We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task.
— Theodore Bikel
No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.
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.
I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.
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.
Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?
Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.
Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.
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.
We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
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.
