Hephzibah Menuhin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hephzibah Menuhin Hauser (20 May 1920 - 1 January 1981) was an American-Jewish concert pianist and human rights worker. She was sister to the violinist Lord Yehudi Menuhin and to the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin.

She was born in San Francisco and spent most of her childhood living in Europe. Through her father Moshe Menuhin, a former rabbinical student and anti-Zionist writer, Menuhin was descended from a distinguished rabbinical dynasty. At seventeen she married Lindsay Nicholas, an Australian grazier and heir to the Aspro empire. She moved with him to his property Terrinallum in western Victoria, where she started a travelling library for children and bore two sons, Kronrod and Marston Nicholas. Musica Viva was founded in her living room. Yehudi also married Lindsay's sister Nola. Both marriages ended in divorce.

Hephzibah then married Richard Hauser, an Austrian Quaker sociologist and father of Eva Cox. They moved with their daughter, Clara Menuhin-Hauser, to England, where they added a foster son, Michael Alexander Morgan, to their family. They started the Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities, and the Centre for Group Studies, and later moved to Friends Hall, a settlement house in the East End of London. Hephzibah and Richard Hauser and their children ran a Human Rights refuge from their house in Pimlico. They worked on small-steps conciliation and attempted to help minorities all over the world.

Hephzibah Menuhin Hauser was the President of the British chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and a passionate supporter of women's and children's rights.