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When veteran actor Theodore Bikel read
the script for "The Gathering", he couldn't
resist the chance to play the lead role.
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Theodore Bikel narrating a radio series on Jewish music.
his play is a smaller venue
than I'm used to, but I
thought the script was so
extraordinary I didn't
want to pass it up," says Theodore
Bikel about playing Gabriel Stern,
the Holocaust survivor in Arje
Shaw's The Gathering. "It's moving
and powerful, and very emotional
for the actors as well as the audi-
T
The Bitburg incident, too, was
something that Bikel was eager to
address. At the time Reagan visited
the German cemetery, Bikel was a
senior vice president of the American
Jewish Congress and actively involved
in organizing a protest group that
traveled to Germany
"I was outraged," says Bikel. felt
It was unforgivable, and an insult to
all who died in the death camps."
Bikel has always taken a very vocal
stand on issues important to him. He
has worked hard for civil rights in the
United States, as well as for progressive
causes in Israel and around the world,
including Soviet Jewry And, there is
no doubt that being outspoken has
caused him a job or two.
"When I was in The Sound of
Music, I got a call telling me actors are
supposed to be neutral,' says Bikel.
"Neutral is something I have never
been."
The actor served as a delegate to
the 1968 Democratic Convention in
Chicago and has held offices in many
national organizations, serving as
president of the Actors Equity
Association and the Associated Actors
and Artists of America.
His dedication stems perhaps
from his own personal hardships.
Born in 1924 in Vienna, Bikel vivid-
ly remembers the German invasion
and swastikas hanging from every
lamppost on the Austrian capital' s
main thoroughfare. For six months,
Bike! lived under the Nazi regime,
until he and his parents, active
Zionists, were able to flee to
Palestine.
Bikel was 14 when he arrived in
Tel Aviv. It was Rosh Hashanah, and
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Detroit Jewish News
7/16
1999
93