The German automaker Volkswagen has recruited the two Jewish stars of the original “Star Trek” series to plug its new e-Golf electric car in the United States in another attempt to rid itself of its stigma of having helped the Hitler regime.
Many Jews boycott Volkswagen and other industries that cooperated with the Nazis.
William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy apparently were tapped because the “Vulcan salute and the Volkswagen logo have so much in common,” the auto industry publication Auto Evolution 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.
Volkswagen donated more than a million dollars to an international youth center at Auschwitz last year, and in 2011 gave $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League.