The Violins of Hope, the Holocaust’s “stringed survivors,” have been the subject of concerts, documentaries, books and articles and countless YouTube videos. Now they and the man who created the collection are the subject of a new play, The Violin Maker, having its American premiere at Long Beach’s International City Theatre (ICT) starting Friday, April 25.
Written by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak (artistic director of The Braid), the play focuses on Israeli violin maker Amnon Weinstein who gathered and restored damaged and broken violins that endured the Holocaust to create the assemblage now known as the Violins of Hope. But before Weinstein can bring these instruments back to life and to the world, he must wrestle with his own ghosts, and those of his family.
The play weaves the generational story of Weinstein and especially his father, with heartbreaking stories behind some of the instruments.
Directed by ICT artistic director caryn desai [sic], in addition to Bruce Nozick as Amnon, the cast includes Sheer Aviram, Matthew Bohrer, Matthew Henerson, Lielle Kaidar, Morgan Dean Lauff and Aviva Pressman, each of whom play multiple characters in Israel and the U.S. as well as in memory, in Lithuania and Germany before and during World War II.
Telling the stories
“The development of the play began with the notion that each of the violins has a story,” says Rosenbaum. She had heard stories from Amnon’s son, Avshalom (Avshi) Weinstein, and some short descriptions. “We landed on stories we knew we had to include from the get-go.”
“We didn’t want to make them scenes,” says Spinak. “The stories needed to stay first-person narrative and illustrate what drove Amnon further into conflict.”
“We chose stories that reflect the different kinds of violins in different situations—from ghettos, hidden in forests and from survivors who wanted to destroy any German-made instrument,” says Rosenbaum.
So audience members will learn about:
- The man on a train bound for a concentration camp who threw his violin case from the narrow window to a rail worker, saying “please, sir, where I’m going – I won’t need this. Here, take my violin, so it can live!” And how after the war, the rescuer’s family honors its owner’s last wish.
- The father who calls his violin “Friend’ because playing it for food saved his family from starvation.
- The Strauss waltz that saved a violinist from execution.
- The violinist who can’t bear to play the violin of her murdered Jewish friend, but wants her to be remembered.
- The boy whose violin is his avenging weapon against the Nazis.
There must be music
As befitting it’s subject, the production will feature Dr. Noreen Green (founding artistic director and conductor of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony) on piano and Jonathan Rubin on the Shony Alex Braun violin.
Green has curated the music since the initial Braid production. “Lisa and I and the original director Susan Morgenstern, met with Noreen at her house to really drill down on the choices,” says Spinak. “Noreen’s knowledge of Jewish music is unsurpassed, and she helped us choose music that is moving and matches the story.”
Audiences will hear selections ranging from the Meditation from Massenet’s Thaïs, the Hassidic folk tune Ai Di Di Di Dai, the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Israeli folksong Zum Gali Gali.
Born from conversations
The genesis of the play came from conversations between Green and Gail D. Solo, an honorary board member of The Braid. They realized that the story behind the creation of the Violins for Hope was the perfect subject for a play with music.
They presented the idea to Spinak who also saw the dramatic possibilities. She brought in Rosenbaum, a writer and dramaturg at The Braid. “I felt I had a personal connection to it,” Rosenbaum says. Her award-winning novel, A Day of Small Beginnings, was inspired by her family history, and that of her in-laws, Polish Holocaust survivors.
“Stories from the Violins of Hope was developed as a piece with seven actors, a quartet and piano,” says Spinak. “Then the Covid lockdown came and our beautiful presentation didn’t happen.”
A video of the Braid’s production was created during the 2021 pandemic. “So those who had bought tickets could see the show,” says Spinak. “With actors performing from scripts, without sets or costumes, accompanied by musicians from the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, the film was shown globally.” Translated into several languages it was brought to the United Nations Program on Holocaust Remembrance.
Expanding the story
The Violin Maker received its world premiere in 2023 at the Bondi Theater in Sydney, Australia.
This new, fully-staged play dives deeper to follow the arc of Weinstein’s life — from his father to himself. When he learned, after the war, that all his relatives he had left behind in Eastern Europe had been murdered, Amnon’s father, luthier (a craftsperson who builds or repairs stringed instruments) Moshe Weinstein, had a heart attack. He stored any violin that had been through the Holocaust away in the rafters and never touched or talked about them again. Years later, his son Amnon reclaimed and restored them. “This is a story that needs to be told,” Rosenbaum says.
