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I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.

Theodore Bikel

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Theodore Bikel
Age: 91 †
Born: 1924
Born: May 2
Died: 2015
Died: July 21
Actor
Businessperson
Film Actor
Musician
Politician
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Trade Unionist
Vienna
Austria
Theodore Meir Bikel
Critic
Critics
Israel
Defender
Wrong
Deem
Right
Zionist
Defenders
Ardent
Supporter

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It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
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Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.
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Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route.
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While we all could agree that the Zionist ideal is alive and well, there is serious doubt whether the Zionist movement can be said to be an ongoing proposition, fragmented as its components are in ideology and in practice.
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Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.
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I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.
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I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.
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'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?
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I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.
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Audiences are audiences.
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As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
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I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.
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No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
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On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.
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I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.
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You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.
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But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
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The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.
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What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.
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I am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.
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