JEWS IN/AND SCIENCE FICTION

(listed in the program as "Science Fiction and the Jews")

Daniel P. Dern (ddern@world.std.com)

Originally presented at the Tikkun Leyl Shavuot evening study sessions, 
Temple Reyim (www.reyim.org), May 16, 2002

(Posted June 3, 2002, after some clean-up)


* Session description (a mix of my original version and what was
put on the Reyim web site):

Although you probably don't think of science fiction as being
"Jewish," many science fiction authors are Jewish (the late
Isaac Asimov doubtlessly the best known), and many
have written science fiction with Jewish themes and/or characters.
Come get introduced.  Can some connection be made between
this and Shavu'ot?  Come fine out.

About the presenter: 

Reyim member Daniel P. Dern (www.dern.com) has been reading science fiction 
for 40+ years, taught MIT's first course in science fiction while he still 
an undergraduate there, and has published a (small) number of stories in 
sf magazines and anthologies.  In case you don't already know this, he's 
the one responsible for the hundreds of little finger puppets that have 
been handed out at Reyim the past several years.


Introductory Comments

I originally suggested this topic during a meeting of our temple's Adult 
Education Committee (which I'm on).  Next thing I knew, I was being
asked to do a short session on it for one of the study sessions for
Erev Shavuos (in parallel with several other sessions by fellow
congregation members).

I confess to having felt ambivalent.  On one hand, I don't feel I know
that much about the topic; on the other hand, having read science fiction,
for the past forty years, the odds were I knew something, and certainly
more than most of my fellow temple members, most likely enough for a 
half-hour session.  (If the session were being done at a science fiction
convention, I'd probably have been more likely to suggest other people
who knew more about this.)

So I started making notes and, of course, searching the Web, plus, belatedly,
asking Bobbi Fox, my SO, who knows lots of things I don't, and who follows lots
of on-line discussions and reports about science fiction and about Judaism.

Intriguingly, my Google searches on combinations of "Judaism" "Jews" "Hebrew"
and "science fiction" "sf" "fantasy" etc. turned up surprisingly little.
Either a lot of the information isn't indexed, or there isn't as much out
there as I would have expected.  (Or both.)  If nothing else, it's my hunch
that there's therefore grist and fodder out there for a fair number of
graduate students in the appropriate fields.

What follows are my working notes, emended by some after-the-fact thoughts
and some additional clean-up.

Note: For the session, I put together what is arguably a 
"Jewish science fiction beanie hat"

(See Picture)


* QUICK DEFINITIONS:

SF, Science Fiction, fantasy, science fiction & fantasy, etc.:
(For purposes of simplicity and convenience, "sf" here includes both 
"science fiction" and "fantasy.")

1) What science fiction readers read when they're reading science fiction 

2) The books in the SF section of the library, bookstore, etc.

3) All that Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings,
Planet of the Apes, Aliens, RoboCop, Close Encounters kind of thing

4) The intersection of knowledge and the human heart.

5) Books by Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven
and all those folks.  Books with rocketships, aliens, flying saucers,
unicorns or dragons in/on them.


Aspects of "Jews," "Judaism," "Jewish" under consideration:

- People -- authors, also readers/community
- Themes/topics, plots, characters, locations, etc
- Jews, New Yorkers, Yiddish
- Vocabulary, style, phrasing, timing


* Israel as Origin for SF?

(Found on the web:)

Israel as the Birthplace of Science Fiction: Science Fiction was born 
in what is now Israel, in the 3rd Century B.C., with the Apocryphal 
Books of Enoch.  These star a biblical hero traveling in space and 
time in search of the essential secrets of the cosmos and creation.
In response, Hebrew writings contained a proliferation of 
cosmological/biblical fictions which may have influenced Olaf Stapledon 
two millennia later (according to librarian/SF historian Eli Eshed,
in "Locus", Oct 1996,


* PEOPLE

Some Jewish science fiction authors, et c.

