PAUL: (laughs)Then they'll be able to.
ST: And then they'll get money from them... you know,
PAUL: So, that's, you know, that's, so,so, it;s an interesting problem because what's happened is pediatric AIDS has become and AIDS in general has become what's perceived as a manageable disease, which means that it's no longer the crises, the darling crises, that,oh my God, this is happening. We gotta deal with it now.
ST: Right.
PAUL: Now, enough medicines have been found that people are very content to be able to say,"it's under control". We don't have to worry about it, it's like diabetes....
ST: But you always worry.
PAUL: Well, the problem is in this country, we've always been able to ah,ah, bring the issue of pediatric AIDS under control to a great degree. Although, one of the big issues now is getting, ah, pregnant women to understand that they should be tested...
ST: Ah, huh.
PAUL: There's been a lot of resistance up to the present, but now, if we can get them tested, then we have a , up to 95%% efficacy rate on intervening with drugs to stop the transmission of the virus from mother to child.
ST: Well, that's, that's marvelous and we're just talking about money for this research.
PAUL: Well, so we're talking about money for this research, we're getting to talk about advocacy, we're talking trying to get people to understand more that this is an issue that is not going away and ya know, the other reality is that world wide it's a very grim picture
ST: ah, huh.
PAUL: Nobody wants to hear that, nobody wants to hear "chicken little the sky is falling, the sky is falling...
ST: Right.
PAUL: But, the reality is that we all live cheek to jowl in this world. It's a close smaller world and what whatever's going on over there is going on here so it's only a matter of time to let it born out of the truth so it is prudent of us and smart...
ST: Uh, huh.
PAUL: ...of us to get into this and deal with it.
ST: Now, we were talking about Starsky and Hutch. Are you and David, ah,ah, I knew you during those years, but I don't think we were ever the same place that he and you worked together.
PAUL: Yah.
ST: Were you friends on that show?
PAUL: We were, we were. We had a very strong connection, the two of us.
ST: And do you see each other still?
PAUL: We speak about once or twice a year. David lives in England.
ST: Oh, does he?
PAUL: Yah
ST: What's he doing over there?
PAUL: He does plays, does theater, does his music.
ST: Cause I do find in this business, you can be close with someone day after day for 5 years or 4 years...
PAUL: That's the nature of....
ST: ... and then suddenly "bang", it's gone away.
PAUL: That's the nature of our business. It's like you get together to do a movie, it's like a gypsy company getting together or it's like, you know, everyone comes together. It's such an intense journey and such a close journey. There's a strong sense of family....
ST: Right.
PAUL:... and then it's over.
ST: Did you, ah, have any kind of Jewish feeling about when you were young of Judaism and?
PAUL: Well, my father's father was a very religious man. He was one of the founders of a very big conservative temple in Boston Kehilath Isreal in Brookline, Massachusetts and my mother wasn't, ah, at all raised in a very strong Jewish tradition. In fact,she was basically agnostic.
ST: Ah, huh.
PAUL: Ah, but, he, my father, he continued, not a conservative tradition, so I had my experience of Sunday school, ah..
ST: Bar Mitzvahed?
PAUL: (big delightful smirk here) I was Bar Mitzvahed, umm..
ST: Ah huh, in the conservative?
PAUL: No, reform, reform and ah, then I, ah, then I kinda went... I've been in a very spiritual journey of my life. I don't know that in Judaism, I have found an awful lot of the idiom or the teaching's applicable in my daily life. And I, I know it's there....
ST: Ah huh.
PAUL: ...I hear more and more about people studying the Kabbal..Kabbalah? Kabbal?
ST: Kabbal
PAUL: I hear, I, ah, about young progressive Rabbi's who are, are, bringing the teachings of Judaism to a applicable....
ST: Situation.
PAUL: understanding or you know, ah, ah, in, in terms of day to day living.
ST: Uh huh.,
PAUL: I don't think I ever ah, ah, achieved that or was able to experience that. So I find myself, I'm kind of a fringe what they call a "JewBu".
ST: What is a "JewBu"?
PAUL: Jewish Buddhist.
ST: Ah, huh.
PAUL:Yeah, so, I find myself very interesting. I think a lot are interested in Buddhism and I find probably a lot of that for me is that the spiritual core of my religious training which, ah, I got from my father and my grandfather, I, in an interesting way and, and think I am more able to extract that from another teaching without all of the distraction of the rituals....
ST: Right.
PAUL: .....and the parafinailla it's...
ST: It's interesting but I can't follow too well because I don't know what Buddhism is and what they say.
PAUL: Well, if you consider all religions talk about the same thing...
ST: Right, which is...
PAUL: ... and I really believe that. Well...
ST: Goodness and God and belief in another being.
PAUL: Ah, consciousness here and now and you can on and on about, but it, I think ultimately for me, throughout history, all religions speak about the same things. We can all say "no, my religion speaks about better or we speak about different things..."
