Refugee Artists – Ambassadors of Peace, Culture, and Humanity, Part 2 of 3

Mr. Huberman was a Jewish violinist born in Czestochowa, Poland, in 1882. Amid growing anti-Semitic policies that rippled across Europe during the 1930s, premier Jewish musicians found themselves jobless and their lives threatened. Mr. Huberman realized that his orchestra was a way to save his fellow musicians and began to tirelessly work to fulfil that dream. Eventually, he was able to rescue nearly 1,000 musicians and their families and formed the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. In 1948, when the State of Israel was created, the orchestra was renamed as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO). Today, the IPO is a leading internationally renowned orchestra, that travels and performs worldwide with other acclaimed musicians. Mr. Arturo Toscanini, the conductor who led the Palestine Symphony Orchestra at its debut, was one of the greatest operatic conductors of his time. Through the years, Mr. Toscanini worked with many prominent music companies around the world, such as La Scala Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and of course, the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. He refused an invitation to perform at the prestigious Wagner music festival, and instead, traveled to Palestine in 1936 to conduct the inaugural concert of the all-Jewish refugee orchestra, the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. In 1987, he was posthumously honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Isabel Allende is an accomplished refugee writer and was called “the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.” Inspired by her tumultuous life, Ms. Allende often writes about freedom of thought and liberation of women in a patriarchal society. She has been honored worldwide for her astounding works, including the Chilean National Prize for Literature, Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction, honorary Doctorates from Harvard, and other distinguished universities, and countless other awards. Always an advocate for equal rights, on December 9, 1996, in honor of her late daughter, Paula Frias Allende, Ms. Allende established the Isabel Allende Foundation, “dedicated to supporting programs that promote and preserve the fundamental rights of women and children to be empowered and protected.”