Long Post. Its worth it.
This weekend was amazing. Words fail. For nine months a committee has been working on bringing Violins of Hope to Elgin. The CKI book group read Violins of Hope, written by James Grymes in 2018. At the time I said that while the book was important and the project to restore violins that survived the Holocaust breathtaking, I had wished I had read a kindle version and that music with these violins were embedded in the book so that we could hear them. I reread it in March as part of this process.  

This weekend I and about 1200 other people got to hear them, thanks to the muscians of Chamber Music on the Fox and The Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Local partners for this whirlwind series of events include Gail Borden Public Library, the ESO, Chamber Music on the Fox, U-46, the City of Elgin, the Elgin History Museum and Congregation Kneseth Israel. Local funders include the Seigle Foundation and the Palmer Foundation. All this was brought to Elgin by the JCC Chicago. 

We, in Elgin, did it differently. We were privileged, lucky to have these violins for 5 months. I’m told that Manhattan only had them for one week. We brought lots of people together. We hosted a dinner so people could mingle from those agencies. I guess that doesn’t happen other places. It’s just what we do.

Why is this project so important? The program, which extends through the end of August, showcases the best of Elgin. Our ability to collaborate, to work together, to host world class events. More than 10,000 people have toured the Gail Borden Public Library exhibits. They have learned about the Holocaust, about music and about “Righteous Gentiles.” those who helped some people survive the atrocities of the Nazi regime. If they have wandered upstairs as well, they have had the opportunity to learn about the history of the Jews of Elgin and Congregation Kneseth Israel for our 130 years.  

As part of the Violins of Hope project, there are the two exhibits at the library, a film, “Defiant Requiem” about the Verdi Requiem played in Terezin, the play Thin Edge of the Wedge which tells firsr person accounts of the Holocaust and was performed by U46 students. There are docent tours and 500 students saw the exhibit and heard the instruments thus far in May.  

Yet the highlight of all of the planning went into this past weekend.  

We began with a Kabbalat Shabbat service at Congregation Kneseth Israel, during the course of which we would be able to hear a few instruments and I, as the rabbi, would dedicate them. Now, to be clear, I have dedicated homes and a menorah and a library but never a violin. I wasn’t even sure how or why we would do this. But I crafted a service and wrote a prayer. The word violin in Hebrew is kinor which is the same word as the instrument that King David played. There are many mentions of kinor in the Psalms. The Sea of Galilee in Hebrew is Yam Kinneret, (same root) because it is shaped like a lyre.  

The word instrument is Klee, with were klee kodesh, holy instruments, vessels in the Holy Temple and people are described as klei kodesh. The word then is a contraction meaning Instruments of Song. Klezmer were the Jewish musicians who would wander and play this music primarily for weddings.  

Hearing Schindler’s List on the Klezmer Violin with its beautiful Star of David inlay was breathtaking. When I was the High Holy Day rabbi in Hamln Germany, the congregation had the tradition of playing Schindler’s List on the piano during Yizkor, the memorial prayers, while people would put stones around a lit yahzeit candle whil remembering their people. These participants often had no grave to visit. They had either left the former Soviet Union and emigrated to Germany or where Holocaust survivors again with no physical grave to visit. It was very powerful moment. Friday night was also powerful as we remembered. 

Here is a clip from YouTube, not of our soloist, but you will begin to understand the feeling: John Williams: Schindler’s List (violin solo) – Ellen Klodová 

As part of the Amidah, the central portion, the standing portion, there is a line that thanks God for keeping faith with those who sleep in the dust. Written by the rabbis in Talmudic times, Holocaust survivors have found it comforting as their own relatives were reduced to dust and ash. At least one of these violins when it was opened to be restored had ash in it. I kept thinking about this as part of Friday night. I am here to hear these exquisite instruments and the music of composers lost forever. Too many murdered. Their sole crime: being Jewish. .

At the end of the service, our Torah School band led us and our violinist in HaTikvah, the national anthem of Israel. HaTikvah means, the Hope. How more poignant could it be to have 4 middle school students play HaTivkah, one on the surviving cello. Voices were silenced during the Holocaust, but hope through our children still lives. My dedication poem prayer is at the end of these remarks. 

Saturday morning there was a Bat Mizvah as part of our regular Saturday morning services. This is not the most musical of families, rather they are into lots of sports and scouts. The kid did terrific . Her Torah portion and her haftarah portion included censuses. She drew from this that every person counts. That names matter and that no one should be bullied. Now the Nazis were experts at counting. But people became just a number. People didn’t really matter. They didn’t really count. They were dehumanized. One of the first steps in being able to murder them is to see them as less than human. 

Her haftarah portion from Hoea includes the promise that G-d will espouse us forever in justrice and righteousness, in faithfulness and lovingkindness. G-d also promises to “make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; I will also banish bow, sword, and war from the land. Thus I will let them lie down in safety.” 

The Bat Mitzvah has chosen to create a pollinator garden at CKI to be a Monarch Waystaion to live out this haftarah in very special and direct ways.  

