Violins of Hope: Reviving Those Silenced by the Nazis

by Liz Goldner

July 1, 2025

Violins from Mr. Weinstein’s collection on display in his workshop. Many in his collection had been owned by Jews during the Holocaust. Courtesy of Menahem Kahana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

Violins of Hope is a collection of magnificently restored violins that had originally belonged to European Jews before and during the Holocaust. The violins, repaired by two Israeli luthiers (violin repairmen), are used in recitals and concerts around the world to honor those silenced by the Nazis.

Spearheading the project is Tel Aviv-based Avshi Weinstein who founded it with his late father Amnon Weinstein. who passed away in 2024. The father and son team have been bringing the violins to concert level quality for decades. Their mission is to bring back to life the voices of those who lost their lives during the Holocaust through the playing of violins, violas and cellos. Their concerts convey the message of hope and transformation through music.

Dennis Kim, Pacific Symphony Concertmaster with members of the symphony’s string section at University Synagogue, Irviine, CA. All images courtesy, Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

Violins of Hope traveled to Orange County during the first half of June. They were played in four museums, a university, a concert hall and a synagogue. Performers at these events included virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman and Pacific Symphony concertmaster Dennis Kim. At each event, sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, dozens of magnificent instruments were displayed in the manner of fine art. The events also included informal talks by Avshi Weinstein about the origins of select violins, the people who played them, how they found their way to Amnon’s Tel Aviv workshop after World War II, and Weinstein family stories.

The more than 60 Violins of Hope have been played throughout the world, including Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Paris, Cleveland, Nashville, Berlin (celebrating the anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp liberation), Mexico City, Guadalupe and Calgary. The project is next scheduled to travel to Colorado for a series of August events.

Avshi Weinstein, Co-Founder, Violins of Hope.

The history of Violins of Hope in fact features three generations of Israeli men, all of whom suffered personal losses of relatives, friends and acquaintances to the Holocaust, and who transformed those losses into hope. Amnon’s father Moshe, the first luthier in the family, was in his Tel Aviv workshop soon after the war ended when he was informed that up to 400 of his relatives had been murdered in the Holocaust.

Amnon and Moshe also witnessed the immense suffering of Holocaust survivors in their own homes, communities and businesses. Many survivors moved to Tel Aviv soon after the war ended, and Moshe generously welcomed several of them to stay in his Tel Aviv apartment as they recovered from their death camp horrors. Amnon, born in 1939, was still a child when he witnessed Holocaust survivors grapple with their demons. He was haunted for years by what he saw and the stories he heard from them.

Niv Ashkenazi on Violin, Jason Stoll on Piano at University Synagogue, Irvine, CA.

In the 1980s a man with an Auschwitz prisoner identification tattoo arrived at Amnon’s workshop with a severely damaged violin that he wanted repaired. Amnon nearly turned him away, but after agreeing to repair it, he discovered within it ashes from the crematoria of Auschwitz.

Other Holocaust survivors began bringing their instruments for repair or to donate; these Amnon generously accepted and repaired. He also began documenting the survivors’ stories. In the 1990s, he spoke about his experiences with the violins on the radio and requested that people bring him more instruments for repair or donation. Many showed up at his workshop with violins that they had stored away, relating to him their own and their families’ stories about the death camps.

In his book, “Violins of Hope” (2014), James A. Grymes wrote that Amnon had finally decided to reclaim his lost heritage, including violin playing, which has been an important aspect of Jewish culture for hundreds of years. He also met with members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, many themselves Holocaust survivors.

Visitors viewing Violins of Hope on Display at Hilbert Museum of California Art, Orange, CA.

In the early 2000s, Amnon and Avshi began touring the world with their violins. In 2006, at a concert in Paris, a friend suggested that they name their project, “Violins of Hope.” During those concerts, Amnon began relating to the audience his own and others’ experiences during the Holocaust. Avshi continues to follow his father’s mission, telling many compelling stories about the Holocaust and about his family.

One story that he often relates regards the 2008 Film, “Defiance,” which dramatized the real-life adventures of four Jewish resistance fighters in 1941. They hid out in a forest to escape the Nazis, gathered to them many other resistance fighters, and built a school and nursery in their compound. The film’s plot was based on the story of Amnon Weinstein’s father-in-law. In 1975, Amnon married Assaela Bielski Gershoni, whose father was one of the resistance fighters profiled in that film.

The story of the Weinsteins and of their Violins of Hope project is more than just a compelling drama, but a moral vision still in the early stages of being shared with the world.

Liz Goldner is an award-winning art writer based in Laguna Beach. She has contributed to the LA Times, LA Weekly, KCET Artbound, Artillery, AICA-USA Magazine, Orange County Register, Art Ltd. and several other print and online publications. She has written reviews for ArtScene and Visual Art Source since 2009. 

Liz Goldner’s Website.