Jewish violin goes to the Oscars
The touching story of Joe Feingold, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, and his violin are made into a documentary, which is set to participate in the Oscars on Sunday night. Feingold says: 'This was the most worthwhile purchase of my life.'
Joe Feingold would accompany his singer mother as a child in Warsaw, until she was murdered in Treblinka. After the war, he bought a violin, immigrated to America, and has played longingly in her memory ever since. A year ago, at the age of 92, Feingold gave his violin away to an outstanding Hispanic student from a bad New York neighborhood so the music could go on. This touching story was made into a documentary, which will compete Sunday night at the Oscars.
This convoluted story begins in Warsaw's pre-World War II. Joe Feingold, 93, an architect who lives in New York, was a child then. His mother was an amateur singer, who like many Jewish mothers pressured him to study the violin. "My mother would occasionally perform in Warsaw, singing songs in Polish and Yiddish, and I would accompany her," said Joe.
At the beginning of the war they parted ways: his mother and brother were sent to the Treblinka death camp and did not survive. Joe and his father were moved around until eventually they were sent to a labor camp in Siberia. Before his mother was murdered, Joe received a letter from her reciting one of the songs they used to perform.
After the war, Joe found himself in a refugee camp in Frankfurt, Germany, and while wandering around the flea market, he came across an old violin. Overcome with nostalgia, he decided to buy it. "I paid for it with a packet of American cigarettes. For me, this was the most worthwhile purchase of my life," he said.
And indeed, this violin accompanied him throughout his life, and would always remind him of his mother.
Joe immigrated to America, studied architecture, and in every moment he could spare, he would play the violin.
Last year, after 60 years of ownership, Feingold decided to bequeath the violin to 12-year-old Brianna Perez, a Hispanic girl from a crime-ridden Bronx neighborhood in New York, who was studying violin at an art school. This was part of an initiative to deliver musical instruments to outstanding young musicians.
"It is true that my violin has a special meaning to me, but now it has a special meaning for someone else. It is important to know when to let go," said Joe. "Besides, I'm older now and I can no longer play with as much pleasure as I used to."
The meeting between Joe and Brianna was poignant, during which she played an old song that his mother used to sing with him.
This amazing story was made into a documentary. This documentary is a 25-minute American movie, directed by Kahane Cooperman, a Jewish director, and it is distributed worldwide by the Israeli distribution company Go2Films. According to different estimations, it stands a chance to win the coveted award.
Joe himself will not attend the ceremony, but he will keep his fingers crossed from home: "At my age, going on such a voyage is a bit too much. I would be very excited if the film won an Oscar," he said on Saturday in a trembling voice. "In any case, I feel like I've already won the award since my story is so beautifully told."
Joe chose to end his remarks with a timely message, in which he referred to the policies of the new President Trump: "As someone who came to America as a Holocaust survivor, as a refugee and immigrant, the mistreatment and heartlessness that immigrants are facing here today really bothers me."