Following are excerpts from my interviews with Rosenbaum and Spinak about the play’s creation and what it means to them.
What was it like meeting and working with Amnon?
Rosenbaum – We never got to meet in person. I did extensive interviews with him via FaceTime during Covid. He was so generous and so kind. He was a real character and could not have been more gracious. And I also got to FaceTime with his grandchildren.
I couldn’t have written the play without Amnon and his wife sharing their thoughts and memories. Here was a man who grew up with a father who was also a luthier who kept so many secrets. The violins represented the secrets literally hanging over their head.
The play asks several questions. How did he come to terms with the violins his father couldn’t bear to destroy? How did this man s move past inherited pain and restore something broken in his family? He decided to not live in shame but do something else. What finally led him to take the violins down and not only restore them but send them out into the world in an act of hope?
He died a year ago and may his memory be a blessing. We decided not to change the play to reflect that. It’s a memory play.
How did Amon explain his restoration process to you?
Rosenbaum – He shifted his workshop to his kitchen so he could show me via computer. He talked about the wood like spruce or maple, how it’s carved and shaped into a violin. It was fascinating to hear him describe repairing cracks, replacing parts like pegs or the fingerboard, measuring the thickness and gradation of the soundboard and applying or restoring the finish with varnish. I learned a lot.
What did you enjoy about writing the play?
Spinak – We had the opportunity to tell stories that a lot of people don’t know. Amnon’s wife Assi was a journalist and relative of the Bielski family that played a crucial role in the Holocaust resistance effort. They established a partisan group in the Belorussian forests.
We were also able to add the story of Mordechai Schlein, known as Motele, a gifted Jewish-Belarussian violinist and partisan fighter. At 14 he executed a sabotage mission against Nazi forces.
There were nuggets embedded in Lisa’s exhaustive interview transcripts that we knew were important to use as a basis for the story.
Amnon was interviewed on a radio show after he was invited to Germany to lecture on the violins his father hid away. After that, Holocaust violins from people who had moved to Israel or fled the Holocaust started flowing to him. It was a pivotal moment for us. How did this attention make him feel and what was he going to do with all these instruments?
He also had a German apprentice who forced him to confront memories he wanted to excise from his life.
These chronicles gave us a roadmap to tell his story and the larger story of the Violins of Hope.
Why did you want to write this play?
Rosenbaum – The story deeply moved me. The Holocaust took so much away from people and this story exemplifies that. The greatest tragedy is the loss of talent. How many exceptional people were silenced? How many scientists, writers and musicians who might have uplifted the world?
It touched me that Amnon overcame family trauma and insisted on returning those voices to the world. The first violin he worked on by himself had appalling evidence of its presence in a death camp. He was horrified by it and wanted nothing to do with it. It haunted and shook him.
Thank goodness Amnon listened to that “still small voice” and had the courage to give up making new violins and dedicate himself solely to restoring these violins. Now renowned violinists like Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz and Daniel Hope have played them around the world.
Why did you and The Braid want to be involved in the project?
Spinak- My litmus test for which shows to support is what do they teach and how do they make me feel? Art can change a person and lead to action.
I think a story of repaired stringed survivors is about any kind of brokenness that gets mended. We all have brokenness and we’re all survivors of things. How do we take those pieces and make them whole?
This play moves beyond that to ask how do we amplify the voices of these who don’t have them anymore and put them out into the world to move people?
What’s the lesson and what should audiences take away?
Rosenbaum – Despite everything, we survive. The instrument owners are lost and we’re here to tell their story and show the beauty that people are capable of creating.
In these times of uncertainty and hate when people are on edge and there’s so much divisiveness, watching and hearing this story brings tears. A story of doing good in the world in spite of devasting circumstances also moves and inspires people and brings a sense of hope.
International City Theatre is in the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center’s Beverly O’Neill Theater, 330 East Seaside Way, Long Beach. Performances through Sunday, May 11 are at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $56 on Thursdays-Saturdays and $59 on Sundays. Previews will be at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 24 with tickets at $44. For more information and to buy tickets, call 562-436-4610 or visit InternationalCityTheatre.org.
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