Actress Mayim Bialik has urged Israel-backers not to be apologetic in voicing their support for the Jewish state, The Canadian Jewish News reported on Wednesday.

“I think what’s important about speaking out is that I don’t even think of it as ‘speaking out,’” the Jewish Big Bang Theory star, 40, told the publication. “I don’t think you should be ashamed to talk about your support for a country where Jews can have an autonomous existence.”

The mother-of-two lamented that “Israel” has become a “dirty word” to use. She explained that “although there are very, very difficult politics surrounding Israel, and I don’t agree with everything the Israeli government or the people in the State of Israel do, it’s not a dirty word to talk about a country amidst dozens of Arab countries in that region of the world.”

The actress, who speaks Yiddish and has raised her children to learn the language, recently made headlines for a Facebook post in which she blasted critics who boycott her on social media because of her Zionist beliefs.

Source: Algemeiner