Hyman Siegal, 90, taught young Leonard Nimoy to develop film

BOSTON (JTA) – As a teenager growing up in the West End of Boston in the early 1940s, Hyman Siegal was a regular at the West End House, a philanthropic club that offered programming for the sons of immigrants and a place to gather away from the crowded tenement homes.

It was there that he befriended another young Jewish Bostonian, Leonard Nimoy, who would become a world renowned actor for his portrayal of Spock on Star Trek. Siegal had taken to photography early, using the money he earned delivering newspapers to buy his first camera, and he taught Nimoy to develop and print film, according to Siegal’s brother Alan.

A photo of Nimoy and their West End friends that Siegal took is featured on the website of the West End Museum. Nimoy would later in life publish a controversial book of his own photographs, “Shekhina,” in 2002.