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Amnon Weinstein

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Israeli luthier (1939–2024)

Amnon Weinstein
אמנון ויינשטיין
Born(1939-07-21)21 July 1939
Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
Died4 March 2024(2024-03-04) (aged 84)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Occupations
OrganizationViolins-of-Hope Collection
Websitewww.Violins-of-Hope.com

Amnon Weinstein (Hebrew: אמנון ויינשטיין; 21 July 1939 – 4 March 2024) was an Israeli luthier. He was the founder and promoter of the Violins-of-Hope Collection.

Early life

Amnon Weinstein was born in Tel Aviv during the Mandate era. He was married to the journalist Assaela Weinstein who was the daughter of Asael Bielski, one of the anti-Nazi Bielski partisans immortalized in the movie, Defiance.

Weinstein's father, Moshe Weinstein who was born in 1909 in Poland, had studied the violin at the conservatoire in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was a part of Poland at that time. He trained as a violin maker with Yaakov Zimmermann in Warsaw. In 1938 he emigrated to British Palestine and founded the luthier business of Weinstein in Tel Aviv. One of his first works was servicing the Palestine Symphony Orchestra that had just been created by Bronislaw Huberman. When the news of the persecution of the Jews in Germany reached Palestine, the musicians who had been fond of their German violins before, either broke them or burned them and some told Moshe that they would throw them away if he did not buy them. So Weinstein's father started to collect violins. When he learned, after the war, that all his relatives he had left behind in Eastern Europe had been murdered, he suffered a heart attack. From then on, Moshe Weinstein never wanted to talk about his family again.

Weinstein apprenticed with his father before he studied violin making in Cremona with Pietro Sgarabotto and Giuseppe Ornati and Ferdinando Garimberti.

Violins of Hope

Amnon Weinstein managed the Violins-of-Hope Collection together with his son Avshalom Weinstein who is a luthier in Istanbul.

In the 1980s, Weinstein had made his first encounter with a violin from the Holocaust. A young man brought him one that had belonged to his grandfather for repair. When Weinstein opened it up, he found black powder inside, soon realizing that it was ashes from the crematoria of Auschwitz, where the grandfather had last played the instrument.

From 1996, Weinstein started to systematically collect string instruments that were connected with the Holocaust. At that time no one in Israel would buy German instruments, and so they were mothballed. Weinstein restored these instruments and collected the stories. Originally limited to violins of emigrants, Weinstein started to concentrate on instruments that had in some way to do with the Holocaust. Today the Violins-of-Hope Collection comprises more than 60 instruments.

In the first decade of the new millennium, Weinstein started to use the instruments of the Violins-of-Hope Collection to initiate concerts and to combine the concerts with educational events teaching about the Holocaust.

In 2008, Weinstein initiated the first major concerts in Istanbul and Jerusalem. Conducted by Omer Welber, the Istanbul Philharmonic and the Ra'anana Symphonette accompanied Israeli virtuoso Shlomo Mintz (with whom Weinstein had maintained a longstanding friendship), Yair Dalal and Turkey's Cihat Askin as they played sixteen violins that had outlasted the Holocaust. It was followed in September 2010 by concerts at the 46th Sion International Music Festival in Sion, Switzerland and on 27 January 2011 at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Madrid.

In 2012, Weinstein and the violins from the Violins-of-Hope Collection travelled the USA for the first time. The exhibition and concerts were organized by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina.

In May 2013, his violins were played at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco by the Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. Concerts and exhibitions in Rome and in the Villa Musica in Neuwied, Germany, followed in 2014.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Weinstein's work was recognized by an exhibition and a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmonie.

In 2016 and 2017, Weinstein organized concerts and exhibitions in Monterrey, Mexico, Houston, Texas, Cleveland, Ohio, Jacksonville and Sarasota, Florida, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and in Bucharest, Romania.

In March 2018, the Violins-of-Hope played with the Nashville Symphony in Nashville, Tennessee.

Death

Weinstein died on 4 March 2024 in Tel Aviv at the age of 84.

Memberships and awards

Weinstein won a gold medal and a certificate of excellence for violin-sound at Salt Lake City in 1982; he was a member of Entente International des Maître Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art; a member of Bienfaiteur de Groupement des Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art de France; and was a member of the Violin Society of America. He served as a judge in the violin-makers' competition in Salt Lake City in 1998 and as a judge in the Étienne Vatelot Concours, Paris 2004. He was awarded the prestigious Ole Bull prize, Bergen, Norway, 2007. As one of the founders of Keshet Eilon violin master courses, he operated a violin-making atelier and lectured on the instruments' history, construction and care.

Weinstein received the Medal of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, signed by the president and handed to him by Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a ceremony held in the Jewish Museum in Berlin on 14 December 2016. He also received the Ernst-Cramer-Medal for the Violins-of-Hope project by the Israel-German association (Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft e.V.).

