Nachum hosted Avner Yonai of the Ger Mandolin Orchestra, live via telephone on JM in the AM to discuss the fascinating story of the Orchestra and how things have lead up to their participation in New York’s Kulturfest next week (6/18). The group was conceived by Israeli-American Avner Yonai (left) whose search for his family roots had led him to a tattered photograph of his grandfather and other relatives playing in a pre-WWII Jewish mandolin orchestra in the Polish town of Gora Kalwaria (Ger in Yiddish). The photograph inspired Yonai to create a contemporary version of the orchestra, as a memorial project for his own family and the members of the orchestra, many of whom perished in the Holocaust.