In safety. What is safety?. What is secure? We spend a lot of time talking about safety. Planning for safety. Hiring police officers for safety. And talking about it with the Violins of Hope committee. But even I was surprised when I got to the Hemmens and the ESO had hired a security firm to wand everyone entering. While I am not shocked by this decision, I think that many of Elgin’s residents were surprised by the necessity. In the midst of rising anti-semitism, up 36% from 2021 to 2022, we cannot be too careful.  

James Grymes, the author of the book, Violins of Hope was present at the library earlier. He is a master storyteller and an ethnomusicologist. His presentation was fascinating and it was reprised at the symphony before the concert.  

The concert itself began shockingly with me. Yes, me. Some people had complained to the ESO that we were beginning the concert before sundown, thus violating some people’s understanding of the Jewish sabbath. The ESO graciously called me and then pushed the concert back an hour. And after some discussion I did Havdalah for 1200 people in front of a professional orchestra. It sounded good as an idea. Could I pull this off? I walked out onto a stage I have stood on before. For the Women’s March notably. For a few other things. And I explained what we were going to do and why. I missed one important line.  

“Many of the people who played these violins, in symphonies, at weddings, at other joyous events were systematically murdered. The instruments survive. The musicians may not have. What stories do they tell. Can we hear their voices still? Tonight as part of Havdalah, you hear and participate in living Judaism. Judaism still continues. By participating in Havdalah we take the profane and make it holy. Please join with me” 

Yes, 1200 people from all sorts of backgrounds joined with me, at least singing the la la la part. The spices, traditional for Havdalah helped to make a bittersweet moment concrete.  

Sunday’s concert performed by Chamber Music on the Fox was a more intimate affair with over 200 people at Congregation Kneseth Israel. Some people had never been to a synagogue before. Mark Seigle did a masterful job showing people a Torah and the bimah after the concert was over. One son of Holocaust survivors got to hold one of the playable instruments and found it so meaningful.  

The music itself was phenomenal, while I am not enough of a musician to talk about the accuracy or the musicality. All three programs, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were played with heart. There was a spiritual component that can not be put into words. At all. I know. I’m trying.  

I found myself staring out our stained glass windows at CKI thinking about Kristalnact, the Night of Broken Glass. What did the musicians think when they grabbed their violins and dashed off with them as part of their 50 kilos of baggage? What must they have been thinking when they played in the Auschwitz orchestra and watched their own families marched to their deaths? What did these instruments eee? Hear? What stories do they tell? 

And in the background I could hear some of our Torah School kids trying to mimic the sound of the violins. One was singing the lullaby with the violins. For some that might have been annoying. For me, I thought it was very, very special.

I was trained as a Holocaust educator by Facing History and Ourselves in the 1980s. Even then I was concerned about hate groups and white supremacy. What we are seeing today in this country and around the world is a continuation of a terrible trend that has many causes. Programs like Violins of Hope, I pray are the kind that help interrupt the cycle of violence. That is one of the real beauties of Violins of Hope, the coming together of people. And the music. So much more powerful than just reading the book, to hear the music lovingly performed on violins that witnessed so much and survived.  

Sitting on my coffee table right now is a book called Precious Legacy. These are photos of Judaic treasures form the State collection of Czechoslovakia. The violins that Elgin is privileged to showcase are indeed precious legacies. The voices of the musicians were silenced, far too early. The voices of these klee kodesh will continue for generations to come. That is the beauty of Violins of Hope. That is the hope.  

Violins of Hope continues through mid-September in Elgin. Check the Gail Borden Public Library website for additional programing or to sign up for a docent tour. https://gailborden.info/violinsofhope

To hear more of the stories, here is a Youtube clip, complete with music from author James Grymes:

Stories and Music from the Violins of Hope 

My Prayer of Dediction:

David taught us.
David sang:
Mizmor shir chanukat habayit l’david,
A Psalm of David
A song for the dedication of the temple.  

We dedicate synagogues, homes, libraries.
Sacred space.
We dedicate sacred time.
We make Shabbat holy, set apart.
A form of dedication. 

David played instruments, klei kodesh:
The Psalm tells us
To praise G-d.
To praise with blasts of the horn; a shofar
To praise with harp and lyre.   

To praise with timbrel and dance;
To praise with lute and pipe.  

To praise with resounding cymbals;
To praise with loud-clashing cymbals. 

How does one dedicate a violin? A cello?
How did these very instruments help some to survive? 

How does one hear the voices of those who were lost?
Can one hear them even now? 

Sh… 

Music speaks louder than words. 

Sh… 

Hear the bow against the strings. 

Sh… 

Hear the weeping and the joy. 

Mizmor shir chanukat hakinor.
A Psalm, a song for the dedication of this kinor, this violin.
May we use this very kinor, this very violin
That once was played with joy
At a wedding
At a dance
At a simcha 

To remember and to never forget
All of the voices
The instruments
And the musicians
Those who we lost
And those who are here today 

Turn our mourning into dancing
Our sackcloth back into joy.  

Help us find our voices again
To praise and to love
To play and to dance. 

Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathing is music
Breathing is our very soul
A gift from God.
Kol haneshama halleluyah 
Let all that breathes praise the LORD.
Hallelujah. 

Sh!  

Hear our breath. Hear the voices.