Under the auspices of the French Judaism Foundation
Henriette Halphen (1911-2002)
Daughter of Alice Koenigswarter (1878-1963) and of the composer Fernand Halphen (1872-1917), 
who died during World War One, Henriette Halphen was part of a Jewish bourgeoisie family, very active in the support of artistic creativity.
Her mother held a “salon de musique”, in which great composers such as Reynaldo Hahn, Georges Enesco, Alexandre Tansman, Darius Milhaud or even Olivier Messiaen, created their works. She also helped young artists – in particular the fiddlers Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin – by lending to them her husband’s stradivarius.
Growing up in this atmosphear, Henriette Halphen who was a painter and a musician, participated in this musical bustle, but stayed modest and secret. Thus, after her death, her grand-son found in a trunk two musical scores for organ that she composed when she was just 20 years old.
All along their lives, Henriette and her younger brother Georges helped musicians and supported musical creativity. It’s in this way that in 1965, they offered to Jacques and Diane Benvenuti the Stradivarius that belonged to their father, and created a few years later the Alice and Fernand Halphen Foundation.
Coming from this long tradition of artistic patronage, Isabelle Friedmann, daughter of Henriette Halphen, created in 2003 the Henriette Halphen Foundation, under the auspices of the French Judaism Foundation, in order to support the work of the European Institute for Jewish Music, which goal is to safeguard, promote and disseminate the Jewish musical heritage.
Each year, the Henriette Halphen Foundation organises a gala concert for the benefit of the European Institute for Jewish Music and supports the activity of the Henriette Halphen media library, open to all public, from which you can listen and consult thousands of documents (music, sheet music, books, photographies…).
By giving a financial support to the Henriette Halphen Foundation, you contribute to the safeguard and promotion of the Jewish musical heritage, under all its shapes.
