The new novel King of Shards by Matthew Kressel draws on centuries of Judaic myth about creatures like golems, dybbuks, and demons. In the course of his research, Kressel discovered that much of modern science fiction has Jewish roots. For example, when actor Leonard Nimoy invented the Vulcan salute, he was inspired by a two-handed gesture he’d seen at a Jewish ceremony.

“He suggested the one-handed priestly blessing,” Kressel says in Episode 172 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “And that entered into pop culture history.”

Another example comes from the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Paul Atreides is the superhuman “Kwisatz Haderach,” which Herbert defined as “the one who can be many places at once” and “The Shortening of the Way.” This was clearly inspired by the Jewish concept of “kefitzat ha-derekh,” also defined as “The Shortening of the Way,” a mystical power that supposedly allowed 18th-century rabbis to travel great distances.

“In my research I was unable to find where Frank Herbert heard that reference and then used it in Dune,” says Kressel. “But it’s very obvious. I mean, it’s almost the same word and it’s the same definition, so he must have come across the story at some point.”

Despite the Jewish roots of much science fiction, the field wasn’t always welcoming to Jewish writers. Wandering Stars, a 1974 anthology of Jewish science fiction edited by Jack Dann, was a big step forward. In the introduction, Isaac Asimov discusses the many Jewish writers who adopted pen names in order to hide their identities.

“It didn’t seem to be a problem for me,” says Dann, “but the generation before, which would have been Isaac’s generation, you didn’t mention that you were Jewish.”

A more recent anthology of Jewish science fiction is People of the Book, edited by Sean Wallace and Rachel Swirsky. Swirsky says that Jewish writers have had a far-reaching impact on the field, influencing everything from Superman to werewolves.

“I found an essay about werewolves often being used as metaphors for Jewishness,” she says. “Because again, you’re trapped in that liminal space, neither one thing or another. You can sort of pass for being a gentile, except for during the full moon, you turn out not to be.”

Kressel says many Jewish themes have become so absorbed into the DNA of science fiction that non-Jewish authors often use them without realizing their origins. The golem legend, for example, has influenced countless tales of robot uprisings.

“HAL in 2001 is a golem,” says Kressel. “The replicants in Blade Runner are golems. In Battlestar Galactica, the Cylons. Any time we have a creation that comes back to potentially destroy its creator, you’re repeating the same mythology, the same story.”

Listen to our complete interview with Matthew Kressel, Jack Dann, and Rachel Swirsky in Episode 172 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

Jack Dann on religion:

“I was brought up in an orthodox household, and it’s really powerful. I mean, the idea of being a young person and having your father covering you with the tallis as the priests are making the prayer, it does stay with you. … Even now, as an atheist, there’s a certain kind of poignancy and nostalgia to being in a small shul and hearing the Hebrew prayers. I mean, I can almost feel the dust of the desert. So this stuff, whether we believe in it or not, gets into our bones, because we’re brought up with it. At least that’s my experience.”

Rachel Swirsky on fantasy heroes:

“[One article argued that] Jews have a lot of trouble believing in Harry Potter wizards, who are these very, very powerful forces for good, who have utterly failed to bother to step in and ameliorate any of the world’s massacres over the past century, and that the violence that Jews have culturally experienced as a group makes them much less likely to buy into that particular kind of fantasy escapism. … You know, [the wizards] are fighting the war with Voldemort but not getting involved in the murder of [millions of] people. It does become a flaw with a lot of these narratives, or something that you can’t un-see after a while.”

Jack Dann on his story “The Economy of Light”:

“I was at a picnic with Lucius Shepard, and we were talking about a story he wrote called ‘Mengele,’ and as we were talking he looked at me and he said, ‘What if Mengele completely changed his life? What if he escaped and lived the life of a Schweitzer? If you found him would you kill him?’ And that’s why I wrote the story ‘The Economy of Light,’ which is about a guy who was in the camps, was one of the children that he tortured—and Mengele had killed his brother—and I have Mengele escape to South America and actually become a kind of Schweitzer figure. And I put my protagonist in front of him, with that option, does he kill him? … It basically took me 15 years to write the story, because I couldn’t end it. And then finally, a number of years ago, I saw the ending, and I wrote the story.”

Matt Kressel on demons:

“There are a lot of apocryphal stories about Ashmedai, who’s the king of the demons. In one of the stories he’s walking past a wedding, and he sees the groom’s shoes and he begins weeping, and the one who’s walking with him says, ‘Why are you weeping?’ And he says, ‘The groom won’t live throughout the day. He’s going to die within a day.’ And I thought to myself, ‘Wow, in this myth the king of demonkind is weeping.’ We often have this vision of demons as being completely evil, ruthless, and full of vengeance, but here was a sensitive side of a demon. And I thought, ‘That’s who I want to write. I want to write the sensitive demon.’ Yeah, he’s angry. He’s really pissed at what God did to his universe. But he’s got a sensitive side.”