Yehudi Menuhin

[yoel <yoel...>]

I received an announcement today from the Jewish Music Institute of a
tribute to Yehudi Menuhin.  I thought it would be appropriate to retell a
story which, to me, epitomizes Menuhin's relationship to Jews, Judaism and
Israel.

In 1947, Menuhin planned a concert tour of Germany, the proceeds of which
was to be used for the benefit of German children (not Jewish).  Judge Louis
Levinthal, who was then advisor  on Jewish Affairs to the US military
government, suggested that Menuhin give a special concert for Jewish
Displaced Persons.  Menuhin agreed.

According to Abraham Hyman, who was second to the Jewish Affairs advisor, in
his book "The Undefeated" (Gefen, 1993):

"The Jewish DPs were so offended that Menuhin would consent to play for the
Germans, and, especially, with the Nazi-tainted Wilhelm Furtwangler as the
conductor, that when Menuhin appeared for the concert he found the
2,000-seat hall virtually empty... After the performance, while still on
stage, he asked ... why the people had boycotted his concert... In reply, a
member of the staff of the camp's Yiddish newspaper, Unzer Leben, handed
Menuhin a copy of the paper containing an open letter to the violinist
written by its editor, Eliyahu Yones... Yones postulated that if a certain
Eppel were still alive, he would surely attend one of Menuhin's concerts,
for when Eppel was SS commandant of the slave labor camp near Lemberg where
Yones was imprisoned for more than two years, he proved his passion for
music by having the Jewish children serenade him before sending them to
their death."

Menuhin asked for a meeting with the DP community, which led to a
reconciliation, and in the end, Menuhin did play for the DPs.  At the end of
his visit, Levinthal took him  to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt, "and showed
him vaults bulging with heaps of wedding bands, earrings, bracelets, gold
teeth, children's lockets, and other gold jewelry that the Germans had
removed from the Jews who perished in the concentration camps, as well as
stacks of old bars melted down from similar items.  At the sight of this
Menuhin blanched and was momentarily speechless.  In the end he turned to
Levinthal and said: 'Now I understand what [Yones} told me in Berlin.'"

In Menuhin's autobiography, incidentally, he never mentions that the object
of the tour was to raise money for the conquered Germans, but claims he went
to play for the DPs.  He retells how moved he was by seeing the "pathetic"
refugees.

Joel Epstein
Moshav Magshimim, Israel
tel: 972-3-9333316
     972-52-333316
fax: 972-9338751
yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il

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