James A. Grymes is a Jew­ish Book Award-win­ning author who fre­quent­ly appears as a pub­lic speak­er at libraries, muse­ums, syn­a­gogues, and uni­ver­si­ties, as well as promi­nent venues such as the Unit­ed Nations Head­quar­ters, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Amer­i­can Israel Pub­lic Affairs Com­mit­tee (AIPAC) Pol­i­cy Con­fer­ence, and the his­toric 16th Street Bap­tist Church in Birm­ing­ham, AL. He is often a fea­tured speak­er at Holo­caust remem­brance events such as those that com­mem­o­rate Inter­na­tion­al Holo­caust Remem­brance Day and Yom HaShoah, and he is reg­u­lar­ly in res­i­dence with the Vio­lins of Hope — a col­lec­tion of string instru­ments with Holo­caust sto­ries, the sub­ject of his book Vio­lins of Hope. Dr. Grymes lives in Char­lotte, NC, where he is Pro­fes­sor of Musi­col­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Charlotte.