Schonbach, Germany, 1880
Playing Level: Very Good
Feivel Wininger lived in Romania with his elderly parents, wife and baby daughter, Helen. In October 1941, Feivel and thousands of other Jews were deported by train to the swamp land of Transnistria and further into Ukraine. The suffering and horrors of this exodus was harsh, but Feivel never gave up.
Finally, in the Ukrainian ghetto of Shargorod, he found a way to survive. A famous judge who was an amateur violinist recognized Feivel as the gifted child-violinist he was years ago and gave him his Italian, Amati violin. Feivel, who labored chopping wood for local Ukrainians tried the violin and his life changed. All of a sudden there was music. And hope.
A local Ukrainian peasant let him play at weddings and holidays in exchange for food and leftovers. Feivel lost his precious violin a short while later, but found a way to bring food to his family and some 17 people playing Ukrainian and Romanian music on another violin.
Many years later, in Israel, Helen brought her father’s violin to be repaired in the Weinstein’s workshop in Tel Aviv, so her old father could play again. Upon hearing this incredible story, the Weinsteins repaired the violin and since then, it has been a part of Violins of Hope and serves as a memorial to a man of courage and industry, a man of vision and kindness.
