(WARNING:  This essay contains SPOILERS.)

New Star Trek Movie:  A Vulcan Holocaust?
by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom
May 18, 2009

Zachary Quinto as young SpockIf you have already seen the new Star Trek movie, then you know that the planet Vulcan is destroyed in an alternate timeline by a vengeful Romulan villain named Nero.  Out of six billion Vulcans, only ten thousand survive.   For longtime fans, this genocide was a real punch in the gut.  Vulcan destroyed?   Their entire homeworld gone?  How will this affect the new Star Trek future?

Yes, there is a remnant of ten thousand Vulcans left.  At the end of the movie, we are told that they have found a new planet to settle on.  Still, we must ask:  If we are now in a new timeline and all we have left are a few thousand survivors, will the Vulcans have any political influence at all?  Or will they just become a relic on a museum planet?  Spock even refers to his people as an endangered species.

Jewish historical parallels

It is well known that Leonard Nimoy drew upon Jewish history and his own experiences to develop the Vulcan culture.   So let me draw on Jewish history a bit here, too, and explore some possibilities.  Right after the Nazi Holocaust, very few Hasidic Jews had survived.  It was thought that Orthodox Judaism in general would eventually die out.   Religious Jews were an "endangered species," and one that the world was not very eager to preserve.  Historical novels from the 1950s, such as Leon Uris’s Exodus and James Michener’s The Source, assumed that Orthodox and Hasidic Jews were nothing more than outdated relics of the past, and openly disparaged their lifestyle.   Many people felt that religion in general was obsolete, as expressed through the God is Dead movement that was popular in the 1960s.  Secularism was to be the "religion" of the future.

However, this extinction of Orthodox Judaism never happened.   Instead, there was a revival that began in the mid-1970s and continues until today.  But the nature of that culture changed radically.  The Hasidic stories, traditional garb, and religious observances remained the same, but the “energy” or “feel” of the culture is now very different from pre-Holocaust Europe.  Before Hitler, most Hasidic Jews in Eastern Europe were pacifists (like the Vulcans) and non-Zionists.  Today, most Jews of all denominations are not pacifists, although there are still some Orthodox groups that will not serve in the military.  European Hasidim lived mostly in small rural villages.  Hasidic communities today are located mostly in large urban areas.  Even Jewish music is now different, with "yeshiva rock" in addition to traditional klezmer.

So I am wondering:  Will post-Nero Vulcan culture develop in a different direction, the way post-Holocaust Jewish culture did?  J.J. Abrams, who directed the new Trek movie, is himself Jewish, although it is unknown at this point whether he was consciously drawing on the Holocaust as a model for the Vulcan genocide.   Be that as it may, the parallel between Six Million Jews and Six Billion Vulcans is there.

When you consider all the Holocaust denial going on lately, perhaps this Vulcan tragedy serves a wider purpose.  Star Trek has a worldwide audience, and watching an entire civilization die on screen was totally devastating -- as it should be.  Plus, it is bound to affect the way that the Vulcan future unfolds in the new timeline.  This, in turn, provides a way to explore the inter-generational impact of the tragedy.  Regarding the Nazi Holocaust, the world at large tends to say to the Jews, "That was over 50 years ago, so move on, get a life..." But “moving on” is not so easy, because the impact of genocide can last for decades, even centuries.  Imagine being the only survivor from an entire extended family.  No parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins – just you, all alone in the universe.  That is how it was for many Holocaust survivors.  It took three generations for the families they re-established to have grandparents again and feel any sort of normalcy.  So it will be very interesting to see what Paramount does with the Vulcan genocide.  How will this tragedy affect the culture of those Vulcans who are left?  What will the new Vulcan future look like?

