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David Labkovski Project educates students about the consequences of hatred, discrimination, and antisemitism through the artwork of David Labkovski. DLP has shown that art is a powerful tool to begin conversations about these difficult topics, which are more critical than ever.
The Scholar’s Event raises funds for DLP’s innovative, project-based Holocaust education programs.
DLP will present the Legacy of Hope, Courage to Educate, and Leadership in Holocaust Education Awards. Our award recipients are community leaders and experts in their respective fields.
This year, the event will be held in-person only.
Leora Raikin, Founder & Executive Director of DLP & Darryl Pugh, director of “Healing Through Art,” at Capital Group
Recognizes individuals who have demonstrated leadership, commitment and dedication in advancing the mission of David Labkovski Project.
DLP Board Member
Avlyn is the director of the Kotton Educational Therapy Center. In 1979, Avlyn and her husband, Issy, emigrated from South Africa to Los Angeles with their two small children, Ryan and Lara. Avlyn earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree, a Higher Education Diploma, and Masters Degree in Special Education from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Avlyn was the learning specialist at Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School for almost twenty years. Currently, she is a Board Certified Educational Therapist with a private practice in Malibu where she works with students who have learning differences. Avlyn has been an active member of the Association of Educational Therapists since 1980 and held various board positions. She has presented at local and national conferences on identification of learning disabilities and assistive technology skills.
Avlyn and Issy have been active on the Board of Governors of the City of Hope for the past 6 years and support their mission to raise funds for research to fight life-threatening diseases.
Avlyn has been a board member of the David Labkovski Project since its inception in 2015 and is committed to its mission of advancing knowledge about the Holocaust though the use of the artwork of Holocaust survivor, David Labkovski. In 2019, Avlyn accompanied David Labkovski Project members on a mission to Vilnius, Lithuania, in collaboration with a group of students from Viewpoint School and students from the Lyceum School in Vilnius. Holocaust education and fostering understanding and tolerance of antisemitism are more critical now than ever before.
Debra Levine and Beverly Brutzkus (2023)
Jennifer Lopata (2022)
Lisa Lainer-Fagan (2021)
Jeffrey Kobulnick (2020)
Connie Marco (2019)
Gabby Vanderlaan and Joshua Shane (2018)
Sam Jamieson (2017)
Recognizes individuals and companies who exemplify leadership in proactively educating and engaging audiences in creating awareness of the dangers of antisemitism while educating about Jewish history and the Holocaust through David Labkovski Project.
Publisher, Valley News Group
Kathleen Sterling has supported DLP through her writing and sharing articles about DLP’s Holocaust education programs. She is committed to educating people on the dangers of antisemitism in her community, and shares DLP’s approach through exhibits and educational programs through her newspaper articles. Kathleen reports on the incidents and highlights the dangers it poses to the community. She publicizes and promotes DLP exhibits and educational programs through her work at Valley News Group.
Kathleen Sterling is an award-winning journalist and publisher of five community weeklies in the west San Fernando Valley – Warner Center News, Valley Vantage, Calabasas Enterprise, Encino Enterprise and North Valley News.
She is an active community member and has sat on the boards of the Valley Cultural Center, Louisville High School, Pacific Lodge Boys Home, Calabasas Chamber of Commerce the Heart Run & Walk and American Heart Association.
Capital Group Communities
Capital Group embodies how corporations should approach educating and empowering their employees to practice inclusion and tolerance in the workplace. Through their CG Chaverim and CG Arts communities, they have supported DLP’s mission of bearing witness to history and using art to break down barriers and begin difficult conversations.
Recognizes individuals and or academic institutions that are making an impact in holocaust education collaboration with David Labkovski Project.
Professor, Director, Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education
Stern Chair in Holocaust Education
Chapman University
Marilyn J. Harran is professor of religious studies and of history, holder of the Stern Chair in Holocaust Education, and the founding director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library at Chapman University. Dr. Harran has worked with administrators, colleagues, and supporters to establish a multi-faceted program in Holocaust history and education with academic minor, distinguished lecture series, an archive containing the world’s largest collection of materials on rescuer Oskar Schindler, and community outreach, including a Holocaust Art and Writing Contest that each year engages some 7,000 middle and high school students in more than 32 states and 10 countries.
