This beautiful photography book chronicles the work of Ammon
Weinstein, master violin maker and creator of an educational program
about the Holocaust so moving and magnificent he received an Anne Frank
Special Recognition Award for his efforts.
**Gold Winner of the 2022 IPPY Awards in History
FOREWORD REVIEW'S 2021 INDIES FINALIST for Best Book in Photography
**Amnon Weinstein, an Israeli master luthier (violin maker), began a
project years ago that may be one of the most creative, effective, and
magnificent approaches to education on the topic of the Holocaust.
Trained by three of the most revered Cremona, Italian luthiers of the
twentieth century, Weinstein's vision was to restore violins that
survived the concentration camps and the ghettos, even when their owners
often did not. To date, more than seventy violins have been restored to
their highest playable condition. Following restoration, these
hauntingly beautiful instruments have been used in performances by
symphonies in Berlin, Cleveland, Istanbul, London, Quebec, Paris, San
Francisco, and many other cities across the world. Purposefully,
Weinstein makes certain that young musicians as well as members of some
of the world's most famed orchestras perform on them to packed concert
halls. In doing so, it's as if the past owners of the instruments return
to fill the listener-observer's mind and body. For his efforts, Amnon
and his "Violins of Hope" project received the 2020 Anne Frank Special
Recognition Award, created by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands to honor those who have demonstrated a commitment to
fighting intolerance, antisemitism, racism, or discrimination.
In Violins and Hope, Daniel Levin has made the most compelling and
beautiful series of photographs documenting Weinstein's collection of
violins, his workshop in Tel Aviv, and his processes for restoration.
This book is not a document of place, as much as it is a document of the
ethereal. For what Weinstein has done with these lost violins has been
to transform tragic loss into triumph in the most insightful and
powerful way imaginable. The care that Levin has taken to hone in on the
idiosyncrasies of Amnon's workshop, and his uncanny ability to celebrate
the beauty of light, is nothing short of remarkable.
The book's foreword is written by arguably the most well-suited
individual anywhere. Born in Austria, Franz Welser-Möst is one of the
most acclaimed conductors of the twenty-first century. He has been Music
Director of the Cleveland Orchestra since 2002, and, under his
direction, The Cleveland, as it has been fondly named by The New York
Times, has had twenty international tours, with shimmering reviews. All
too aware of his ancestry, Welser-Möst takes on our mutual history as no
one else could. And the book concludes with Levin's interview with Assi
Weinstein, Amnon's wife, who talks about the Violins of Hope project
and its enduring legacy.
