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Throughout the various Star Trek TV shows and movies, I've wondered "where are the Jews?" There are Jews today living on every continent and leading in areas such as particle physics. Moreover, early American history shows that many Jews were among the early pioneers to the West and were actively involved in providing supplies to pioneers. So it seems to me to be perfectly sensible to assume that there would be Jewish people in Kirk's time period and exploring space as much as anyone. So my question is, did any of the Star Trek novels ever introduce Jewish characters or Jewish pioneering communities on other planets?

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I doubt that there is any mention of Jews or other groups in Star Trek, as the franchise is basically promoting the idea of a united mankind. Saying that a group of Jews (or any kind of group really) did something important is basically against that idea. Or rather they are trying to say that there is no point in distinguishing such things anymore. Though I’m not familiar enough with all the works making up Star Trek to say yes or no. So I’m curios if anybody can answer that. – Sebastian_H Feb 19 at 22:14
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The discovery of whole races of powerful god-like beings would have made a complete hash of most if not all of Earth's organized religions. So Judaism would have gone down the dusty chute of history along with everything else. As for the various ethnic groups who call themselves Jews, it seems to me that without the schisms induced by religion, most ethnic groups would have integrated into the human melange as humanity integrated into the interstellar community. I'd expect groups (including the Jews) to maintain some cultural traditions and distinctness, ethnic cuisines being one example. – Kyle Jones Feb 19 at 22:26
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Though I haven't particularly noticed a presence or absence of any of these, the same question could be asked of atheists, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. Unless especially relevant to the plot, a punch-line, or a particular character's persona, their religion (or lack thereof) is often a detail omitted in most fictional works. I'm not sure I see the point in this inquiry. – Iszi Feb 19 at 23:42
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possible duplicate of Do earth religions persist in star trek? – Pureferret♦ Feb 20 at 11:35
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Related Meta discussion – Beofett Feb 20 at 16:31
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closed as not constructive by Iszi, Izkata, NikolaiDante, Pureferret♦, phantom42 Feb 20 at 12:02

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1 Answer

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Memory-Alpha notes that under Jew there have been a number of Jewish characters mentioned in the novels (NOTE: novels are NOT considered "canon" material in Star Trek even though they are licensed by Paramount).

As a humanist and an agnostic Roddenberry saw the future as a world where everyone was atheist. From his Wikipedia entry:

He stubbornly resisted the effort of network execs to put a Christian chaplain on the crew of the Enterprise.

While Jewish means both a race of people and a religion, I could see Roddenberry being reluctant to introduce a character with a lot of culturally religious traditions.

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I don't know how canon the books are, but I think it should be noted that according to the Memory Alpha article you referred to, all Jews mentioned in the TV shows are either from holographs or time travel episodes. So distinguishing between Jews and other people is basically supposed to be a thing of the distant past by Star Trek's point of view. Though it might be a little different in the novels. – Sebastian_H Feb 19 at 22:46
I edited re: canonicity of the ST novels. If you meant "novels mentioned in-universe" please roll back and clarify :) – DVK Feb 19 at 23:08
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@DVK That edit is fine. I assumed people would know the novels are not canon. Particularly since they are under "Apocrypha." – Jack B Nimble Feb 20 at 0:06
@JackBNimble - Many people don't know that. I had no idea till about 1.5 years ago. – DVK Feb 28 at 14:58

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