The importance of geography

Again drawing on Jewish history, let us look at the impact of moving a culture from one location to another.  Although the Eastern European towns where the Hasidic groups originated -- Lubavitch, Breslov, Belz, Bobov, Satmar, etc. – still exist in folklore, the Jewish communities in those towns are now gone.  The surviving Hasidic groups have retained the names of their original villages, but the new locations are very different.  The fact that most Hasidim now live in urban areas means that they are often cut off from the realities of the village life portrayed in the pre-Holocaust stories.  For example, I have been to Uman, Ukraine where Rebbe Nachman of Breslov is buried, and it is still very rural today.  This country atmosphere was reflected in Rebbe Nachman’s love of nature, his practice of praying alone in the woods, his teaching stories, etc.  But the majority of Breslover Hasidim now live in urban environments, which has drastically changed the flavor of the movement.  I am one of the very few who actually lives in the country.   I remember visiting Brooklyn a few years back and having a young boy tell me that he went to an arboretum and "actually saw corn growing!" -- something that I can see every day along the road in rural Minnesota.  We were from the same historical root but worlds apart.   "Zlateh the Goat," or any farm animal, for that matter -- is no longer part of the Hasidic experience.

My point being, that even if the Vulcans re-construct their culture on a new planet, based on old stories and patterns, it will never be the same.  Different places bring different experiences.  And they won’t ever be able to visit the physical locations of their origins, because the original planet is gone, literally sucked into a black hole (or a singularity – I’m a rabbi, not a physicist.)   There will be always stories about Gol and Vulcan’s Forge, but the actual places no longer exist.   Even if New Vulcan is also a desert planet (and we do not know this yet) there is going to be a deep sense of exile and loss.

The value of oral tradition

In the movie, young Spock beams down to Vulcan as it is being destroyed, in order to rescue the Vulcan elders.  Why rescue them first, instead of saving the physical records of Vulcan knowledge?  Because the elders carry the katras (souls) of previous sages (see http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Katra.)  This is a form of oral tradition that would be lost if the elders died.  That’s why they had to be saved first.  There would presumably be copies of computer files offworld somewhere, but the elders and the katras they carried were irreplaceable.  Also, I would imagine there are meditation techniques that are passed on through initiation that cannot be preserved in texts alone.  Certainly that is true of many forms of meditation on Earth.

Both the Jewish and Vulcan stories illustrate the value of memorizing, even in a technologically advanced age.  In the Nazi concentration camps, Jews did not have written copies of sacred texts.  But study went on anyway, taught by those people who knew the texts by heart.  There exist hand-written copies that camp inmates wrote from memory on scraps of paper and carefully hid from the guards.  There have also been periods in Jewish history, such as the Spanish Inquisition, when enemies burned the holy books.  In such times, Jewish teachings were only preserved because of individuals who had memorized them (as in Ray Bradbury's famous novel, Fahrenheit 451.)   Hence the traditional focus on memorization.  So I think we can assume the Vulcans will seek to preserve what each elder has brought with him or her in their minds.  

At the same time, there will be gaps in the knowledge, because not all of the Vulcan elders survived.  Those who died took with them the katras they carried.  But even ordinary Vulcans carry some pieces of the story in their own family histories, and these can help fill in the gaps.  I can imagine that a community-wide effort will be made to gather every bit of information about the old homeworld that the survivors can remember – much the same as the various Holocaust museums and Steven Spielberg’s oral history project are doing to record the memories of Holocaust survivors.   There have been cases where a song or story was rescued because only one single survivor was alive to remember it.   Had it not been recorded before that person died, it would have been lost forever.    So every detail, no matter how unimportant it might seem, needs to be collected and saved.  The same with Vulcan history.

Will there be a Vulcan Talmud?

