# Jewish pickup truck owners **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376 "2008-10-10T20:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/1 "2008-10-10T20:42:41Z")
Yup, it had to be a Friday afternoon when I thought about posting this. The Straight Dope’s 614th Mitzvot, I guess; ask questions about Judaism close to or during Shabbat. Anyhow, leaving the Yom Kippur closing service yesterday night, I noticed that among the hundreds and hundreds of cars in the synagogue parking lot, only two were pickups. Yes, I thought to myself “let’s count pickups!”, because their rarity struck me as odd; especially after spending the previous week down in Texas. One might say “Well, not too many Jews work in the trades, so they don’t need pickup trucks”, but many pickup truck owners don’t use them as work vehicles; they’re just regular daily drivers. So, why don’t you see Jews in pickup trucks? Thinking about it, I’ve never seen an Asian or Asian Indian behind the wheel of a pickup, either. (Then again, in Doperland, there’s probably plenty of Jews that will drive pickups, synagogue parking lots resemble GMC dealerships, and it’s Texans that are the ones driving mostly BMW, Acura and Buick sedans.) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/2 "2008-10-10T21:14:14Z")
You’re limiting your observations of Jews to observant Jews that drive pickup trucks to services. They may have a second car that’s more comfortable for driving while dressed up for temple. Or they take several people to temple and it’s harder to fit them in a pickup. Or the Jews who drive pickups are less observant. You probably pass lots of Jews in pickups each day without knowing it; how would you tell? I know several Jews (and Asians) who drive pickups. But the majority of people I know don’t drive pickups so it’s hard to get any feeling for the ratios. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/3 "2008-10-10T21:23:00Z")
Maybe I can remember to bump this thread on Saturday evening. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/4 "2008-10-10T21:50:29Z")
I would chalk up your observation to the lamentable dressing up for services. Everybody wears their finest for High Holy Day services. It follows that they drive the nicest, ‘classiest’ car they can. So even Jews with a pickup truck take another vehicle if they have one. The whole snobbery and classism and shameless show of wealth get to me. G-d spoke to Moses when he was wearing his everyday robe and sandals. Show me where it says ‘when thou goest to the Temple, thou shalt wear fancy clothes to impress other people’! ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/5 "2008-10-10T21:57:23Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I would chalk up your observation to the lamentable dressing up for services. Everybody wears their finest for High Holy Day services. It follows that they drive the nicest, ‘classiest’ car they can. So even Jews with a pickup truck take another vehicle if they have one. > > The whole snobbery and classism and shameless show of wealth get to me. G-d spoke to Moses when he was wearing his everyday robe and sandals. Show me where it says ‘when thou goest to the Temple, thou shalt wear fancy clothes to impress other people’! Huh. When I was going to temple I always though we dressed up for the same reasons we dress up when going to -weddings -funerals -business meetings or -job interviews Because it’s culturally considered respectful to treat the above situations as formal. I agree though, that the lack of trucks had more to do with being dressed up, as well as carpooling or transporting a gaggle of kids, than it had to do with jews not driving trucks. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/6 "2008-10-11T02:21:31Z")
I’m a Jew and my previous two vehicles were pickups. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/7 "2008-10-11T02:38:11Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I’m a Jew and my previous two vehicles were pickups. And you are making sparks on Shabbes. Rats. So am I. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/8 "2008-10-11T02:41:18Z")
shh, nobody tell G-d. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/9 "2008-10-11T02:52:23Z")
I have three friends, well actually more than three, but I happen to know that these three are Jewish, and two of them drive pickups. So I’d say that 66.6% of Jews drive pickups. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/10 "2008-10-11T02:54:24Z")
So, this fruit looks really nice… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/11 "2008-10-11T03:00:02Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > I have three friends, well actually more than three, but I happen to know that these three are Jewish, and two of them drive pickups. So I’d say that 66.6% of Jews drive pickups. 😃 I’ve never seen a pickup at the Reform Temple here, and if any Jews would drive pickups they would be Reform. I conclude that no Jews drive pickups. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/12 "2008-10-11T03:06:14Z")
> [@](#): > > And you are making sparks on Shabbes. I’m not the kind of Jew who worries about that. > [@](#): > > if any Jews would drive pickups they would be Reform. But I _am that_ kind of Jew. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/13 "2008-10-11T03:21:12Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I’m not the kind of Jew who worries about that. > But I _am that_ kind of Jew. I converted in a mutual effort with a Conservative Rabbi in New Hampshire and a Reform Rabbi here in Arkansas. While eating the last trief meal of my life, the Reform Rabbi came into the Minute Man restaurant and caught me eating a cheeseburger. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/14 "2008-10-11T03:28:26Z")
I saw a pickup truck with Vermont plates 2 years ago in Lebanon, NH, with the license plate “SCHLEP”. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/15 "2008-10-11T03:32:41Z")
I’m a Jew. I drove a pick-up for years. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/16 "2008-10-11T06:58:34Z")
I have a very Asian coworker that drives a beat up Toyota Tacomo. I have never seen an actual Indian drive one however. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/17 "2008-10-11T07:09:42Z")
I’ve lived in the South my whole life. We’ve got plenty of pickup drivers here (like me!), but no Jewish folks. Therefore I conclude that Jews don’t drive pickups, because they don’t really exist! 😉 Okay, to be fair, I did meet one Jewish girl here once. But seriously, it’s a sea of truck-drivin’ Protestants here. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/18 "2008-10-11T11:14:24Z")
Abraham had a Ram, but he wanted to get rid of it. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/19 "2008-10-11T11:35:31Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Anyhow, leaving the Yom Kippur closing service yesterday night, I noticed that among the hundreds and hundreds of cars in the synagogue parking lot, only two were pickups. You have failed in your duty as one of God’s Chosen People by neglecting to make all those people feel guilty for driving to temple. ---
**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376/20 "2008-10-11T11:40:23Z")
I know lots of tradesmen. Only one Jew, an electrician who didn’t have a pickup. I married a Jewish woman, the ex was Jewish too. Out of all those contacts, one guy has a pickup, but he’s a market florist, so it’s a work vehicle. Mostly Priuses and Hyandais. Even the lawyers, though one has a smaller SUV 'cause they camp a lot. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-pickup-truck-owners/467376.md?page=2)