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LevinAmazon1
As of July 2021, Violins and Hope is #1 on Amazon's New Releases for the Violin section.

 

 

 

 

Levin

"Violins and Hope is a beautifully produced book. Large and heavy, with fine binding, thick paper and many gorgeous photographs, it may be called a coffee-table book in the best sense: one that anyone would be proud to display. Most of the story is told in the first quarter of the book, the rest being devoted principally to displaying and briefly commenting on the photographs. This makes more sense when we learn that author Daniel Levin is a professional photographer."
—Raphael Klayman, The Strad (read full review here)

"Like a rich tapestry that keeps unfolding to reveal unexpected layers and designs, Levin's book intertwines the stories behind the violins he photographed at Weinstein's studio with important historical figures and events."
—Eve Glover, Jerusalem Post Magazine (read full article here pdf)

"Extraordinarily Moving"
—Tom Service, BBC London, Music Matters

"The violin has for centuries been an important symbol of Jewish culture. Bronislaw Huberman, who owned the Stradivarius upon which I play, used his violin to change the world. Through his influence as a beloved artist and his undying determination, Huberman helped countless European Jewish musicians and their families escape the inevitable fate of the Holocaust by creating a new orchestra in the Jewish motherland. The restored "violins of hope" are connected to the same story and serve as a reminder of human resilience and the truly immense power of music, which can uplift the soul during even the most dire of circumstances. Daniel Levin, in his magnificent book, Violins and Hope, brings the story full circle by showing the world how Amon Weinstein restores violins that survived such a dark past so they can sing forever."
—Joshua Bell, violinist and conductor

"The noble and righteous quest of restoring to life and to the concert-hall Jewish violins that survived the Holocaust, although many of their owners perished, is movingly narrated by the insightful commentaries and richly toned, intricately layered photographs of Daniel Levin. Levin's Violins and Hope takes us into the Tel Aviv workshop of the story's protagonist, renowned Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein, and conveys not just his tools and methods, but the heart and soul of this extraordinary man and his vision."
—Barbara Tannenbaum, Curator of Photography, Cleveland Museum of Art

"Like Amnon's restored violins, Daniel's book is a lasting gift to us all."
—Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor & Music Director, The Cleveland Orchestra, Author of Als ich die Stille fand. Ein Plädoyer gegen den Lärm der Welt

"Any violin ever made is the embodiment of birth and hope.
From the shape of its body to the strength of its bow,
the images are rendered with love. To see them is to be informed
by time. The time Daniel Levin took to make the pictures and the time
Amnon Weinstein takes to restore the violin.
Each step is speaking of patience, crescendo, and singular symphonic tone.
Tone is the rapture that embraces us collectively and alone."
—Larry Fink, photographer and author of Boxing, The Forbidden Pictures, Night at the Met, Primal Elegance, and Social Graces

"Violins and Hope is a fascinating and moving documentation of how sounds of memory not only connect people and their stories across time and space, but also possess the power to convey the message of hope as an aspect of Holocaust remembrance."
— Maoz Azaryahu, Director of the Herzl Institute for Zionism, University of Haifa

"Daniel Levin's careful and compassionate visual documentation of these wonderful artifacts and their preservationist provides a window into both the perseverance of humanity and a reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust."
—Dr. Kenneth J. Bindas, Professor of History at Kent State University and author of Modernity and the Great Depression: The Transformation of American Society, 1930–1941

"This lavishly photographed book details the process used by master luthier Amnon Weinstein in his Violins of Hope project, repairing and resurrecting violins which were damaged, lost, confiscated, or otherwise ruined in the Holocaust and the ghettos. The photographer, Daniel Levin, shows the many steps Amnon takes to identify and catalog each violin and how he diagnoses which repairs are needed on any given violin."
—Eli Lieberman, Assistant Librarian, Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews (read full blurb here)

 

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