Isaac Asimov
Michael Burstein
Jack Dann
Avram Davison
Harlan Ellison
Esther Friesner
Isidore Haiblum (The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders)
Ellen Kushner
Barry Malzberg
Robert Sheckley
Robert Silverberg
William Tenn
Jane Yolen

Science fiction authors who've written about Jews/Jewish topics:

Orson Scott Card


Some Jewish authors who have written science fiction:

Woody Allen
Bernard Malamud
Marge Piercy
Isaac Bashevis Singer

Some Jews in media SF:

Richard Dreyfus
David Duchovny
Carrie Fisher 
Leonard Nimoy
Rod Serling
William Shatner
Steven Speilberg


* Similaries between Judaism and Science Fiction
(including SF "fandom"): Both have

- holy texts 
- prophets
- holy days
- rituals
- words, language(s), slang
- publications
- songs
- liturgy
- sects/branches
- ghettoized
- hats

* Jewish themes, topics, characters, etc.

Popular Jewish/Biblical themes in SF, including:

- Creation of the universe, Adam & Eve
- The flood
- Moses, the Exodus
- the Golem of Prague
- the Wandering Jew

Jewish characters - often, teachers, scientists, engineers, sometimes
rabbis.  Isaac Asimov said: "All my characters are Jewish."  (Most notably,
the Merchant Princes in FOUNDATION?)

SF has also helped raise/address some of the new questions
re Jewish practices and observances, often in advance of the real thing,
e.g.,
- How often must an orbiting astronaut pray
- Can a robot, android, computer convert to Judaism?
- Can an alien be a Jew?
- Cloning
- "Immortality"
- Are there limits to what we can or should do with science
- Are there moral concerns within science?


* Recommended reading

Wandering Stars, More Wandering Stars
 (NOTE: I've donated copies of these to Reyim's library)
 (URLs and other info below)
 
Books by Avram Davidson


* The RECEIVING Rather than The GIVING

Just as we read and reread the Torah on a daily basis -- and
learn new things, often ask new questions each time we read it,
the same is often true of other things we read, such as science fiction;

E.g., when I read Have Space Suit Will Travel, I related more to
the teenager.  Rereading it as an adult, with a parental perspective,
I see different things there.

* CONCLUDING THOUGHTS, IF ANY.

Harder questions?

Why do Jews like SF
- Protagonists are often thinkers and/or underdogs
- "   often are exiled, or going on long journeys
- we're used to alienation
- we're used to looking to the future
- we read a lot, so we need as much as possible available
 

Question for future thought: Is SF a useful tool for Jewish inquiry?  

* SOME URLS FYI

The main anthology I mentioned:

	Wandering Stars, edited by Jack Dann
	http://www.jewishlights.com/books/059.html
	272 pp., Quality Paperback
	ISBN 1-58023-005-9 $16.95

and its "sequel"

	MORE WANDERING STARS
	An Anthology of Outstanding Stories of Jewish Fantasy & Science Fiction
	http://www.jewishlights.com/books/636.html
	192 pp. Quality Paperback
	ISBN 1-58023-063-6 $16.95

Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy
http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/jewishsf.html

Jewish Identity in Science Fiction/ Fantasy
http://home.earthlink.net/~michaelexisg/jew_id_paper.html

Do They Keep Kosher on Mars: Judaism in SF
(a panel at the 2001 World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia, PA)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/milphil.htm#kosher

Jewish Alternate History
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/jewishah.htm

Science Fiction/Fantasy Authors of Various Faiths
http://www.adherents.com/lit/sf_other.html

	
Jewish astronaut asks when to mark the Sabbath
(From the National Post Online, May 27, 2002)
http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020527/351533.html&qs=rabbi%20astronaut

Some Jewish/Hebrew/Israeli names and stuff (badly formatted!)
http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/countriesDJ.html#COUNTRIES-ISRAEL



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