Amnon Weinstein grew up in Tel Aviv surrounded by ghosts. His parents, Jews from Eastern Europe who moved to what in 1938 was known as Palestine, rarely spoke of the 400 family members killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In the 2014 book "Violins of Hope" by James A. Grymes, Weinstein recalls growing up in a household whose grief kept them from speaking about those lost family members; a home haunted by the tears of refugees crying themselves to sleep in the Weinstein's guestroom.
Decades later, Amnon Weinstein finally broke his family's silence with music, beginning an effort to restore violins of Jewish prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. This February, he's bringing 16 of these "Violins of Hope" to performances throughout the Sarasota area.
Monday at 1 p.m., Gulf Coast Live is on location at the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee with a special presentation of "Violins of Hope" with Amnon and Avshi Weinstein, the father-and-son master violin crafters who are restoring these instruments and preserving their stories.
Also joining the program is Jeremy Lisitza, the program director with the Jewish Federation, to talk about how the federation brought the Violins of Hope program to Southwest Florida and the program's connections in South Florida.
Daniel Jordan, concertmaster of the Sarasota Orchestra, will also be performing music on some
the violins Amnon and Avshi have restored and speaking to the history each instrument contains.
