Leonard Nimoy, aka Mr. Spock, Reveals the Jewish Origins of "Live Long and Prosper" Sign

Teresa Neumann : Jun 2, 2011
Adelle M. Banks - Religion News Service

He also explains how being Jewish helped him relate to his half-human/half-Vulcan character.

(Rockville, MD)—Star Trek fans will be interested to know that actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock in the original television series, has revealed that the origin of the "live long and prosper" Vulcan sign—made by separating the digits of one hand into a sort of "V"—lies in his Jewish childhood.

"I reached back to my early years as a child when I was sitting in a synagogue in Boston with my family at the High Holidays," said Nimoy recently at B'nai Israel Congregation in Rockville. (Photo: Paramount Television)

According to a report published in the Charlotte Observer, "Before the sold-out audience in suburban Washington, the 80-year-old actor re-enacted the blessing Jewish leaders recited at that Orthodox service. Prayer shawl over his head, he stuck out his hands in the shape of the sign he adapted for the TV show that ran for just three seasons in the 1960s but became a pop culture phenomenon."

Nimoy was quoted as saying he later learned that it was the shape of the letter shin in the Hebrew alphabet, the first letter of "shalom," or "peace."

Nimoy also reportedly said he related to his half-human/half-Vulcan character in the series because in Boston, where he grew up, "the Jews were a minority...I knew what it was like to be the other in that culture and therefore I could bring that quality to the Spock character."