Gateway High School to host performances with Violins of Hope

Violins rescued from the Holocaust will be played by Gateway High School students.

The performance is one of more than 50 happening throughout the region as part of Violins of Hope, a collection of more than 100 string instruments that have been rescued and restored by violin makers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein.

Some of the instruments are displayed at the Posner Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland through Nov. 21. Others are being played at schools and in concert halls and are used to educate people of all faiths all over the world.

There will be two events Oct. 19 at Gateway High School in collaboration with the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium Community Network, a partnership of the many faith communities in Monroeville that encourages fellowship and dialog among religious leaders and communities.

“This will be powerful,” said Rabbi Barbara Symons of Temple David, part of the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium Community Network.

Gateway’s Shawn Whelan, history and world religion teacher and sponsor of the interact and history clubs, is the person who connected the school to Violins of Hope through Symons.

About two dozen students will perform a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, said Dennis Persin, orchestra director at the high school and middle school.

They also will be performing a Jewish folk song, “Ani Ma’amin,” the Israeli national anthem and the theme from “Schindler’s List.”

They will finish with “God Bless America.”

“This is a calling for peace,” said Persin. “We want a unified message. For the students to be able to perform with these instruments, to be able to play something with such meaning, will be a peak moment in their lives.”

Having the instruments is a way to keep the stories of these musicians alive, said organizers of Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh, which functions under the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and helped bring the collection here.

Sharing the individual stories behind these violins can help people understand the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators throughout Europe between 1933 and 1945.

During the day on Oct. 19, Gateway High School students will learn about the backstories of the violins will be shared historically, geographically and, most importantly, through the hands that played them.

“Attendees who enter as soloists will emerge as a symphony of purpose and hope,” Symons said.

When there is something happening in Monroeville, the Interfaith Ministerium makes an effort to be a part of it. The Rev. Linda Orsen Theophilus of Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Eastmont, a member of the Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium Community Network, said she said is particularly pleased to have this opportunity in Monroeville.

“It is so important that we remember and that we learn from the past and do better now and in the future,” Theophilus said.

“The use of music can be comforting,” said Symons. “We need to learn about it, to prevent it from happening again, to anyone. This is a wonderful way to bring this exhibit to the eastern suburbs.”

Symons said it is not only about the music, though music plays many roles in the Holocaust. She introduces Elie Wiesel’s “Night” — a memoir of his experience with his father in Nazi death camps — to high school sophomores. It is about what can happen “by focusing on the danger that occurs when we see people through only one aspect of their identity.”

“The impact of having students play these pieces is beyond words: They embody hope and harmony,” Symons said. “It is also to educate about the Holocaust through personal stories connected to the violins; these inanimate objects have stories to tell about the hands who played them. The goal is ultimately to heal brokenness then and now.”

She said when people take time to come together to be immersed in one another’s history and stories, we strengthen humanity.

There will also be an event at Christ the Divine Shepherd called “The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht)” a wave of antisemitic violence that occurred in Germany in 1938.

In the years that followed, more than glass would be shattered: Families were torn apart, businesses ruined, people lost their lives simply because they were Jews or other “undesirables,” Symons said.

“We want to speak out about all forms of hate and not just against Jews,” Symons said. “We want to celebrate the diversity of humanity and sing and pray together for personal healing of the world.”

The event at 7 p.m. Oct. 19 in the Gateway auditorium will be a performance for the community. There also will be a daytime concert for the school only.

Another event is being held 7 p.m. Nov. 9 at Christ the Divine Shepherd in Monroeville.

The events are free.