Jewish soldier wounded in war commemorates Holocaust heroes by playing the violin

Sergeant Mordechai Shenvald, 34, of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was one of the performers at a concert at the Jerusalem Theater on July 7, 2024 – playing the “Theme from Schindler’s List” on the restored violin of a boy killed in the Holocaust, accompanied by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

The moving performance took place in Israel at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, which recently hosted two days of opening events for the Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus and the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Center.

Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, who was present at the event, told Fox News Digital: “Music has the power to overcome suffering and give people hope and dignity even in the darkest of times.”

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He added: “It is our obligation to preserve the stories and memories of the victims of the Holocaust and its survivors so that future generations will understand the profound impact of the Holocaust.”

The center houses the world’s most extensive collection of Holocaust documents, artwork and photographs.

Sergeant Mordechai Shenvald, 34, of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is seen playing the violin. (Yad Vashem)

Also present at the opening of the center were Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, and his wife Michal Herzog, as well as the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council and Holocaust survivor Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.

Sergeant Shenvald told Fox News Digital that he was called to war at 8:07 a.m. on October 7, 2023 – shortly after Hamas members killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 others in the terrorist attack on southern Israel, according to multiple sources.

Shenvald said he was part of Unit 401, a leading unit that first entered Gaza. After defending violently attacked kibbutzim, he fought in Gaza for several weeks, he said.

When Shenvald regained consciousness, he said to himself: “Thank God, I am alive.”

On November 2, 2023, he described what happened while he was repairing his tank’s engine. Bullets hit the tank, causing an explosion – the impact of which threw Shenvald about five meters into the air, he said.

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“I felt like Superman,” he said.

He suffered a concussion in the explosion. When he regained consciousness, he said to himself, “Thank God I’m alive.”

His comrades took him to the nearest hospital, the Barzilai Medical Center in Israel, 19 kilometers from Gaza.

Eight operations and counting

Shenvald said doctors told him it was a miracle he survived. He suffered 11 broken ribs, which led to a burst lung (phemothorax). He also broke his right hip and injured his back, he said.

Since then, he has undergone about eight surgeries – and estimates that it will take another year or more for him to fully recover.

Sgt. Shenvald (seated) comes from a musical family and started playing the violin at the age of six. Music “can cheer you up,” he said. (Sgt. Mordechai Shenvald)

Describing himself as religious, Shenvald said, “I believe that God has a plan… I pray every day. I train my brain, I train my mind to change my behavior, to understand how I can make the best of this situation – for the world, how I can make it better.”

He said he comes from a musical family. His mother is a pianist and his father is a violinist – and they all play together on holidays and Shabbat.

He described a special bond with his “funny uncle” Meil, who was also a violinist and soldier. Shenvald said his uncle was killed in 1995 while stationed in Gaza, just minutes from where he himself was injured in November 2023.

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Shenvald recounted how he began playing the violin at the age of six after hearing a song he really liked at his uncle’s memorial service a year after his death.

When he was 26, his grandfather gave him his uncle’s violin – which he still plays today, he said.

Playing the violin helped him heal emotionally, he said, even though the effort was painful.

“I believe God has a plan… I pray every day.”

“Physically it’s painful, but the music has taken me to another place,” he said.

“They gave me ketamine and a lot of hard stuff, but that didn’t help me, and neither did the music. When I played, I forgot the pain, I forgot everything.” He said that music “can cheer you up.”

A video that surfaced online shows Shenvald, visibly moved, playing the violin in a hospital gown while people around him sing along. Shenvald also started playing the saxophone after his injuries because he wanted to find a creative way to practice his breathing.

Since the end of February, Shenvald says he has performed in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, New Jersey and Miami. The July 7 performance was his third such performance at Yad Vashem. At one performance, he described how honored he was to be able to play for Israeli President Herzog on April 17, 2024.

