Jews in Space

Both in the fictional and nonfictional realms, there have been a lot of Jews in space. Some might be surprising, others may hardly be Jewish. And some are the most Jewish people in the galaxy. To begin, let us delve into the Star Wars universe.

Harrison Ford, who plays galactic outlaw Han Solo in the original movie trilogy from the ‘70s and ‘80s, is Jewish on his mother’s side. In a 2000 interview on Inside the Actors Studio, he said that “as a man I’ve always felt Irish, as an actor I’ve always felt Jewish.” Whatever that means. “My mother was Jewish, my father was Catholic,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in February of this year, “and I was raised a Democrat.” He explained that, in terms of his religious beliefs, he thinks “nature and God are the same thing.” He can be seen wearing a yarmulke in The Frisco Kid, in which he was a star alongside Gene Wilder. So that’s something.

Alden Ehrenreich, who played a young Solo in the 2018 spinoff movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, is also Jewish. It turns out he was discovered by Steven Spielberg because of a video he participated in for someone’s Bat Mitzvah. Ehrenreich did not like the product, and he told Rolling Stone that “it’s a video that this girl asked us to do. I mean, there wasn’t a script: We would go and just film whatever made us laugh.” Their parents apparently said “you look like an idiot in this.” Spielberg seems to have disagreed.

Carrie Fisher, who is the daughter of Jewish singer and actor Eddie Fisher, starred alongside Harrison Ford in Star Wars, playing the role of Princess Leia. Never mind that her character has a Jewish-sounding given name, in 2008 Carrie Fisher told J. The Jewish News of Northern California that her father’s singing in synagogue had “a big effect” on her, and that she and her daughter “often attend Friday night services and Shabbat meals with Orthodox friends.” She said that “there’s such a loveliness to lighting candles and saying what you’re grateful for that week. It’s beautiful.”

Then there is Natalie Portman. Born Natalie Hershlag in Jerusalem, fluent in Hebrew, and described by Vox as “one of the most famous Jewish celebrities on the planet.” She has great-grandparents who were killed in the Holocaust, and she starred as Anne Frank in the The Diary of a Young Girl on Broadway. Portman took on the role of Padme Amidala, a Galactic Senator who would marry Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which came out at the turn of the millennium. Anakin, of course, would become the main antagonist Darth Vader.

A Harvard graduate, in 2002 Portman wrote a letter to the editor in The Harvard Crimson criticizing an Op-Ed which compared the situation in Israel to apartheid. “This is a distortion of the fact that most Israelis and Palestinians are indistinguishable physically,” she argues. “Israelis and Arabs are historically cousins.” She continues: “outrageous and untrue finger-pointing is a childish tactic that disregards the responsibility of all parties involved.”

Portman is also a critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She was even at the center of controversy when she canceled her 2018 trip to receive the Genesis Prize in Israel because “I did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to be giving a speech at the ceremony,” she said in a statement on Instagram. Yuval Steinitz, then an Energy Minister of Likud, argued on Israel Radio that “she borders on antisemitism in how she relates to Israel.” Portman had to clarify in that statement that she does not support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement: “I can be critical of the leadership in Israel without wanting to boycott the entire nation.”

Casual moviegoers may not be familiar with the bounty hunter Boba Fett. But Fett is a fan favorite, despite the fact that his lines in the original trilogy can be counted on one hand. Before they were redubbed, these lines were originally delivered by Jason Wingreen, who is Jewish. In a 2010 interview with The Classic TV History Blog, Wingreen says that his parents were from Lithuania, and that his surname was originally Vengeren.

Frank Oz, the puppeteer behind Yoda (who has also worked alongside Jim Henson in the Muppets), has a Jewish father. His stage name is actually shortened from Oznowicz. In an article last August, The Times of Israel highlighted a new exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum which tells the story of Oz’s parents who “used puppetry to satirize Hitler before World War II.” So it seems that puppetry runs in the family. They had fled Germany just before the war.

J.J. Abrams, the director of the first installment of the newest Star Wars trilogy in 2015, is also Jewish, and had described himself as the “most nebbishy Jewish director, ever” in a conversation with Jon Stewart.

Moving on to Star Trek, both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, who play Captain Kirk and Spock respectively, are Jewish. Shatner told the Sydney Morning Herald that he was “not at all” observant, though he was “dragged along” when his parents went to temple. He connects to his Judaism through “being generous and charitable” and learning. “There are so few, so it helps that everyone helps each other,” he said.

Shatner also experienced antisemitism growing up, which manifested itself, he explains, with “fights, every day,” so much so that he was nicknamed “Toughie” in high school. He also notes that his university limited the number of Jewish students “no matter how qualified they were.”

Leonard Nimoy plays Spock, who is half human and half Vulcan, which is a fictional race in the Star Trek universe. Spock is known for his Vulcan salute, which is a gesture involving raising the hand and separating the middle and index finger. Sound familiar? That is because Nimoy based the character’s salute on Birkat Kohanim.

“The greeting that I chose came from my Orthodox Jewish background,” Nimoy explains in his memoir, I am not Spock: “the hand symbol is that used by the Kohanim, who are the priests of the Hebrews, who bless the congregation during the High Holiday services.” Thanks to Nimoy’s usage of this gesture as a Vulcan salute, “it has also been picked up by thousands of fans and I am greeted with the Vulcan hand salute wherever I travel,” he wrote.

While they come from many different religious backgrounds, everyone mentioned has in some form been affected by their Jewish identity. In the fictional realms of Star Wars and Star Trek there have indeed been many Jews in space.