*This past Sunday, I had the honor of sharing some closing thoughts at a Violins of Hope gathering. Below is the transcript of my words.*
We’re each unique, and that’s neither good nor bad. It’s simply the case.
Different ages, heights, hair color, eye color, faiths, race, gender, identity, birthplaces, language.
We’re each unique.
Sometimes, we might even speak the same native language and still not understand each other. And, sometimes, we speak different languages, and it’s that much harder to understand each other.
And yet for all of these uniquenesses and differences, there is one language which is universal and common to everyone: it’s the language of music.
Our magnificent musicians from this afternoon could take any one of their instruments and go anywhere in the world, perform the exact same pieces, and everyone would hear the identical notes.
The language of music is simply universal.
This to me is what offers a glimmer of hope even in the darkest times. Looking around the room, there are a few of you whom I know and most of you whom I don’t know. Some of you whom I’ve gotten to meet today and some of you whom I have not yet had the joy and pleasure of meeting.
And yet we can all come here together listening to these stories of pain and survival. We can all come here together united, listening to the music as an ultimate testament to the power of hope because there is always something that can unite us, any two people.
It’s music. It could always unite us. And even in the darkest times, even in the shadow of the Holocaust, and even amid the pain and suffering that exists in our world today, we can always find a reason to come together.
And that is not trite, because that is the ultimate message of hope and of resistance and of opposition to the hate that exists.
So thank you to everyone of you–to each one of us–who is here. Thank you for coming together. Thank you for bearing witness to the history, and thank you for standing together in the face of challenges in the world in the hope and in the demand for a better today and for a better tomorrow.
Thank you.