Sgt. Shenvald, second from right, with Israel’s President Herzog, his wife Michal Herzog, and Dani Dayan, far right, on April 17, 2024. (Yad Vashem)

Simmy Allen, director of international media at Yad Vashem, told Fox News Digital that Yad Vashem contacted Mordechai Shenvald about a special violin to play on July 7 – a violin owned by Mordechai “Motale” Shlain, a young partisan who fought against the Nazis.

Although they have the same first name, both men are also talented violin players.

In addition, Allen said, “Both individuals are heroes in their own way, fighting to save the Jewish people from danger.”

“Live on forever”

On the night of the performance, Allen said that Mordechai Shenvald would fill out a memorial page at Yad Vashem with the life story of Mordechai “Motale” Shlain, “so that his name and memory will live on forever.”

Shenvald said he was amazed while rehearsing for the show that Shlain’s violin was dated 1895.

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“It’s very special to hold something from the Holocaust or from years ago,” he said. “Every violin has a soul… You can really feel the person.”

He said the sound of Shlain’s violin was “very warm, sweet, powerful and young.”

“It’s very special to hold something from the Holocaust or from years ago,” Shenvald said of Motale Shlain’s violin, pictured here. “Every violin has a soul… You can really feel the person.” (Yad Vashem)

A video produced by Yad Vashem tells how Shlain was born to poor peasants in Krasnowka, Poland, and was adopted by a long-established Jewish family who gave him a violin and taught him to play.

In 1941, when Shlain was eleven years old, the German army invaded – and Shlain watched the Nazis kill his family from his attic, where he was hiding.

From his attic, Shlain watched the Nazis kill his family.

According to The Times of Israel, Shlain fled into a forest with his violin and joined a group of Jewish partisans.

Seffi Hanegbi told Fox News Digital that his grandfather Moshe Gildenman, known as “Uncle Misha,” and his father Simcha were part of a partisan unit that Shlain joined and that included both Jewish and Christian fighters.

Hanegbi said his father, Simcha, was a good friend of Shlain, fighting alongside him, gathering intelligence and making music with him.

Since late February, Sergeant Shenvald has performed in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, New Jersey and Miami. The July 7, 2024, performance was his third such performance at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. (Yad Vashem)

Hanegbi described Shlain as “a very talented kid. He was truly a fantastic player.”

Didn’t know he was Jewish

When Shlain was 13, he began playing folk songs on his violin in front of a Ukrainian church, aish.com reported. He attracted a crowd, including a Nazi officer who asked him to perform for his comrades in a restaurant.

They didn’t know he was Jewish.

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The restaurant offered him a job, which he used as an opportunity to spy on the Nazis.

While over 200 high-ranking Nazi officers were eating in the restaurant, Shlain went into the basement and lit a bomb.

Shlain noticed deep cracks in the restaurant’s basement and hatched a plan with Hanegbi’s grandfather, “Uncle Misha,” the unit’s commander: He would smuggle dynamite in his violin case and use it to fill the cracks.

As aish.com reported, after six of these “death-defying trips,” Shlain had already smuggled in nearly 40 pounds of explosives.

Sgt. Shenvald (left) plays the violin in his hospital room. (Sgt. Mordechai Shenvald)

One night, while over 200 high-ranking Nazi officers were eating in the restaurant, Shlain went into the basement and lit a bomb.

Henegbi said his grandfather taught Shlain how to make the TNT explode – and he was waiting for him outside when the restaurant blew up.

Henegbi told Fox News Digital: “My father waved to him, he came on his horse and they left the place. Nothing happened – neither to my father nor to Motale,” he said.

According to several sources, Shlain was only 14 years old when he was killed in a Nazi ambush in 1944.

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Henegbi said Shlain died “a heroic death” because he lost his life trying to protect the partisan group from Nazi forces.

Henegbi’s father lovingly cared for Shlain’s violin to keep him close to his friend, Yad Vashem said.

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In early 2000, Henegbi donated this valuable violin to the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum.

The condition of the donation was that the album “continue to be played around the world… to carry on the spirit of Motale.”