My Father's Lost Diary

Joel Feder, a well-known photographer in the early 1900s, was the missing link I had been searching for surrounding the mystery of how my family was in possession of this amazing violin that had been passed down from generation to generation. The violin’s very existence began over 150 years ago, in a small province in Poland known as Galicia. The two founding families in the district of Wozwolince—the Goldhirschs and the Feders—were the soul of the community, providing religious and educational pursuits as well as artistic expression, deeply provoking the love of art and music in the inhabitants of the town. The pogroms of Poland have been well documented during the nineteenth century. Many of the townspeople were frightened and were planning they’re exudes to America. Simon Goldhirsch, the community’s beloved rabbi, entrusted the violin to members of the Feder family, leaving for America with the promise that, someday, the violin would be returned to the Goldhirsch family in America.