Name: Special Program: Violins of Hope
Start: 2024-10-09T18:30:00-04:00
Location: Ohio County Public Library

Violins of Hope The core mission of Violins of Hope is education about the Holocaust through beautifully restored violins. Highlighting the universal language of music and the strength that comes from Hope, each violin can symbolically be seen as an individual with a unique voice and a harrowing story to be told as it is played once again. This program will include a prelude concert featuring local String Educators Ensemble headed by Justin Jones, playing on VoH violins and viola, including the VoH violin on loan from the Nashville Symphony. Renowned Israeli violinmaker and Co-founder of Violins of Hope Avshi Weinstein will then speak, followed by James Grymes, PhD, author of the award-winning book Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour. The book is about violins that were played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust and will be available for purchase and signing before and after the program. Wheeling Symphony Orchestra musicians will perform selections on a VoH violin with piano accompaniment. This program is made possible through the generosity of VoH-WVU, the WSO musicians, and Barb Lewine, Holocaust Educator and member of the VoH-WVU Steering Committee who organized this special program.
In partnership with Violins of Hope-WVU and Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.
Note: On Tues. Oct. 8 from 7- 8:30pm @ Temple Shalom, 23 Bethany Pike There will be a welcome reception & VoH program with special guests co- founder of the VoH project- Avshi Weinstein and author-James Grymes. Musical selections will feature violinist Judith Meyers playing on the VoH klezmer violin on loan from the Nashville Symphony, accompanied by Bob Troeger. Judith will also share her grandmother's story as a Holocaust survivor. This program is also open to the community.
Full Speaker Bios:
James A. Grymes, PhD is an internationally respected musicologist, a critically acclaimed author, and a dynamic speaker who has addressed audiences at significant public venues such as the United Nations Headquarters, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, and the historic 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL. Dr. Grymes has been featured in interviews by the New York Times, ABC News, and CNN. He is the author of Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour. A stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music, Violins of Hope tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust, and of the Israeli violinmaker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to life. The book, which composer John Williams described as “one of the most moving chronicles in the history of Western music,” presents a new way of understanding the Holocaust. Violins of Hope won a National Jewish Book Award. Dr. Grymes is Professor of Musicology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Avshalom (Avshi) Weinstein, a third-generation Israeli violinmaker, was trained by his father, Amnon, and began working in their workshop in 1998 as a violinmaker and restorer of violins, violas and cellos. He is trained in the tradition of the Italian Cremonese School of violinmakers and the French school of restoration. Avshalom also joins his father at the Keshet Eilon Violin and Bow-making atelier at Keshet Eilon Master Class for young violinists each summer since 1998. Avshi has also trained with master bowmaker Daniel Schmidt from Dresden since 2009 and opened his own workshop in Istanbul the same year. Since Violins of Hope became a major force in Holocaust education, Avshi has traveled the world, and brought the collection to several US cities. Together with local educators and musicians, he visits schools where youngsters often have their first introduction to the history of the Holocaust and also the opportunity to see and hold an instrument that has survived so much and represents history. Students who play the violin often have an opportunity to play on these treasured instruments. As the collection travels the United States, several instruments have been donated by family and friends. These instruments often need extensive restoration--done in the Tel Aviv workshop--before they become world class instruments. Silenced by the events of World War II, they have been given voice again and will live on forever to carry the message of survival and resilience.
About the book "Violins of Hope"
The violin has formed an important aspect of Jewish culture for centuries, both as a popular instrument with classical Jewish musicians and as a central factor of social life, as in the Klezmer tradition. But during the Holocaust, the violin assumed extraordinary roles within the Jewish community. For some musicians, the instrument was a liberator; for others, it was a savior that spared their lives. For many, the violin provided comfort in mankind’s darkest hour, and, in at least one case, helped avenge murdered family members. Above all, the violins of the Holocaust represented strength and optimism for the future. Today, these instruments serve as powerful reminders of an unimaginable experience—they are memorials to those who perished and testaments to those who survived. In this spirit, renowned Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein has devoted the past twenty years to restoring the violins of the Holocaust as a tribute to those who were lost, including four hundred of his own relatives. Behind each of these violins is a uniquely fascinating and inspiring story. Juxtaposing these narratives against one man’s harrowing struggle to reconcile his own family’s history and the history of his people, this insightful, moving, and achingly human book presents a new way of understanding the Holocaust.