Many years ago my wife worked in Chicago at Saint Mary’s all girl school which was run by a group of Catholic Sisters. My wife was an educator working with young women who were deprived of a comfortable home life and some even lived on the street and many were pregnant from illicit relationships with boys.

There was a young man who took a great interest in the Saint Mary’s All Girl School who was at the time studying to become an actor and working on several films in the Chicago area. He seemed to be intently attracted to the Catholic Church and the Sisters and the plight of the young girls in desparate situations. He was a tall, thin man with a crooked smile and very friendly and compassionate toward the Sisters and the girls and wanted to help in some way significant and so because he had some wealth growing through his acting career and access to a great deal of photo and video/sound equipment he decided to create a studio in the All Girl School at St Mary.

The young actor brought in some of the latest sound/video equipment and worked with the girls to develop entry level acting skills and enjoyed producing videotapes of the episodes then discussing the best parts with the girls and the nuns. It was obvious that he thoroughly enjoyed his philanthropy and his generosity became famous with not only the girls and my wife but also the Sisters and the Priest at Saint Mary’s and they all loved to see him coming into the school to help out.

The man’s name was Leonard Nimoy who went on to become a famous actor in the Star Trek series as Mr. Spock.

Our parish built a huge parochial school several years ago which cost a pretty penny and we were looking for donors and parishoners to help us pay the building fund cost. My wife came up with the idea to write to Leonard Nimoy to see if he would help out and sure enough about a month after we wrote to him in Los Angeles, California [Hollywood] Leonard wrote back to say hello and inside the envelope address to us was a personal check signed by none other than Leonard Nimoy [Spock] I was asked not to divulge the full amount of the check, it was considerable for Saint John the Baptist in my home town.

Leonard was born a Jew and he said he got the idea for the Vulcan hand sign used on Star Trek from the Jewish Synagogue where he attended as a boy which is in fact the Jewish sign of peace. As he holds his hand up and separates his four fingers into the shape of a “v” then says, “Live long and prosper” this is really the religious sign of peace for a Jew.

I wrote back to Leonard and told him to think about using the Catholic phrase when he makes the sign of Jewish peace which I created for Leonard which is this; “Live long and proper”.

From Jew to Catholic Leonard Nimoy is a wonderful man with a loving heart who really does care for the poor and broken hearted and enjoys giving to the Catholic Church. My wife and I devoted some special time in Adoration of Christ for Leonard and his wife Susan and sent them a holy card showing our dedication and prayers that Christ protect and reward the Nimoy family always.

Leonard wrote to us to say, “Thank you for your thoughts, they are most appreciated” “Live long and proper”.

His Christ-like sacrifice and his subsequent triumph given over his death must have tickled his Catholic sensibilities, and he isn’t even Catholic (YET).

Warren, He is my most favorite Star Trek character also, I enjoyed him more than Kirk. I would like to write Spock again to find out what tribe of Jew he came from as it had to be one of the 12 Abramic Tribes.

As Christ said to the woman who begged for crumbs, “I came to save the children of Israel”. Even though Spock is not Catholic [as far as I know] the Saving Grace of Christ has a special place for anyone who is Jew.

Your observations of Spock as playing Messianic parts is very similar to mine. I always thought he was motivated deeply by his religion in the art of acting and his profile confirms it. The part of Spock on Star Trek was created by Leonard Nimoy himself and not so much by Gene Roddenberry. Spock brought religion to Star Trek in the episode with his half brother who “healed” others by releasing their pain.

Kirk would not release his pain on that show and Spock’s half brother was consumed by a creature who they all imagined as “God”. Spock not only acted he also created, produced and directed Star Trek and toward the final episodes, many had religious overtones so I do believe Leonard Nimoy to be a deeply religious man.