On Tuesday, January 31, Violins Of Hope visited Granada to explain the history behind their organization. Larry Lagin, the President of the East Bay Holocaust Education Center along with Marlene ¨Cookie¨ and Joshua explained the stories behind Violins Of Hope. They played the violin and accordion for the students and showed some of the songs that were played during the holocaust. They told about when these violins were brought from people who survived the holocaust and how they brought them back to life. One the musicians, Cookie, told a story of her father and what happened to him during the holocaust, escaping a labor camp in Ukraine.

The East Bay Holocaust Education Center president Larry Lagin spoke about what Violins Of Hope does around the world and the message they want to spread. Larry said he is a retired scientist at the Lawrence Livermore Lab, and he was there for 40 years. When he retired he wanted to do more good, so he helped create the East Bay Holocaust Education Center.

Lagin said, “A little over 2 years ago, we have sponsored around 15 different programs many of them free to schools and the public.”

Two years ago he decided he wanted to bring the Violins Of Hope to schools and give 45 free concerts to schools in the Tri-valley area, San Ramon and other cities. 

Violins of Hope have free exhibits open at The Bankhead Theater in downtown Livermore for two weeks, and they are open from 11 to 6pm. There are guided tours, and they have four paid concerts at the Bankhead  Theater. The concerts will be two hours long, with more of the instruments being played. Fourteen different instruments will be played at these concerts and seven instruments will be displayed in the lobby at the theater. There will be a movie at the Vine Cinemas in March as well.

Violins Of Hope chose to bring this show to the schools, and they wanted to have more of an education taught to the groups that are learning about the holocaust in their classes. The instruments they have are over 100 years old that were buried and brought back to life. The message they want to spread is to bring the voices of the past back to life to those who perished just because they were different.

Lagin ended with saying, “The message is to be kind to each other and everybody.” 

Please visit this link to learn more about Violins of Hope: https://www.violins-of-hope.com/.