In the Jewish tradition, Moses was given oral teachings as well as those that were written down in the Torah.  Vulcans, too, have oral traditions, as preserved by the elders.   But what happens when a major disaster threatens the continuity of a people's oral teachings?  The teachings then get written down.  Remember, all books were once hand written on heavy scrolls or clay tablets.  There were no mass-produced "pocket Bibles" with commentaries.  People in ancient times relied more heavily on memorization than we do today.  Rabbinical students were required to repeat each lesson 100 times until they knew it perfectly.  This oral tradition was passed down, teacher to student, in an unbroken line until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.  Not only the city was destroyed, but half a million people as well, including the major centers of Jewish learning.   Those sages who escaped gathered in a town called Yavna and began to write down the teachings they had so carefully memorized.  This compilation continued to grow over the next 300 years or so as more commentaries were added.  Eventually, this collection of knowledge became what is known as the Talmud, which literally means "the studying.”  It is a many-volume resource that covers everything from religious laws to folk remedies.  There are things in the Talmud of extreme importance to Jewish theology today, and other things that may seem trivial or irrelevant.  The sages did not make such distinctions.  They collected everything.

Will a similar process take place among those 10,000 Vulcans who survived the Vulcan holocaust?   Probably.  But there will also be changes in the culture, the same as there were changes brought about by the Jewish Diaspora (scattering).  One of the biggest Jewish changes was the substitution of verbal prayers for physical sacrifices.  When the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, people could no longer bring the animal and fruit sacrifices.  So, based on teachings about prayer from the Prophets (see for example http://bible.cc/hosea/14-2.htm) verbal prayer took the place of physical sacrifices.  This was a major shift in the Jewish worldview.   The early Christians handled the same problem by making Jesus into the ultimate and final sacrifice -- but here is not the place to get into a big Jewish-Christian debate.  The point is, major changes took place.

So, it will be interesting to see in what direction(s) Vulcan culture will grow on the new planet.  Will they continue the kas-wan survival initiation, or will the unfamiliarity of the new flora and fauna make this trial too dangerous?   Will they remain pacifists, or will they embrace militarism out of a need to defend themselves?  Will the Vulcans isolate themselves like the Orthodox Jews in Mea Shearim (a very traditional part of Jerusalem) in an attempt to preserve everything as it once was, thereby cutting themselves off from the outside world?  Or will they take the road of the Talmudic rabbis after the Roman siege, and find ways to adapt to a new era?   Or do some elements of both?  

The question of populating New Vulcan

The post-Holocaust Hasidic Jews repopulated by having lots of children -- big families are still the norm.  When asked about birth control, they point out that six million dead in the 1940s was enough "birth control" already.   Many also believe they are providing bodies for the souls of the victims to reincarnate. (Yes, Hasidic Jews believe in reincarnation -- see my FAQ on Reincarnation and the Holocaust.)

Vulcans normally have few children, and their population in the old timeline was stabilized.  Plus, they only go into pon farr (a sort of male estrus cycle) every seven years.  But it has never been clear to me whether or not they can voluntarily reproduce at other times.   It would appear from the TOS  episode, “The Enterprise Incident,” that they can at least have sex outside of pon farr.  Is there is a way to artificially induce pon farr so they can have children more often?   Since Vulcans live so much longer that Humans, they could space their children so that it would not be such a burden on the mothers.  Maybe that is the original purpose of pon farr -- to space children seven years apart.  On a desert planet with few resources, this would make sense.   But for a decimated population, it may be necessary to have children more often.

Would they marry only Vulcans?   That would probably be true if "Vulcanness" is defined only in terms of genetics.  But remember, the original Spock was very much Vulcan, even though he was half Human genetically, so "race" is only part of it.  Culture and upbringing play a large role, too. In many ways, Spock was more strictly Vulcan that a lot of full-blood Vulcans.  So, there might be more openness to marrying with other races now, if those individuals were willing to adopt Vulcan ways.  Again drawing on Jewish history, before the Holocaust it was very, very rare to have converts to Judaism, and those who did convert were often not socially accepted.  Now it is much more common and there is less prejudice.  

Vulcans by Choice?