In 2014, the Israel Postal Company issued a new stamp celebrating the Violins-of-Hope. The stamp, titled "Violins that Survived the Holocaust," depicts a violin adorned with a Star of David, a common symbol of the Violins-of-Hope. In the background is a sketch of the barbed-wire fence at Auschwitz.

Further reading

  • Grymes, James A., Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind's Darkest Hours. Harper Perennial, New York, ISBN 9780062246837.
  • Levin, Daniel, Violins and Hope: From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall. George F. Thompson Publishing, Staunton VA, ISBN 9781938086861.

References

  1. Freeman Whalen, Meg,"Violins of Hope: Demonstrate the Power of Memory and Art", The Jewish Magazine, November 2011; retrieved 13 March 2018
  2. Eren Frucht, Leora, "Israeli Life: Breaking the Silence", Hadassah Magazine, March 2008; retrieved 13 March 2018
  3. Morgan, Dan,"Forgotten strings recall Holocaust horror", Edition CNN, 27 January 2011; retrieved 13 March 2018
  4. Eren Frucht, Leora, "Israeli Life: Breaking the Silence", Hadassah Magazine, March 2008; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  5. Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance and salvation during the holocaust and world war II. McFarland. pp. 292–293. ISBN 978-1-4766-7056-0.
  6. Rothert, Frank, "Geigen mit Geschichte", Jüdische Allgemeine, 29 April 2009; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  7. "Amnon Weinstein turned grief into music again". The Economist Group. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  8. DW Culture, "After Decades of Silence, Holocaust Violins Sound in Jerusalem", Deutsche Welle, 25 September 2008; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  9. Violinist.com, "The Violins of Hope: World Premiere in Sion, Switzerland", Violinist.com, 3 September 2010; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  10. Actualidadevangelica, "Violins de la Memoria y de la esperanza, para recordar el Holocausto", Actualidadevangelica.es, 2 February 2011; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  11. Brown, Steven, "Violins of Hope tell their stories in sound", The Charlotte Observer, 10 April 2012; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  12. Grimaldiforum Monaco, "THE VIOLINS OF HOPE", Grimaldiforum Monaco, 5 May 2013; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  13. VivaToscanini, "Violins of Hope. Auditorium of Rome tools 'survivors Holocaust", Viva Toscanini, 14 January 2014; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  14. Milch, Volker, "Geigen von Holocaust-Opfern erklingen in der Neuen Synagoge Mainz", Wiesbadener Tageblatt, 10 November 2014; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  15. Hudson, Alexandra, "Holocaust victims 'Violins of Hope' to resound in Berlin Philharmonic", Reuters, 27 January 2015; retrieved: 16 May 2018
  16. Enlace Judio, "Los 'Violones de la Esperanza' tocarán para México, en el Festival Lejaim", enlacejudio.com, 9 December 2015; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  17. Hodge, Shelby, "Extraordinary violins and Ted Koppel enrich Holocaust Museum Houston's $1.2 million dinner", culturemap Houston, 6 October 2016; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  18. Lewis, Zachary, "Violins of Hope project left deep, long-lasting impact on Northeast Ohio (analysis)" Archived 25 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Cleveland.com, 29 January 2016; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  19. Jacksonville Symphony, "Violins of Hope", Jacksonville Symphony; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  20. Ghabour, Dahlia, "Violins of Hope: Historic Holocaust instruments featured in Sarasota programs", Herald Tribune, 27 January 2017; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  21. Library of Congress, "Israeli Violinmaker Amnon Weinstein to speak on "The Violins of Hope" March 23", Library of Congress, 13 March 2017; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  22. Grigoras Butu, Alina, "Violins of Hope heated up the Romanian Athenaeum's stage to mark Israel's 69th anniversary" Archived 6 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine, The Romania Journal, 26 April 2017; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  23. Teegue, Cass, "Nashville Brings Violins of Hope to the Middle Tennessee Community", Pride Publishing Group, 8 March 2018; retrieved: 16 May 2018
  24. Rosenwald, Michael S. (21 March 2024). "Amnon Weinstein, Who Restored Violins From the Holocaust, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  25. Violins of Hope restorer dies Slipped Disc
  26. Federal Foreign Office, "Violins of Hope: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany presented to Amnon Weinstein", Auswaertiges-Amt.de, 15 December 2016; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  27. Hessische Staatskanzlei, "Festakt 50 Jahre Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft (DIG) mit Verleihung der Ernst-Cramer-Medaille on Amnon Weinstein", Staatskanzlei.hessen.de, 30 October 2016; retrieved: 13 March 2018
  28. Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy, "Israeli violin stamp recalls 'tortured' Jewish violins and their owner from Holocaust era", The Jerusalem Post, 16 April 2014; retrieved: 13 March 2018

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