(JNS.org) Russian-Jewish actor Anton Yelchin, who played the Russian starship navigator Chekov in the rebooted series of “Star Trek” movies, died Sunday after being accidentally crushed by his own vehicle against a driveway wall, police said.
The 27-year-old Yelchin was born in St. Petersburg and emigrated to America as a child under political refugee status to escape the religious and political oppression his family had experienced in Russia.
“My idea of being a Jew—at least a Russian Jew—isn’t in the traditions, which my family just didn’t know. Rather, it’s in the alignment of the history of the Jews in Russia, which is the history of being entirely oppressed. Inevitably, it’s a mindset,” Yelchin had said, according to the London Jewish Chronicle.
Yelchin was killed shortly after reportedly stepping out of a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee in the steep driveway of his Los Angeles home, not noticing that the vehicle then rolled backwards and crushed him, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Jenny Houser.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org