Orchestra of Exiles

Bronislaw Huberman (1882-1947) was a revered Polish-born violin prodigy, music scholar, and orchestra leader, who—politically radicalized by World War I and the rise of Hitler—refused to perform in German territories, even as other Jewish artists were attempting to hold on to their careers and positions while riding out a crisis that they (often fatally) assumed would only be temporary. Huberman, an advocate of Zionism, relocated to the Middle East, and defiantly formed the Palestine Orchestra against the backdrop of Hitler's emerging Final Solution. Playing on the Third Reich's obsession over international respect for Teutonic high culture, Huberman was able to wrangle immigration papers from German authorities, allowing a number of endangered musicians and their families to flee to the haven of British colonial Palestine during the 1930s. Serving up commentary from Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Joshua Bell, and the descendants of Palestine Orchestra players, filmmaker Josh Aronson successfully visualizes Huberman's era via elaborate non-dialogue re-enactments (with actor Thomas Kornmann as Huberman). Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner also feature in this untold story from the Holocaust (and early Israel) that hits the right notes for both Judaica and classical music collections. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)