2701 N Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Parking Details: Free parking.
Kathleen Sterling is an award-winning journalist and publisher of five community weeklies in the west San Fernando Valley – Warner Center News, Valley Vantage, Calabasas Enterprise, Encino Enterprise and North Valley News.
She is an active community member and has sat on the boards of the Valley Cultural Center, Louisville High School, Pacific Lodge Boys Home, Calabasas Chamber of Commerce the Heart Run & Walk and American Heart Association.
She founded the Warner Center News in 1982 at the age of 22, always adhering to community journalism and a focus on all local news. After meeting her husband Rodger Sterling in 1985, together they published the Las Virgenes Enterprise and bought the Valley Vantage, and ran all three papers together for 25 years until his death in 2009. She and her daughter Katie then started the Encino Enterprise in 2019, and North Valley News in 2022.
Sterling has always been dedicated to community service. A former Ticktocker for National Charity League, she grew up in Woodland Hills attending Louisville High School. She was Panhellenic President at USC and served on the University’s Curriculum Committee. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude and received USC’s Order of the Laurel Award, the university’s highest award for women. Sterling received her MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1983.
She has volunteered for Haven Hills, Valley Women’s Center, Valley Interfaith Council, West Valley Food Pantry, Guadalupe Center, Angel’s Way Maternity Home, Woodland Hills Rotary, St. Mel Church and Calabasas Rotary. She was a Girl Scout leader, and was co-chair for Louisville High School’s annual Quest auction.
For 10 years she was co-chair of the Heart Run & Walk, which raised over $1.5 million for the American Heart Association. When the Heart Association pulled out, Sterling and friends created the From the Heart Run to continue the event and give money to local deserving charities.
One of her favorite causes pre-pandemic was the grass-roots program “Pass the Turkey” which she co-founded in 2004. Pass the Turkey collected free turkeys given away at local markets and delivers them to residential charities for Thanksgiving dinner and the Calabasas Rotary for their annual Thanksgiving dinner for seniors.
A six-time nominee for the Fernando Award, Sterling is the recipient of the Promenade Mall “Woman of the Year” award, the Rose Goldwater Community Service Award, the Joseph Staller Award, the Technology Corridor “Top 100” Award, the Valley Community Legal Foundation’s Presidents Award, the Valley Women’s Center 2006 Community Award, the first ever Sterling Award from the Valley Alliance for the Arts and the Spirit of Calabasas Award in 2023. She also received the national C. Everett Coop Media Award for Best Health Series in a community newspaper.
Through the five newspapers Sterling supports almost every nonprofit in the valley – donating both ad space and editorial to promote their programs and events.
Effie Braun is the Global Chair of CG Chaverim, Capital Group’s Jewish Employee Resource Group. In addition to her primary role as a Fee Consulting Manager, she contributes to Capital Group’s commitment to DEI through her leadership: creating community, bringing connection in a time of isolation, inviting Jewish speakers from all walks of life to educate associates of all faiths, and demonstrating allyship with other ERGs as CG Chaverim fights against antisemitism. Outside of Capital Group, Effie is active in the Valley Beth Shalom community, serving on the Endowment board and the Social Action Committee. Effie lives in Encino with her husband, their two children, and all the Harry Potter and baseball items that Amazon can deliver.
Nathan Isaacson is a Risk Analyst at Capital Group and an active member of CG Chaverim, Capital’s Jewish employee resource community. Upon arriving at Capital Group, Nathan attended various in-office events hosted by CG Chaverim where he was introduced to DLP. After connecting with Leora Raikin and other members of the organization, Nathan was invited to join the Advisory Board and subsequently the Board of Directors. Nathan is passionate about corporate responsibility and the idea of equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Nathan is based out of Capital Group’s LA headquarters and has been with the firm for just under two years. Outside of the workplace, he serves on two nonprofit Boards and can often be found on various Southern California hiking trails.
