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Rabbis write new chapter in compromise with our Mr. Spock
By Laura Berman / The Detroit News
Leonard Nimoy was booked to go boldly where no one had gone before in 51 years.
His mission was to present Shekhina, his new book intended as "an intensely personal" exploration of "the feminine aspect of God" to the Jewish Community Center's Book Fair.
Which sounded swell to Jewish community leaders at first.
"Originally we thought the book was supposed to be about a Jewish journey," says Rabbi Paul Yedwab, of West Bloomfield's Temple Israel. "How exciting that would be to have Leonard Nimoy talking about his Jewish journey."
The excitement peaked after the book's October release -- and the discovery that Nimoy's feminine God-figures were beautiful nudes wearing ritual prayer items.
"The linking of Jewish ritual items and naked women wasn't part of the initial calculation," Yedwab said wryly.
The book's content got noticed after a Seattle Jewish group canceled his appearance at a fund raiser -- and a reform congregation hosted his slide show presentation instead.
"But Seattle was the only city that had a problem," says Nimoy's publicist, Jill Siegel. Since then, he's been to Jewish book fairs and other venues in St. Louis, Miami, San Diego and Indianapolis, among others. With no comment.
This time, a flurry of phone calls and meetings between rabbis, book fair officials, and community leaders produced the Detroit solution: Temple Shir Shalom, a reform congregation, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, will co-sponsor the free event on Thursday at 8:15 p.m.
"It was truly a Solomonic compromise," says Rabbi Yedwab, who heads the Michigan Council of Rabbis.
Meanwhile, Nimoy's trying to be a good sport but, in an interview, he displayed some irritation with the "narrowmindedness," of the Detroit community leaders. While he's happy to "get to the city and find my audience," he says he's been supported by rabbis across the country.
If the book has sexual content, well, "there's plenty of sex going on throughout Jewish history," he said. "I think the real agenda is that this book elevates women into the hierarchy and that disturbs the guys."
Raised as an Orthodox Jew, Nimoy has remained an involved Jew throughout his life, and now attends a reform congregation for family reasons -- the rabbi is his wife's cousin. He opted to use nude women in his exploration of God, he said, because "I don't know how God would dress as a woman."
And while some rabbis have suggested the book exploits women, it's been praised by many, including Jewish feminist author Letty Cottin Pogrebin whose Sekhina blurb says "every picture is a prayer."
Jim August, who heads the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and lives here, says that other Jewish communities are "stunned" by the controversy. "This area is not a cultural mecca," he observed. "The book fair is supposed to be a way to expose all kinds of ideas to the community."
"Narrow-minded and fearful," is the way Nimoy characterized the Detroit book fair solution.
The rabbis' Solomonic compromise removed Nimoy's risk-taking photographs from a communal setting shared by people of varying religious outlooks.
While neither risky nor provocative nor culturally adventurous, it is a safe -- and even logical -- resolution to a problem.
Almost Vulcan.
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