Violins of Hope Opening Night + Reception – Community & Continuity
Date
Sun, May 3
Time
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
The Minnesota JCC is honored to host the opening event of Violins of Hope—an internationally acclaimed exhibition that brings restored Holocaust-era instruments, and the stories they carry, to communities around the world.
Join us for an evening of music and spoken reflection exploring how communities endure, fracture, and rebuild. Featuring the Minnesota JCC Symphony Orchestra and prominent community voices, the program moves from belonging to rupture and, ultimately, toward renewal—illuminating how music can preserve memory and deepen our sense of shared responsibility. Through orchestral works, oral histories, and readings, this interdisciplinary event celebrates cultural connection and our shared humanity. Audiences are invited to reflect on the resilience of community in times of fear and uncertainty, and to consider how continuity itself can become an act of hope and resistance.
Minnesota JCC Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Dr. Mark Elliot Bergman
Special Guests:
Avshi Weinstein, Co-Founder of Violins of Hope
Pastor Babette Chapman, University Pastor, Augsburg University
Najeeba Syeed, El-Hibri endowed chair and executive director of Interfaith Programs at Augsburg University
Followed by an opening reception hosted by RBC Wealth Management.
