About Violins of Hope

Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust [watch on-demand now], narrated by Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, is a documentary featuring Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein and his efforts to restore violins recovered from the Holocaust. Some were played by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps; others belonged to the Klezmer musical culture, which was all but destroyed by the Nazis. From their amazing stories and Weinstein’s mission to collect and restore the instruments comes the inspiration for this one-hour documentary, which will be offered to PBS member stations nationwide. Generous support for this WVIZ/PBS ideastream production was provided by contributors to the ideastream Campaign for Community and the donors for Violins of Hope Cleveland.

About the Violins of Hope Collaboration

Played before and during the Holocaust, the Violins of Hope instruments have been painstakingly restored by Amnon Weinstein, a second-generation violin-maker, and serve as testaments to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of music to lift hearts in even the most horrific of circumstances.

ideastream: A proud partner
The organizations partnering on this project—which includes performances, educational programs and a major exhibition—are The Cleveland Orchestra, Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Facing History and Ourselves, ideastream, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. ideastream will document, report on and deliver programs relating to the many dimensions and activities surrounding this inspiring community collaboration.