Volkswagen Taps Jewish Star Trek Stars
Image by getty images
(JTA) — Last year Volkswagen donated more than a million dollars to an international youth center at Auschwitz.
In 2011 it donated $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League.
And in 2009 it was reported that the Beetle — that iconic VW creation — was actually designed by a Jew.
But the German automaker — which, like other industries in the Third Reich, cooperated with the Nazis and has been boycotted by many Jews as a result — may have finally figured out a strategy to put the stigma of its past behind it. It has recruited both the stars of the original “Star Trek” series to plug its new car, the e-Golf, in the United States.
According to Auto Evolution, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy — both Jewish — will star in the marketing campaign for VW’s first electric car.
The two were apparently tapped because the “Vulcan salute and the Volkswagen logo have so much in common,” the auto industry publication reported.
That salute, as any Jewish Trekkie worth his salt will know, is similar to a Jewish blessing sign – two hands forming the Hebrew letter Shin — that frequently appears on Jewish gravestones.
Could the twin appearance of Spock and Kirk convince diehard boycotters of German cars (who, as journalist Jeffrey Goldberg noted in a recent Atlantic column, rarely boycott any other German products) to drop their grudge and buy the wagon of der Volk?
Bimah me up, Scottie!
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
