The Jerusalem Post – Grapevine, January 24, 2025
The B’nai B’rith World Center and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust (JRJ) posthumously honored Bronislaw Huberman for rescuing Jewish musicians before the Holocaust and founding what is now the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The special event was featured in The Jerusalem Post’s Grapevine column.
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Although Bronislaw Huberman has been recognized in his hometown of Czestochowa, Poland, where the city’s Philharmonic Orchestra bears his name – and is housed in an impressive building that stands on the site of the famed New Synagogue destroyed by the Nazis on Christmas Day, 1939 – he is better known in Israel as the founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in 1936, which evolved into the International Philharmonic Orchestra.
Last Saturday night, exactly a month after the 142nd anniversary of Huberman’s birth, the IPO held a special event that included a concert in honor of the violin virtuoso plus a special recognition from the B’nai B’rith (BB) World Center, which posthumously awarded him the Jewish Rescuers Citation.
Usually awarded to Jews who engaged in heroic rescue operations during the Holocaust, the citation in this case was awarded to someone who saved Jews in advance of the Holocaust. The award was given in partnership with the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust (JRJ).
The concert at the IPO’s home base – the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in the Tel Aviv Cultural Center at 1 Huberman Street, featured Maxim Vengerov performing Huberman’s signature piece, the Brahms violin concerto, under the baton of Musical Director Lahav Shani.
Speakers included JRJ Committee Chairman Aryeh Barnea, BB World Center-Jerusalem Director and Secretary of the Jewish Rescuers Citation Subcommittee Alan Schneider, and IPO Secretary General Yair Mashiach. The concert coincided with the release of three Israeli hostages from Gaza, which was acknowledged by all speakers, and concluded with maestro Shani conducting a resounding rendition of “Hatikvah” (Hope), Israel’s national anthem.
Prior to the concert, the Josh Aronson documentary Orchestra of Exiles, about Huberman and the founding of the orchestra, was screened with an introduction by Prof. Gideon Greif, a Holocaust historian, educator, and member of the committee.
Before the presentation of the citation award to Shani and IPO Chairman Yuval Shapiro, Mashiach noted that “the freedom-seeking creative spirit that weaves Judaism with enlightenment and internationality continues with us here today. At its inception and today as well, the Philharmonic expresses Israeli hope, a legacy of excellence, and a commitment to freedom, culture, and creativity.”
Addressing the legacy of rescue and responsibility, Barnea emphasized: “If we want there to be more rescuees in the challenges we face in this and coming generations, we need more rescuers, and if we want more rescuers, we need to pose an ethical imperative and to be a source of inspiration to the public, first and foremost to our children.”
Barnea emphasized that “Bronislaw Huberman was not an eminent musician who also saved lives; he was a great rescuer who was also a musician.”
Reflecting on the timing of the hostage release following Hanukkah and the recognition of Bronislaw Huberman, Schneider said, “Huberman used his immense personal reputation in a seven-year struggle to establish the orchestra, endangering his life in the process which he believed would save Jewish lives – as it undoubtedly did. We salute Bronislaw Huberman for his foresight and courage.”
Referencing the holiday prayer, he noted that events of those times are reflected in these days. Rising antisemitism in Germany had a profound effect on Jewish artists and intellectuals, 8,000 of whom were dismissed from orchestras, theaters, and universities.
Huberman, who had visited pre-state Israel, decided to establish an orchestra there of the best German-Jewish musicians and those from other European countries, some of whom, if not all, would undoubtedly have been murdered by the Nazis. In the final analysis, the initial nucleus of the orchestra included 75 musicians from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Holland, and Poland, who, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, gave their first public performance in Tel Aviv in December 1936 after arriving in the country only two months earlier.