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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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I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
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I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.
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I glory in the fact that a human being has multiple talents and exercises them all with a degree of integrity and artistic proficiency. That's what I do.
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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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In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.
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I always sang, I always acted, I always played.
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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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I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.
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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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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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I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.
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No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
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An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'
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We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
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Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?
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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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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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But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.
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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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After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.
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