They forgave me though I stole,” Shimerman said of his character. “Our program was about investigating the essence of people, not the outside. Star Trek doesn’t always get it right at first, but its institutional optimism always leaves hope that they’ll get it right in the future. While the Ferengi may have started out as Space Jew stereotyping, Star Trek found a better path, tackling stereotypes (apparently universal ones) through relentless, compassionate, empathic humanism. “The Ferengi represent the outcast… it’s the person who lives among us that we don’t fully understand.” “In America, people ask ‘Do the Ferengi represent Jews?’ In England, they ask ‘Do the Ferengi represent the Irish?’ In Australia, they ask if the Ferengi represent the Chinese,” Shimerman said. Asked by moderator Jordan Hoffman (of the official Star Trek Engage podcast) for the strangest readings or interpretations they’ve heard from fans, Shimerman revealed the universal prejudices that he sees as underlying how we view Ferengi. Still, for many this is an unsatisfying answer, almost a dodge, to the question of whether or not the Ferengi are a pernicious stereotyping of Jews.Īt Star Trek: Mission New York, Armin Shimerman - Quark himself - addressed the question head-on. Sadder, Sober 'Star Wars' Canon Ditches The Luna-Weed And Space.Quark was a black marketeer, an occasional gunrunner, a cheat, a liar and as greedy as a squirrel. The premiere of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1993 placed a Ferengi among the main ensemble cast: station bartender Quark, played by Armin Shimerman. Quark (Armin Shimerman) humanized the Ferengi as a bartended aboard DS9 in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.' Photo: CBS Television Studios They lived by the quasi-religious “Rules of Acquisition,” which encouraged them to cheat, manipulate and do everything possible for profit. They were often depicted as blinded by greed, lascivious in their appetites and snivelling in their demeanor, with big noses dwarfed only by elephantine, erogenous ears. After their first appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ferengi became comedic foils for Picard and his crew, but the Jewish stereotyping was hard to miss. Star Trek, despite its reputation for embodying progressive values in its cast and adventures, is far from innocent in this regard. Between Watto, Gringotts goblins and South Park’s parodic Joozians, the Space Jew trope is potent and common enough that the name has come to stand for lazy stereotyping as character shorthand. Space Jews are an unfortunate science fiction trope that repackages a number of repulsive anti-semitic stereotypes, typically to vivify a conniving, mercantile race of aliens with easily recognized prejudicial characteristics.
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