ST: Right.
PAUL:... but, I think that we're providing an illusion for ourselves because we're all one. We're all in this together. We're, in we're all in the same, all part of the same thing. So, you know, if you choose, you say, I like roast beef instead of turkey I like this religion as opposed to that religion. I think that in the, my training as a young man and as I grew up, I think that for me while there was a strong emotional attachment, a spiritual attachment,...
ST: Right.
PAUL: ..well, lets say an emotional attachment and a social conditioning to, ah, Judaism or from, ah, Judaism, I think that I was always searching for something that was spiritually spoke to me...
ST: ah huh.
PAUL:... without all the weight, the guilt, the weight...
ST: Right.
PAUL: ... the, the, the stuff, ya know, do this and therefore you will be. Save this, do this, wear this, obey this and therefore you will be. It never worked for me and I found myself always looking for some way to experience myself free of all that razzmatazz.
ST: Right. Have you been to Israel at all?
PAUL: I've been to Israel twice.
ST: ah huh.
PAUL: So, you know, so I found....
ST: How do you feel when you get over there? Does it do anything?
PAUL: Well, you know, Israel was an interesting situation. First time I was in Israel in 1959, I worked in Kibbutzim, Giv'atayim.
ST: What were they..
PAUL: Giv'atayim was a big, ah, it's a cannery apparently, they have peaches,ah, I think avocados, I don't know, I'm guessing. And_Kfar____ (?) , I don't remember really well. It was a border with Kibbutz. They had ah, ah, a good history of fighting you know , with the Arabs at the time. When I went back there in '79, I took my father because he had never been to Israel and I wanted him...
ST: Now, will you tell me why you went there in the first place?
PAUL: Well, the first place I went there because the man who taught me my Haftorah for my Bar Mitzvah, was ah, a,a student at the time at MIT.
ST: Ah huh.
PAUL: And he was from Israel and my father who was a graduate of MIT, met him and asked him to teach me my Haftorah and teach me Hebrew. So, he and I became very close, this man, this teacher, and he went and ended up taking 12 young men to the Brussels's World's Fair and...
ST: That's nice.
PAUL:... through France and then we got on the theater half, which is on of the reparatory boats and we sailed from Marseilles to Haifa and we spent a month and one-half in Israel, two months in Israel.
ST: That's exciting and then you went back and took your dad?
PAUL: So, I took my dad, my dad, dad (he stutters) "thoo", (laughs)back in '79. He had never been to Israel ah,and I wanted him to go and he had a few, ah, you know, intense periods when his Judaism mean a lot to him, so I wanted him to have that...
ST: That's beautiful!
PAUL: Yah.
ST: It usually works the other way, the father takes the son.
PAUL: Yah, so, I took him there and at the time, Starsky and Hutch was through the roof, it was huge a hit and over there it was out of control.
ST" Was it a ....
PAUL: Yah, totally.
ST: Did they know you from the other movie, from Fiddler on The Roof?
PAUL: Ah, they might of, I don't know and,um, so we, ah, so ya know, so I took him over there and he loved it and,ah, we had a very interesting time and I found that, I found that I had very, very ambivalent feelings. You know, you had that feeling of putting your foot on the tarmac and going I'm home.
ST: Right.
PAUL: And then you have the feeling that Israelis are looking a you and saying "Are you American or are you a Jew?"
ST: Ah, huh.
PAUL : I go,"Wait a minute guys, relax, (he waves his hands and laughs), relax!"
ST: That's a feeling, nobody, did they, they actually said that to you?
PAUL: No, that was articulated, that was articulated... you know..
ST: (laughing)They said it, those words?
PAUL: Ya know, the Israelis, its understandable, have a fair amount of, you know, aggressiveness in their opinions, their attitudes.
ST: Yes, they sure do, yah.
PAUL:And so,they were, ah, you know, why don't you speak Hebrew, you know, it was, they,they, were very aggressive and I, I found myself feeling like, well, wait a minute guys you know, I'm Jewish...
ST: I understand.
PAUL:...and I like being Jewish and I don't have a problem with it, but....
ST: That's a nice thing to hear as we fade out, cause, I'm told it's time to say good-bye (moving his hand like a puppet) or else Sheri Lewis is over there talking..
PAUL: Oh, (big smile).
ST: Thank you for watching us, Thank you Paul for talking to me..
PAUL: Thank you
ST: It's funny, I've know you so long and now I'm just beginning to know you and I'm glad and I want to get to know Tracy and Zoe. Thanks for watching JTN Celebrity Profile (he looks at Paul) which you have and are.
Transcribed by Pamela Meserve
<p>This really is a great interview. You can obtain a VHS copy of it from JTN
for $15.<br>
Susan Anderson<br>
Jewish Television Network<br>
13743 Ventura Blvd., Suite 200,<br>
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423<br>
