The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center (LFJCC) hosts the David Labkovski Project’s (DLP) unique educational program, fusing history and art, based on the life and art of renowned artist, David Labkovski (1906-1991), who grew up in Vilna, Lithuania.
Through the DLP’s Student Docent and Leadership Training Program, students in the San Diego area have been involved in the curation of the exhibit “Documenting History through Art” and will be docents during the local exhibit period, March 8 through May 10, 2024 at the LFJCC in UTC/La Jolla area.
The DLP uses the body of artwork to educate about life before, during, and after the Holocaust and teaches about the causes and consequences of antisemitism. Labkovski’s work is categorized into four segments, chronicling life in Vilna, his home before the Holocaust, his time as a prisoner in Siberia, his artistic reactions, and visual documentations of the murder of his beloved community of Vilna, during the Holocaust, and finally his renewal in Israel.
Co-curator of the exhibit, Rebecca Leeman, a junior at Torah High School, wanted her school and the LFJCC to be the debut location in San Diego for the David Labkovski Project exhibit and brought together the three non-profits. Leeman serves as Youth Advisor for the DLP and is a recipient of the Ellie Lainer Youth Leadership Award in Holocaust Education.
Labkovski’s pre-war artwork depicts bustling markets and towns. Soldiers, prisoners, isolation, separation, dread, and fear are present in his artwork depicting his years in a Soviet Gulag prison camp. Silence, shock, abandonment, and despair at seeing the bombed-out ruins of his hometown are present in the Holocaust’s aftermath. And finally, there is beauty, hope, and peace present in his later years in Israel, away from the nightmares of his own past. Yet the memories of the past are always with Labkovski as depicted in his soulful and brutally honest self-portraits.
Labkovski survived the brutal Siberian Gulag as a prisoner under Stalin during World War II. His visual diary describes his physical and emotional experience, as well as the horrors that his community of Vilna endured during the Holocaust.
The over 400 pieces of artwork Labkovski created enables Holocaust history and the effects of totalitarian regimes along with man’s inhumanity, to be shared in a way that personally speaks to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Labkovski’s work shares human emotion, resilience, and the human toll of hatred and antisemitism.
The exhibit has traveled to over 70 locations, including the U.S Military Academy at West Point, Chapman University, Los Angeles City Hall, and locations in South Africa, Germany, Lithuania, and Mexico.
The mission of the David Labkovski Project is to educate through the art of David Labkovski (1906–1991). By engaging viewers with his paintings and sketches, the David Labkovski Project shares lessons of life, survival, tolerance, acceptance, and the importance of bearing witness to history.
Leeman and Leora Raikin, founder and executive director of the DLP, joint curators of the exhibit “Documenting History through Art,” will present lectures and workshops during the exhibit period where audiences will learn to critically read art within a historical time period, along with poetry exercises in response to the art.
“Through Labkovski’s artwork, history becomes accessible not through statistics but through one person’s lens of what it was like to live through difficult times,“ shares Raikin, the great niece of the artist and a fiber artist herself, whose mixed media creations that are in response to Labkovski’s art will also be part of the exhibit.
Leeman, along with the other students involved in the exhibit, is a graduate of the David Labkovski Project Student Docent & Leadership Training Program, which offers a practical and impactful means for students to delve into Holocaust education and understand the repercussions of antisemitism. This program empowers students to acquire historical context for art and use it to educate their peers about the dangers of discrimination. The Student Docent Leadership & Training Program is virtual and free and allows students to accumulate community service hours. Engaging in this program imparts valuable leadership skills and nurtures empathy and kindness among participants. “The DLP’s educational program for students and teachers combines art and history to teach about the Holocaust, Jewish history, antisemitism, and resilience. