continued the interview, i asked theodore bikel to describe how he brought to life the stories of sholem aleichemn for a generation that is not familiar with his writings, to talk about why aleichem was so important to him. >> sholem aleichem is the quintessential jewish writer, yiddish writer. he also insisted not to only write what he did and about what he wrote, but to write in the language of his people, to write in yiddish. in those days, respectable jewish writers actually wrote in hebrew. that was the language of the intellectuals. and he insisted that you could only express yourself if you used the language of the people where the people lived, how they lived, how they spoke how they had the twinkle in their eye with the humor how there was a tear every time there was laughter, and how there was laughter every time there was grief. and that was the greatness of sholem aleichem. we had 35 volumes of the collective works of sholem aleichem sitting on our shelves when the nazis confiscated them, and every single one of them expressed something that i hold dear to this day. amy: i want to go