Personal Life
Berkoff has spoken and written about how he believes Jews and Israel are perceived and treated in Britain. In a January 2009 interview with The Jewish Chronicle, discussing anti-Israel sentiment following the Gaza War, he said, "There is an inbuilt dislike of Jews. Overt antisemitism goes against the British sense of fair play. It has to be covert and civilised. So certain playwrights and actors on the left wing make themselves out to be stricken with conscience. They say: 'We hate Israel, we hate Zionism, we don't hate Jews.' But Zionism is the very essence of what a Jew is. Zionism is the act of seeking sanctuary after years and years of unspeakable outrages against Jews. As soon as Israel does anything over the top it's always the same old faces who come out to demonstrate. I don't see hordes of people marching down the street against Mugabe when tens of thousands are dying every month in Zimbabwe." Interviewer Simon Round found Berkoff keen to add that right-wing Israeli politicians, like Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu, were "wretched". Asked if British antisemitism manifested itself in the theatrical establishment, Berkoff responded: "They quite like diversity and will tolerate you as long as you act a bit gentile and don’t throw your chicken soup around too much. You are perfectly entitled occasionally even to touch the great prophet of British culture, Shakespeare, as long as you keep your Jewishness well zipped up." Berkoff also referred to the Gaza war as a factor in writing Biblical Tales: "It was the recent 'Gaza' war and the appalling flack that Israel received that prompted me to investigate ancient Jewish values."
In 2012, Berkoff, with others, wrote in support of Israel's national theatre, Habima, performing in London.
Speaking to The Jewish Chronicle (10 May 2010) Berkoff expressed blunt and severely critical views of the Bible, but said he believed "it inspires the Jews to produce Samsons and heroes and to have pride". Berkoff went on to say of the Talmud in the same article, that "as Jews, we are so incredibly lucky to have the Talmud, to have a way of reinterpreting the Torah. So we no longer cut off hands, and slay animals, and stone women."
In a Telegraph travel article he wrote on a two-day visit Israel in 2007, Berkoff described Melanie Phillips' book Londonistan, as "quite overwhelming in its research and common sense. It grips me throughout the journey."
He lives with his companion Clara Fisher in east London.
Read more about this topic: Steven Berkoff
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