Becoming a Jew is more like being adopted into a tribe, it is not just about religion per se, it means taking on the culture, too.  And it is not the same as an "intermarriage," which means marrying someone who does not adopt Judaism and Jewishness.   Intermarriage is forbidden in classical Judaism, because it dilutes the Jewish tribe.  But a true convert becomes a full-fledged Jew and so are his/her descendants as long as they marry other Jews.  Geneaology plays an important role, but biological "race" has nothing to do with it, which is why you will find blonde Jews, black Jews, and even oriental Jews nowadays.  

So, perhaps we could imagine Vulcans becoming more open to adopting non-Vulcans into the "tribe" so to speak.  We already know (or at least, we did know from the old timeline) that there are liberal Romulans who are interested in reunification and who were studying the Vulcan Way.  They might provide a new influx of vulcanoid blood.  And we know that Vulcans and Humans can interbreed, too.   In fact, some of the fan-produced Vulcan dictionaries actually have a word for "Vulcan by Choice"  -- yet another Jewish cultural influence!  "Jew by Choice" is the new politically correct term for a Jewish convert (as different from a "Jew by Birth.")  It started appearing in the late 1980s by people who thought "convert" had a negative feel to it (as indeed it did back then, when the older generation still felt that converts were not "real" Jews.)  This could provide a model for Vulcans by Choice.

It would seem the Vulcans will have no other choice but to accept "converts" if they want to survive, because 10,000 is not really a very big gene pool in the long haul.  The Amish, who do not accept converts or newcomers, have become very inbred and are now facing problems with genetic diseases.   European Jews, who lived in isolated communities for many centuries, also carry certain genetic diseases.  However, the recent influx of Jews by Choice is bringing new DNA patterns into the community, so that Jews have fewer such problems than the Amish.

Whatever choices the Vulcans make, one thing seems certain:  they are going to have to be more willing to talk openly about sexual and reproductive matters than in the past.  This will, in turn, have a strong effect on their very private culture.  Was that the purpose of the Spock-Uhura kiss scene in the turbolift?  Was it to establish that these "new Vulcans" are not so rigid about displaying affection?   Here, too, there is a Jewish parallel.  While the Bible is very circumspect when talking about sexual acts (with sayings such as "Adam knew his wife”), the Talmud goes into considerable detail about various sexual practices and taboos.  Non-Jews are sometimes offended by this candor, and ask how this can be “spiritual.”  But the Talmud is not about spirituality per se.  It is about the continuity of a people.   As such, it covers all aspects of society, even sex.

A more loving Vulcan father role?

In The Original Series, Spock’s father, Sarek, does not speak to him for 18 years because he disapproved of Spock going into Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy.  In the new movie, Sarek seems more supportive of his son.  Is this a change in the timeline, or is it a reflection of 2009 expectations about more nurturing father roles?

I think we need to remember that Leonard Nimoy was drawing a lot on Jewish culture and his own experience in the way he developed the original Spock.  Nimoy was born in 1931, and has repeatedly talked about how he felt like an outsider as a Jew in 1930s and 40s America.  He drew heavily on that alienation to play Spock -- in fact, this was one of the things that first attracted him to the role.  Things were very different for Jews and other minorities back then, and a "half-breed" really did belong nowhere.  So Spock's alienation fit the times.  Also, there was more expectation that a boy would follow in his father's footsteps.  Nimoy has said that his parents disapproved of him becoming an actor, to the point that his father would not give him the tuition to study acting. (See "I am Spock," p. 19 etc.)  

Also keep in mind that the supportive scene between Sarek and young Spock in the new movie occurs before Spock rejects membership in the Vulcan Science Academy.  Sarek and Amanda wanted a child,  and they knew he would be a "half-breed," so why would they reject him in childhood?  But Spock's later refusing to go to the Academy would be like the son of a Hasidic Rebbe deciding to become a rock star.  There would simply be no common ground.  So it is possible that Sarek was no longer so supportive after Spock joined Starfleet in the new timeline, same as in the old timeline.  But the rescue from the imploding planet changed things.  This is true to life, where a crisis can bring estranged family members together again.

