The San Diego Jewish Journal has a long article about the influence of Judaism on science fiction. It looks at both the pioneering work of Jewish authors, both religious and secular, and the influence of Jewish mythology
From a science-fictional perspective, the most influential Judaic legend isThe Golem of Prague,which concerns a rabbi who creates a creature out of clay to protect the Jewish people. Although there are different endings to the tale, in the most popular version he loses control of his monster and must destroy it. The spiritual forbearer of such well-known fables asFrankensteinand familiar characters like the Terminator and the HAL 9000 computer from2001: A Space Odyssey,the Golem has become a powerful trope embodying both cautionary and idealistic outlooks two notions that are invaluable to successful science-fiction storytelling. For many genre authors, particularly those steeped in Jewish folklore, the story remains a rich ideological source.
Ultimately, they regard the Jewish influence as responsible for the fundamentally optimistic nature of the genre: that the world will be a better place, and people will not have destroyed themselves.
Stars of David - San Diego Jewish Journal, October 2004 (via Locus).
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The Superman Code
Another nice Jewish boy has been resurrected as a Christian god.
Pandering to the broader and pernicious campaign to 'Christianize' American culture in its image currently being waged by the Christian Right, the Warner Brothers/DC Comics machine is trying to position Superman Returns as the next Christian blockbuster, hoping to cash in on the trend following The Passion of the Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia. Remembering that Superman is deeply Jewish may help stop this steamroller.
Superman was originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two young Jewish men in Depression-era Cleveland, a time and place that stood between earlier periods of immigration and the impending Holocaust. Superman's voyage from Krypton to Earth was a tale of an infant's rescue from his world which was about to perish in a great conflagration. This film reverses that Jewish contrast between Krypton and Earth. Now we hear his father telling Kal-El that he sent his 'only son' to Earth to save us, rather than the other way around, in language right out of the Gospel of John, including a declaration that these humans 'lack the light to show the way.'
The Jewish understanding of Krypton as the Old World (Europe about to self-destruct) and Earth as the New World (America with its promise of new life) has now been replaced by Christian coding of Krypton as a lost Paradise (in all its crystalline purity) and Earth as the scene of life after the Fall, or even worse -- his fall to Earth has never before been depicted as such a hellish scene. . . .