Welcome to the Prinz Project, a curriculum guide to accompany I will Not Remain Silent, a new violin concerto by Bruce Adolphe, which was premiered by me! (Sharon Roffman) with Michael Stern conducting the IRIS orchestra on January 24, 2015 in Germantown, Tennessee. This piece is inspired by the life of Rabbi Joachim Prinz (1902-1988) an immigrant from Nazi Germany and an American civil rights activist, who bridged the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement, transcending race and religion into a universal fight for freedom and human dignity.
The online curriculum is intended to:
- supplement live in-school classroom lessons with me and other musicians
- serve as a guide for teachers and an entry point for students (and audiences) to examine the life and message of Rabbi Prinz within the historical context of the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement
- illuminate modern day struggles against violence and discrimination
- explore the capacity of music, art and literature to express our common humanity and change the world!
Happy Exploring! –Sharon
To read about the origins of this project, click here!
“When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.” –Joachim Prinz