Also, in Jewish families in early 20th-century Eastern Europe -- where Nimoy's parents came from -- it was common to totally disown children who left the faith, to the point of saying the prayer for the dead.  Spock joining Starfleet would have been anathema to the pacifist Vulcans, so this would be, in Sarek's mind, the equivalent of "converting" to another set of values.  (Which may be why Spock was so strict in his Vulcan discipline, to prove he was not abandoning Vulcan ways.)   So the idea that they did not speak for 18 years was not impossible to that generation, nor would it have seemed "abusive."  This also would explain why Spock had a half-brother we did not hear about until Star Trek: The Final Frontier (STV) -- because in that movie, Sybok really did reject Vulcan logic in favor of emotionalism, and was therefore disowned.

In The Jewish community after the Holocaust, these attitudes began to change.   There were so few Jews left, we could not afford to lose any.  Instead of writing off apostate Jews as dead, Orthodox Jews now do outreach to try and bring them back into the fold.  And that is exactly what the older Spock is saying to younger Spock at the end of the new movie -- that there are so few Vulcans left now, they cannot afford to ignore each other.  So my guess would be that it is the destruction of Vulcan that brings about the change in Sarek toward Spock.

The journey continues…

These are just a few of my thoughts about possible Jewish parallels generated by the new movie.  One thing is certain:  Star Trek is going in a new direction now.  I do find myself wondering whether any of the Jewish subtexts that Nimoy created will carry over into the new timeline with Zachary Quinto’s portrayal of Spock.  (Quinto is not Jewish, he is of Italian-Irish descent.)  In my 2009 book, Jewish Themes in Star Trek,* I devoted two chapters to the  Vulcans, where I explore parallels with 20th-century Jewish experiences, such as: the "satanic look" aspect of Spock's features and how Jews were often portrayed as "children of Satan" by Christians (especially in the pre-Vatican II Catholicism that was the norm when Nimoy grew up); the idea that Vulcan ears were a stand-in for "big Jewish noses"; The Jewish focus on intellectualism versus the Gentile focus on sports; Jewish feelings of alienation in mainstream society; how Nimoy played on these issues, etc.  This fit the 1960s very well, and a lot of it still carries through today.  

There are many other, more subtly Jewish ways that Nimoy played Spock, including his raised eyebrow and some Yiddish voice inflection (such as saying "they do indeed" with accent on "indeed" instead of the more grammatically correct "they do, indeed," with commas.)  Will all this get wiped out with new actors?   Perhaps.   Which makes me glad I wrote Jewish Themes in Star Trek when I did, so that these Jewish references are not lost in the 21st-century re-boot.   On the other hand, the new movie does give us some different themes to explore.   In effect, we are now passing the Star Trek universe on to a new generation, which will have its own issues.  Where that will take us, is anyone’s guess.

Live long and prosper!

P.S.  My thanks to the members of the Everything Trek group on Yahoo for their input on these themes during the release week of the new movie (May7-15, 2009), with special gratitude  to "April_Anastasia" and "De Baisch" for their excellent input on Vulcan culture, and "Xerix Helix" for suggesting the idea of a Vulcan Talmud and pointing out the numerical parallel between Six Million Jews and Six Billion Vulcans.   Also checkout the TrekJews group for more discussion on Judaism and Trek.
Rabbi Gershom giving Vulcan salute 
*Jewish Themes in Star Trek can be ordered in hardcover, softcover, or download at Rabbi Gershom's Lulu.com Store

See also:

Kirk's Challenge: To Make A Difference  (on Patheos.com, May 25, 2009) -- Essay by Rabbi Gershom comparing the early life of Captain Kirk with the story of the biblical Jacob.  Both start out as less than admirable characters, both are challenged to do better and make a difference in the world. 

Jewish Origin of the Vulcan Salute -- excerpt from Jewish Themes in Star Trek, explaining the Jewish and Trek history in detail, with illustrations. 

Links to more Jewish Trek articles