In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and as we approach Israel Independence Day, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic (AFIPO) have collaborated to create a short film entitled ‘Our Special Story – The Israel Philharmonic – From remembrance to Rebirth.’
The twenty-minute film, created with the support of IPO friends Adrienne and Peter Biberstein, features testimonies and personal stories of musicians who lived through the Holocaust as well as second and third-generation survivors. The film traces the Orchestra’s beginnings in the 1930s, when Bronislaw Huberman, the noted Polish-born Jewish violinist and musician, persuaded 75 Jewish musicians from major European orchestras to immigrate to Palestine after Hitler rose to power, creating what he called the “materialization of the Zionist culture in the fatherland” on the sand dunes of Tel Aviv. The Orchestra’s opening concert was conducted by Arturo Toscanini, the greatest conductor of his time, in Tel Aviv on December 26, 1936.
‘Our Special Story’ depicts unforgettable moments in the history of the IPO, including the Orchestra’s first concert in Berlin in 1971, when the IPO played ‘Hatikvah’ at the concert’s conclusion. The success of the IPO in Israel and around the world is a cultural demonstration of the resurrection of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Click here to watch the film.