Menu
Thank you for joining us at our 6th Annual Scholar’s Event, where we presented The Legacy of Hope Award to our 2022 Honoree, Jennifer Lopata.
Featuring Liza Wiemer, author of the award-winning novel The Assignment.
This was a live stream event that raised funds for our innovative, project-based Holocaust education program. If you’d like to support the David Labkovski Project’s future events, please donate today!
The auction closed February 28th at noon.
For information on donating items to our auction, please contact the.dlp.auction@gmail.com
Liza Wiemer is an award-winning educator with over twenty years of teaching experience. Her second young adult novel, The Assignment, was published by Delacorte Press and has received numerous honors, including being named a 2021 Sydney Taylor Notable Book. To date, The Assignment has also been published in Russian, Polish, Italian, and Korean. Liza has had two adult nonfiction books published and several short stories included in the New York Times bestselling Small Miracles series. She has had articles published in various newspapers and magazines and writes a monthly kidlit column for the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. Liza received the incredible honor of being named one of “The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2021” by the Algemeiner. A graduate of UW-Madison, Liza has two married sons and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, Jim.
With a background in social work and education, Jennifer Lopata has always been committed to educating our youth and giving back to the community. She has deep ties to the Jewish community and feels strongly about the importance of educating young people of all cultures about the Holocaust. As a DLP Board Member and founder of Synergy Academics, she not only sponsors the DLP Student Docent Training program but graciously hosts the meetings at her West Hills academic tutoring center. Jennifer believes strongly in the docent program because she feels “it is vital that young people learn about the Holocaust and are empowered to teach their peers” in order to ensure that it never happens again. Jennifer also involves herself with other community organizations, including American Jewish University, Connecting A Caring Community, and The Fulfillment Fund to name a few. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology at UCLA and her Master’s degree in Social Work at USC. She is married to Robert and is the proud mother of three children, Jason, Carina and Ryan.
Lisa Lainer-Fagan (2021)
Jeffrey Kobulnick (2020)
Connie Marco (2019)
Gabby Vanderlaan and Joshua Shane (2018)
Sam Jamieson (2017)
Los Angeles City Council Member
Executive Director of the Multicultural Learning Center
The Ellie Lainer Youth Leadership Award in Holocaust Education is presented to students who demonstrate leadership and commitment to Holocaust education.
From its inception, Ellie Lainer has understood, supported and encouraged the mission of the David Labkovski Project. Ellie believes in the DLP’s use of art as a tool to engage and enrich while simultaneously acting as a universal language that transcends language and culture.
In the words of Ellie Lainer: “The journey of these beautiful works of art has progressed from its first exhibit in 2015, to become a high tech interactive curriculum in education covering Jewish history, art and the Holocaust while also engaging its participants in dialogues about racism, hate and antisemitism. It has now been experienced by hundreds of students throughout the world who might otherwise be quite ignorant about our tragic history. The depth and development of the DLP has been astounding. Support for this organization and its mission is critical.”
This award is named in honor of Ellie Lainer, a founding supporter of the David Labkovski Project, and is made possible through the generosity of these dear friends, in recognition of a milestone birthday:
Faith Cookler, Susan Frydrych, Yona Goldberg, Allyn Levine, Claire Marks, Marcie Medof, Adele Reznikoff, Peggy Robin, Laurel Warner
“The David Labkovski project has enabled me to gain a new perspective of the Holocaust through the lens of David Labkovski’s artwork. To be a docent in the DLP means being able to comprehend David’s personal experience and being able to dissect and describe his works of art. This includes understanding the composition of his pieces and its details in order to fully comprehend David’s motives in constructing his art. I believe that students should join the DLP so that they too can learn about David’s experiences and be able to gain the tools necessary to understand how to look at a piece of artwork. I am currently a Docent in the DLP’s training program, and I participated in the Reflect and Respond Program. I also contributed to the David Labkovski website where my role was to create interactive images of David’s artwork using a software known as Thinglink. This interactive feature will allow viewers to click through different icons which will lead them through an interactive tour of David’s artworks.”
“I am so grateful for this award, but it absolutely pales in comparison to the experience of actually working on this exhibit with the rest of the curation team. My role in this project was mostly supportive, so I helped with brainstorming and organizing ideas, and I also researched and wrote our sections on queer and transgender people affected by the Holocaust. As a queer and trans individual, it was incredibly meaningful to see these stories included in our exhibit and to be a part of making that happen. As a Jewish person, it was life-changing to connect with this community and do this work together. The exhibit in its entirety is a beautiful and really powerful reminder that we are the ones who keep history, and the ones who humanize it. This is hard work, and it matters.”
“When I began with the David Labkovski Project, I never knew about the mass killings happening in the Ponary forest. I knew about the millions of people lost to the Nazis, but never quite understood the horrific extremes the Nazis went to. This is just one example of the gaps in my understanding of the Holocaust that the DLP filled. Learning about the Holocaust, not through numbers or writing, but in art, gave me a new and more powerful understanding of the tragedy. While I knew these issues were important and critical to discuss, I felt held back by my shyness and my introverted personality. However, by participating in the DLP’s student docent program I feel equipped with the tools to communicate these difficult topics. I now use these skills to work with other amazing curators to make an accessible and interactive website telling Labkovski’s story and the story of the Holocaust.”
“The David Labkovski Project has forever changed my view of art and the Holocaust. Previously, I was unaware of how a piece of art, its colors, brush strokes, and facial features could tell a story. Teaching the history of the Holocaust through the lens of art adds another dimension of emotion, connection, and understanding to the events of the past. I would have never known about the culturally rich town of Vilna or the horrors of the Gulag without the DLP and David Labkovski sharing every stage of his life story through his artwork. His paintings are an enriching and lasting tool for bearing witness to and learning about the Holocaust. I hope to share the work of David Labkovski with many others in order to promote awareness and understanding of this crucial part of our history.”
“While I have studied the Holocaust for many years, that education doesn’t compare to the unique and nuanced perspective that I gained during the Docent Training Program through the David Labkovski Project. The program allowed me to understand and interpret history through art, inspiring me to integrate creative ways of expression into my own life as well. The DLP has also impacted me personally, as learning about David Labkovski’s early life in Vilna gave me a glimpse into where my own Eastern European ancestors lived. I highly encourage others to participate in the David Labkovski Project as studying the past is such a valuable tool in fostering a welcoming and unified community in the present.”
“Working with the David Labkovski Project taught me about the intersection of art and history. The Project gave me the opportunity to learn about how to use art to educate audiences about the Holocaust. I was able to explore this method of Holocaust education as a result of participating in the David Labkovski Project. I think that people should participate in the David Labkovski Project in order to gain a deeper understanding of art and its importance in relation to Holocaust education. Additionally, the David Labkovski Project has taught me so much about Holocaust education, art, and teamwork. I believe that anyone who wishes to become stronger in these areas would benefit greatly from working with the Project.”
“Being a part of the David Labkovski Project has taught me so much about being a part of something with a bigger meaning. Through the process of learning to be a docent, I learned more about the history of the Holocaust in the context of the rest of the world. As a curator, I got the opportunity to work with amazing and driven students from around the country, as we all learned the behind the scenes of an art exhibit and how to use art as a tool for education. Overall, it was a great experience, and I recommend it to anyone who loves art, history, and is willing to do their part in educating their community.”