Violins & Hope: Inside Amnon’s Workshop is a photographic exhibition of the violins and instrument workshop of Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein, founder of the Violins of Hope project. Created by Cleveland photographer Daniel Levin, the exhibition is on display at the Rolland Art Center at the University of Saint Francis from March 11-23, 2025. Levin’s 43 masterfully printed and framed photographs document Weinstein’s collection of violins, his workshop in Tel Aviv, and his processes for restoration.
Supporting the exhibition is a two-week commemoration of concerts, documentary film screenings, and events at various Fort Wayne locations relating to music and the Holocaust.
In addition, four historical instruments from the Violins of Hope collection will be on display in the exhibition and performed at events throughout the community.
Amnon Weinstein: Luthier
Amnon Weinstein spent the last three decades of his life locating and restoring violins that were played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. He dedicated this important work to 400 relatives he never knew. These grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins remained in Eastern Europe when Weinstein’s parents, Moshe and Golda, immigrated in 1938 to Palestine, where Moshe opened a violin shop. After the war, Moshe learned that his entire family—400 in all—had been murdered during the Holocaust. The pain of this discovery led to his first heart attack. Moshe never spoke of his family again. When the young Amnon would ask Golda about their relatives, she would show him a book about the Holocaust. Pointing to photos of the dead, she would say, “This is our family.” She would break down in tears, unable to explain further.
After becoming one of the most respected violin makers in the world, Amnon determined to reclaim his lost heritage. He started locating violins that were played by Jews in the camps and ghettos, painstakingly piecing them back together so they could be brought to life again on the concert stage. Although most of the musicians who originally played the instruments were silenced in the Holocaust, their voices and spirits live on through the violins that Amnon lovingly restored. He calls these instruments the Violins of Hope.
Violins & Hope: Inside Amnon’s Workshop
From March 9-23, 2025, lead partners, the Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne, the Pearl Street Arts Center, guided by a steering committee of local professionals and volunteers, have planned a photographic exhibit at the University of Saint Franics and series of community events focusing on music and the Holocaust.
Levin’s photographs serve not only to document a place, but they also reveal 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. These are beautiful photographic representations of Amnon’s delicate and enduring violins that have miraculously survived the Holocaust.
Daniel Levin: Artist’s Statement
Violins and Hope | From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall
The Holocaust-era violins displayed in this exhibition once played a vital role in helping Jews survive another day, often through forced performances in concentration camps. Some violins were played in the ghettos, offering cultural and spiritual sustenance. Restored by the masterful hands of Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, these violins bear profound witness to the horrors of the Holocaust and the resilience of the human spirit.
While these violins provided moments of hope and brief reprieve from immense mental and physical anguish, they became painful reminders of trauma after the war ended. The instruments, once cherished, were stigmatized by the memories they carried.
Beginning in the 1950s, Holocaust violins began arriving at Moshe Weinstein’s workshop, and later at his son Amnon’s. Both luthiers knew there was no market for restoring or selling these violins. Yet they never turned them away, even if it meant storing them in a darkened closet for years.
As I flew across the Atlantic toward Tel Aviv, I reflected: who is this man with such unique skills, unwavering purpose, and determination? Who is this visionary with the ability to restore these violins and transform them into instruments played by the world’s greatest violinists, heard by audiences in concert halls across the globe? I wondered how Amnon Weinstein had the foresight to gather communities around these violins—creating a sublime union of history, music, and memory. In short, I asked myself: who is Amnon Weinstein?
Throughout this journey, my goal has been to share Amnon’s story and his workshop near Tel Aviv with the world, just as he has so generously shared his gifts with us. This photographic exhibition and its accompanying book delve into the life of a man who has brought us something truly ethereal.
Violins and Hope | From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall was awarded the Independent Publisher’s National Book Award in History - Coffee Table Books. This book and the exhibition before you represent my desire to share the story of the Violins of Hope and the remarkable Amnon Weinstein with all who believe in the transformative power of art, music, and vision to heal and restore. Daniel Levin, MFA
About the Book
Daniel Levin is a Cleveland Ohio based conceptual artist, documentarian, filmmaker, professor, and author. He holds an MFA in Visual Art from the Vermont College of Fine Art and a BFA in Documentary Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he earned the Institute’s Purchase Prize.
Levin is currently working on a multi-year project entitled Kindness Repeated, a highly provocative series of high-resolution large-scale tableau self-portraits created across America that address unethical choices made by some contemporary elected officials who are oppressing their own populations. Without preaching and framed in beauty, each of the ten tableau photographs will reference the importance of knowing one’s history so that oppressive historical events are never repeated. History matters.