Tauf Aleph

Gotlieb, Phyllis. "Tauf Aleph." More Wandering Stars. New York: Doubleday, 1981. The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990. Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery, ed. New York: Norton, 1993.

The last Jew in the universe dies, but is succeeded by a new Jewish people of alien converts. Central to the story is the robot mining-machine O/G5/842, who becomes known as Og ha-Golem: Og, a very large Biblical king; Golem, the artificial servant. Since the proto-Jews of the story are rather primitive (like the first Habiru—Hebrews—from a civilized point of view), Og the Golem must be careful that he is not worshipped as a mechanical god or messiah. Although an obsolete machine, Og becomes an effective teacher, theologian, minister—a good rabbi—helping the last human Jew to die well and become a kind of Abraham to the new species of Jews. (RDE, 14/02/95)