12/23/09

Is the Mercedes Benz Automobile Jewish?


Automobiles may be worshiped by some people with a sort of religious zeal. But they do not have religions of their own.

Now, it appears that this car model was named for a Jewish girl.

A friend has sent us information that the Mercédès car was named for Mercédès, daughter of Emil Jellinek, an entrepreneur and automaker, son of Rabbi Adolf Jellinek, nineteenth-century scholar in the so-called Wissenschaft des Judentums. Emil, "Convinced his colleagues at Daimler to name their new automobile after his daughter Mercédès."

[In the 60s, my dad wanted to buy a gorgeous classic 1953 Mercédès - like the one pictured - but my mom would not let him - more because it was a 15 year old car and not that it was a German auto.]

//Hat tip to David Sarna conveying the Mercédès information from Menachem Butler.//

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