Julia McArthur is the Southern California Leader of CG Arts, Capital Group’s art driven Employee Resource Group, and an active member of CG Chaverim, among other Employee Resource Groups at Capital. Julia has a passion to bring intersectionality, knowledge, and inclusion not only in the workplace, but in the community. An advocate for acceptance, Julia has been working to fight hate in all forms since childhood, using her own personal story, experiences, and art as ways of connecDon. It is her mission to leave the world a more understanding place for all children since becoming a mother herself. When she’s not connecting employees through the arts and art education, Julia can be found supporting high level Investment Professionals at the Capital Group. Outside the office Julia is a stage performer, writer, visual artist, and mother. Julia resides in Los Angeles with her daughter and cat.
Darryl Pugh Jr. is a Filmmaker and Creative Producer at Capital Group, who is also an active member of CG Chaverim, and CG Arts, Capital Group’s Employee Resource Groups. Darryl has produced and directed multiple film projects featuring advocacy for social justice, women allyship and DE&I, including the David Labkovski Project documentary, “Healing Through Art: The Art of the Holocaust”, A Bronze Telly Award winning documentary produced by Capital Group, featuring the artwork and life story of David Labkovski. When he’s not creating or producing content for Capital Group, Darryl spends Dme with his family, and coaches his son’s basketball team. Darryl lives with his wife Allison and their two kids in Santa Clarita, California.
Marc Reiser is part of the leadership team of CG Chaverim, Capital Group’s Jewish Employee Resource Group. He has done extensive work within Capital Group to foster allyship and to include the Jewish population as part of our DEI efforts for example, featuring Deborah Lipstadt’s recent book on antisemitism as part of our CG Readers (book club) activities. His professional role is in Participant Outcomes marketing where among other things, he builds programs to help drive financial literacy in underserved communities. Marc has spent over twenty years fighting hate, antisemitism and racism, both corporately and outside in the community. He holds board positions with three local nonprofits in Los Angeles including his own music charity, and has worked on four documentary films focused on racism. He supports his rock star wife Nancy who recently served as president of the Southern California chapter of Hadassah, and enjoys family time with Nancy, their two sons and their rescue companion.
Annie Soleymani is the Communications Director for CG Chaverim, Capital Group’s Jewish ERG. As a proud Jew and daughter of a Holocaust survivor, a yearning to continue her father’s legacy of survival is what drives Annie to bring education, inclusion, empathy, hope and light not only to the corporate workplace, but beyond. Annie supports several Senior Managers at Capital Group and encourages her global department to engage in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives. As an artist who uses her craft as a form of her own therapy, Annie releases much of her intergenerational trauma and loss into her paintings, often sharing that work with CG Chaverim, the broader social media community and beyond; that passion was the catalyst for the initial ‘Healing Through Art’ collaboration with DLP. Annie strives to live an authentic life in Sherman Oaks with her husband, two energetic children and sweet rescue dog.
Marilyn J. Harran is professor of religious studies and of history, holder of the Stern Chair in Holocaust Education, and the founding director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library at Chapman University. She is the author or editor of several books on the Protestant Reformation and was a contributing writer and consultant to The Holocaust Chronicle. Most recently, she was a contributor with Elisabeth B. Leyson to the memoir authored by the late Leon Leyson, The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible on Schindler’s List, published by Atheneum, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, in August 2013. The book has been translated into more than 25 languages in 50 editions and received numerous awards and honors. It was ranked #1 on the New York Times best seller list (middle grade), named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, and received the Christopher Award.
As founding director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, Dr. Harran has worked with administrators, colleagues, and supporters to establish a multi-faceted program in Holocaust history and education with academic minor, distinguished lecture series, an archive containing the world’s largest collection of materials on rescuer Oskar Schindler, and community outreach, including a Holocaust Art and Writing Contest that each year engages some 7,000 middle and high school students in more than 32 states and 10 countries.
Professor Harran is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the International Research & Exchanges Board. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a Mellon Fellow at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies and is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Spirit of Anne Frank Award and The 1939 Society “Teacher of the Holocaust Award.” She served as a member of the governing board of the Association of Holocaust Organizations from 2006-16. In December 2016, the Orange County Register named her as one of “Orange County’s 100 Most Influential Game Changers.” She currently serves on the Board of the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County/Long Beach.
