prayer shawls and shielded their faces
... the shechinah was said to be enter-
ing the temple. But, of course, I
peeked, and that moment always-
stayed with me. The hand gesture I
used in Star Trek, as a symbol of peace,
came from my experience with the
shechinah," added Nimoy, who
belongs to Temple. Israel of Hollywood.
Rabbis Weigh In
"This is the Detroit area, not
Hollywood," said Rabbi Reuven
Spolter of Young Israel of Oak Park,
an Orthodox congregation. "The
book displays sexuality and depravi
ty and is not good from a moral
point of view, especially showing the
use of religious articles in the pho- .
tos.
"It's OK for Nirnoy to come here
and speak, but not about this book .
at the Book Fair."
CONSENSUS on page 27
Spock's Passion
Nimoy's nudes in tallit, tefellin spark debate
over line between art and desecration.
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
L
eonard Nimoy insists he isn't
morphing into the Jewish
world's Robert
Mapplethorpe.
Yet Nimoy, who won fame as the
ultra-rational "Mr. Spock" in the
1960s 'TV series Star Trek, is stirring
Jewish passions with his new book,
backed out of an appearance at the
Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle's
annual fund-raising dinner, Nimoy
drew 400 people to the San Diego
JCC book fair on Oct. 16.
Papers from the Seattle Times to the
Forward reported Nimoy's decision to
back out of the Seattle event after a
dispute began over his desire to show
slides and discuss his monograph.
"I expected more of an open-mind-
ed community," Nimoy said of the
Seattle federation. "I think they were
more interested in entertainment than
illumination."
Barry Goren, executive director of
the. Seattle federation, said the group
was not trying to act as some kind of
'Ayatollah Khomeini," but felt it was-
Shekhina.
The book is a collection of Nimoy's
black-and-white photographs of
women, many naked but for prayer
shawls and teffilin.
"I don't think I'm quite in the
Mapplethorpe territory," Nimoy told
JTA,.referring to the late pho-
tographer of nude figures and
graphic homosexual sex.
"I wasn't thinking ab-out pro-
fanity when I was doing this,"
he said. "I was thinking beauti-
ful and spiritual."
Yet with Shekhina, Nimoy,
71, is igniting an artistic debate
in the Jewish community over
art and censorship that echoes
the battles that swirled over
Leonard Nimoy
Mapplethorpe and other artists
like Andres Serrano and Chris
Ofili, who created controversial
n't a good idea to have Nimoy show
religious imagery.
potentially controversial slides at a
The storm over Shekhina — a kab-
balistic, term for the feminine aspect of fund-raising dinner.
"I think they're beautiful pictures,"
the divine spirit — erupted after
Goren said. "But I think they're not
Nimoy embarked on a nine-month,
everyone's cup of tea, and I thought
26-city promotional tour of Jewish
they'd be offensive to some people."
book fairs, JCCs and synagogues.
Nimoy's agent, who also represents
He defends the photos as part of a
Al Franken, got the comedian booked
longtime journey into his Jewish roots
and a trek into exploring the feminine - instead.
Goren said he then put Nimoy's
aspect of God.
In the book, many of Nimoy's nudes agents in touch with a local supporter,
Rabbi Jonathan Singer of Seattle's
are accompanied by quotes from such
Temple Beth Am. Rabbi Singer signed
Jewish thinkers as Rabbi Abraham
Nimoy for a book promotion at his
Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Abraham Isaac
Kook and biblical tales of Kings David Reform synagogue.
Rabbi Singer agreed that it would
and Solomon.
have been inappropriate to show
"I'm not introducing sexuality into
images from the book at the federa-
Judaism; it's been there for centuries,"
tion dinner, but added that it was
he said. "The Sabbath Bride is the
important to allow Nimoy's photo-
shechinah. It's always been considered
graphs to be seen elsewhere in the
a mitzvah, a commandment, that hus-
Jewish community.
bands and wives should have sex
"We have to make sure our Jewish
Friday night to usher in the Sabbath."
community doesn't become intellectual-
As reports emerged that Nimoy had
"I'm not introducing
sexuality into Judaism.
It's been there for
centuries."
ly empty and culturally frozen," he said.
Too often, Jewish art reflects a kind
of shtetl kitsch, Rabbi Singer said,
with synagogue hallways adorned only
with pictures of "old men with beards
in tallises."
Nimoy, in contrast, is "stirring up
the pot of Jewish creativity," he added.
"That Jews are discussing art — not
just ritual art — is a sign of Jewish
cultural renewal, and should be
encouraged."
For Nimoy, that journey began
when he was 8 and saw Kohanim in
his Orthodox shul in Boston split
their fingers in a "V" sign as they
administered the priestly blessing to
the congregation.
His father explained they were form-
ing the Hebrew letter shin and, by
wrapping themselves in their tallitot,
were hiding from the shechinah, whose
light was too intense for men to view.
Nimoy later used that "V" sign as
Spock's iconic Vulcan greeting on Star
Trek.
Years later, already established as a
pop culture figure, Nimoy began
studying photography at UCLA. His
works exploring Judaism and
Kabbalah blend black and white, light
and shadow, figures and abstraction.
Most of the book's 54 photos are of
nude women, many wearing prayer
shawls and tefillin. Nimoy said some
of the women — one of them is his
wife — are Jewish.
Jean Rosensaft, national director of
public affairs and planning at the
Reform movement's Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion,
agrees with Nimoy's supporters.
Rosensaft co-curated an exhibit of
Nimoy's works at HUC's gallery in
New York that runs though Jan. 10.
"To find someone deeply involved
in text study, yet who is taking this
into the form of art as midrash, it's
really wonderful," Rosensaft said.
HUC curators pored over the
images, looking to find a "middle
ground" that would not be controver-
sial, Rosensaft said. The 19 images
they chose included both abstracts and
figures, but no full4rontal nudes.
They were "the most expressive, the
most poetic and the most spiritual" of
Nimoy's works, she said.
For those who want to see all the
images, the HUC show includes a
copy of Nimoy's book in the exhibit.
Rosensaft considers the show a
"wonderful opportunity" to explore
Judaism, which she said "has always
been, fraught with the integration of
sensual imagery and spirituality," such
as the biblical Song of Songs.0
0 Si
11/1
2002
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