‘The Violin Maker’ Tells a Holocaust Story Through Music

The little-known story of Israeli Amnon Weinstein, a musical craftsman who gathered and restored violins that survived the Holocaust, is coming to the West Coast. “The Violin Maker” will have its American premiere on April 25 at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, where it will run until May 11.

The play, which features a blend of klezmer, Jewish liturgical and classical music by composers such as Mendelssohn and Mozart, was written by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak, artistic director of The Braid, with musical curation by Dr. Noreen Green, founding artistic director and conductor of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony and directed by ICT artistic director Caryn Desai. It’s based on the true story of Weinstein, who created a remarkable collection known as the Violins of Hope. “The Violin Maker” tells the stories of some of these violins.

Weinstein (Bruce Nozick) began repairing violins rescued from the Holocaust as a way to keep their histories alive. The play masterfully weaves Weinstein’s extraordinary story with the true tales behind each of the violins — as well as with music, performed live on stage by Dr. Green on piano and Jonathan Rubin on the violin once owned by  Shony Alex Braun. Although Braun’s violin is not one of the instruments that make up the Violins of Hope collection, it too survived the Holocaust and its story is told during the course of the play.

Weinstein was a second-generation Israeli violin maker. His father, Moshe, immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and established a violin-making studio in Tel Aviv in 1939 — a tradition that Amnon continued. He played the viola and trumpet, while his son, Avshalom, known as Avshi, inherited the craft of violin making, ensuring the family tradition remained alive.

Having lost most of his extended family in the Holocaust, Weinstein dedicated himself to locating violins once owned by Jews who had taken them to the Nazi concentration camps. Most of these instruments were simple, used for joyous occasions and often marked with a Star of David on their back. Weinstein’s goal was to restore them so they could be played in a concert marking Israel’s 60th anniversary. That concert, “Violins of Hope,” took place on Sept. 24, 2008, featuring soloist Shlomo Mintz, the Raanana Symphonette and the Istanbul Symphony Orchestra.

Weinstein was inspired to start this project after delivering a lecture on “Violins During the Holocaust” in Germany in the 1990s. Some violins had made their way to Israel with their owners, while others had been looted by the Germans. Many were left behind in ghettos, forests and concentration camps — cheap, worn-out instruments in dire need of restoration. Their repair required meticulous and prolonged effort to bring them back to playable condition.

The story of the violins was brought to Rosenbaum through Green, who spoke to someone from The Braid who suggested it would make an incredible story for a play. “Ronda then brought it to me because of my background,” said Rosenbaum. “My in-laws are all Holocaust survivors, and I had written a novel set in Eastern Europe, which involved a great deal of research on Jewish life in that region.”

She was also familiar with klezmer music, but said she had never heard of the Violins of Hope before. So, she started digging in, and the more she read, then more fascinated she was with the story. “Avshi, Amnon’s son, had a whole slew of stories about each of the violins,” said Rosenbaum. “Once I read them, I was extremely interested, but a group of stories doesn’t make a play. It wasn’t until I called Amnon himself and we had a long conversation, that I said ‘Yes’ and started writing the play.”

Rosenbaum admitted it wasn’t easy choosing between the stories. There are so many of them, and each one is emotional and moving. Some are truly inspiring. “Amnon’s story is the trunk of the tree from which all these violin stories will branch out,” she said. “All those lost voices, the incalculable loss of talent is what got to me.” The play features a blend of klezmer, Jewish liturgical and classical music by composers such as Mendelssohn and Mozart.

The entire Violins of Hope collection was scheduled to be exhibited at the Museum of the Holocaust in early March 2020. Dr. Green and the LA Jewish Symphony were preparing to perform at the Soraya Center for Performing Arts at CSUN. Then the pandemic hit, and it was years until the performance could take place. In the meantime, Rosenbaum started working on the play. “The Violin Maker” had its world premiere in 2023 at the Bondi Theater in Sydney, Australia. An earlier version, written by Rosenbaum and developed with Spinak, was presented as a theatrical work-in-progress under the title “Stories from the Violins of Hope.” 

This new, fully staged play dives deeper, with more stories, scenes and additional music, following the arc of Weinstein’s life — from a proud Israeli boy who wanted nothing to do with the Holocaust and his family’s pain, to a man who devotes his life to repairing “stringed survivors,” whose voices are now heard in concerts around the world.

Rosenbaum explained that Amnon understood the importance of those violins in telling the story to the world. The story was about their previous owners — those who perished and those who survived. Therefore, it was the story of the Holocaust itself. Once he started restoring them, he stopped building new violins and devoted the rest of his life to restoring those that survived the darkest period in human history.

Amnon understood the importance of those violins in telling the story to the world. The story was about their previous owners — those who perished and those who survived. Therefore, it was the story of the Holocaust itself.

Then, he placed them with musicians all over the world so a new generation could play and hear them. “The survivors of the Holocaust will not be here forever, but these violins will continue to tell their stories for generations to come,” said Rosenbaum.

The play weaves together various stories, including one about a man whose daughter brings his violin to Amnon before his 90th birthday and asks him to restore it. She tells Amnon that the violin had saved her father’s life during the Holocaust. “My father has arthritis and can’t play it anymore, but he wants this violin, which he calls his best friend, to be restored,” she says.

One story that touched Rosenbaum and Spinak especially was the story of a Frenchman who was on his way to Auschwitz in a cattle cart. He saw a railroad worker on the tracks and said to him, “Please take my violin. I wouldn’t need it where I’m going.” The man took the violin and kept it for many years. He wasn’t a violinist and never played it, but he understood its importance. His son, who had heard about Weinstein and his violin project, brought it to him and asked if he would take it and restore it.

“The compassion of this non-Jew for this violin and its owner was truly moving,” said Rosenbaum. “In an age when we see a rise in antisemitism, it’s important also to remember that we have allies in the world.”

For more information and to purchase tickets, call (562) 436-4610 or go to InternationalCityTheatre.org.