As seems de rigeur for this sort of post, let me prove my Star Trek bona fides (or lack thereof) before going forward. I was a child of Star Trek: The Next Generation, only three years old when it premiered, but ten when it concluded and old enough to remember the season finale broadcast. I later caught up on every episode of that series. I have also seen more than a handful of the original series, and about two to three dozen episodes of Deep Space 9. So I'm not trekkie, as it goes. But I'm familiar with the shows, and if my knowledge is not encyclopedic, it is viable. I may not be able to recall the exact science-fiction hook used in season 4, episode seven offhand, but if you hum a few bars, I think I could sing along.              

Once said, let's put that to rest. If my credentials aren't enough to discuss the new film with any depth, please skip ahead. I won't be offended. I understand fandom, and if someone wanted to write about the X-Men without an encyclopedic background, I'd thank them kindly to their face and say bad things about them behind their backs. So go ahead. Say bad things.              

What struck me about the film was the role of the Jew, or the lack thereof. The Original Series always had Leonard Nimoy as Spock. He was not simply the intellectual rationalist to Kirk's fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants adventurer, as a number of critics have suggested. What is clear from those earliest episodes is that Spock was an equal partner in the great adventure. He may have brought a cooler head from time to time, but the mission was equally his. As such, he was something of a philosopher-warrior, a Jewish archetype rare in contemporary society, but rich in our history; from the Biblical Joshua, King David, to Franz Rosenzweig writing The Star of Redemption "in the Macedonian trenches," or maybe David Ben-Gurion.              

The Next Generation took the Jew in Star Trek one step further. Despite not having as public a Jewish identity as Nimoy in a main role, one could say TNG was even more Jewish than the Original Series. Watch them argue about the Prime Directive, debate subtleties of ethical and intellectual dilemmas, or entirely forgo physical confrontation in favor of multiculturalism and empathy. Hell, the crew was so neurotic, they kept a full-time therapist on the ship. The greatest triumphs were not the defeat of an adversary, but the breaching of borders, the comprehension of foreign language. Watch "Darmok," in my most humble opinion the greatest episode of The Next Generation. It is moving beyond words.

I mean, they might as well have called it Star Trek: The Great Jew Extravaganza. The central themes of the Star Trek shows - exploring new worlds, making contact with new civilizations, doing mitzvoth and good deeds throughout the universe - are central tenets of Judaism. Would a Michael Lerner luncheon have been out of place on The Next Generation? Picard was already, always doing birur nitzutzot (elevating the sparks of the universe) and performing tikkun on the galaxies.              

Continue reading...

It's not nearly so inspired as Michael's pairing of Freakshow and Jewface, but I'll take this opportunity to introduce Jewcy readers to the ongoing Jewy Trekkie debate over whether the Ferengi are the International Jews of space. Interstellar Jews, as it were."Yankee Traders" my eye

The Rules of Acquisition, a nasty body of scripture that instructs the Ferengi in how to make money and deceive non-Ferengi, is totally the Talmud. And that Ferengi face? Come on. If Der Sturmer was sci-fi, Quark would have been on every page.

Read more here, here, and here.