Remembering A Good Man

Never has the popular phrase "life is choice" been more relevant than in recent days. Some men choose evil. Others choose good.

Now is the time for remembering, and celebrating, the life and lessons of violinist Isaac Stern, who died Sept. 22 at the age of 81. Stern chose to be, day in and day out, a Good Man.

Of the thousands who died in New York because of evil men, the passing of Stern in a Manhattan hospital, of heart failure after a long illness, might seem like a sad footnote in a huge tome of grief.

Yet Isaac Stern, the Good Man, is a model from which New Yorkers can draw inspiration to rebuild their shattered city and disrupted lives.

Stern celebrated the human race. He contributed, he inspired, he built up, he did not destroy. He kept going until he dropped, raising money for architecture and music, mentoring gifted young students, standing up for beauty and facing down tyranny.

Without him, there would be no Carnegie Hall. It was headed for the wrecking ball before he dedicated himself to saving it. Thus, one of New York's grandest symbols and civic institutions survives, in large part, because one man worked his heart out to make it so. Its main concert hall is named in his honor. 

Stern lobbied vigorously for the creation of our National Endowment for the Arts, and when Congress wanted to decimate its funding and thus destroy the agency, Stern warned lawmakers the United States risked being "an industrial complex without a soul." His passionate appeal prevailed.

The great violinist used his musical fame to campaign for human rights. When he became the first American violinist to play in the communist Soviet Union, in 1951, he took the occasion to lecture Nikita Khrushchev on the value of Russian and American artistic exchanges. He opposed a repressive Greek military junta by boycotting an Athens music festival. 

A Jew, he refused to perform in Germany because of the Holocaust, but he taught master classes there in 1999, saying, "I forgive nothing, but it isn't very human not to give people a chance to change."

He encouraged young violin talents Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman; famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma was only 9 years old when Stern began to mentor him.

Born in the Soviet Union just after the Bolshevik revolution, Stern was brought to the United States by his emigrating parents at 10-months-old. He grew up to be a great patriot who believed in, and came to embody, the American dream.

He toured the South Pacific entertaining Allied soldiers during World War II. In 1991, during the Gulf War, Stern serenely played Bach on a Jerusalem stage as his audience wore gas masks in case of an Iraqi Scud missile attack.

He was an indefatigable man who made more than 100 recordings, was the subject of numerous film documentaries, and in one year -- 1949 -- played 120 concerts in seven months. He made magic with his violin, uplifting and inspiring us with some of the world's greatest music. 

Isaac Stern made the most of his gifts and his opportunities. He repaid his profession, his city and his adopted country many times over for the privilege of becoming an American. He made choices that contributed to the betterment of not only his life, but of our national life, of the entire world.

"I believe in education, an education that has generosity and humanity in it," Stern once said. "I do not believe in saying, 'my God is better than your God.' Hatred only breeds hatred."

Of his joy at being a musician, he said, "Our responsibility is to continue the search for beauty and humanity. That is what survives."

Beauty and humanity. The legacy of Isaac Stern. A Good Man. 

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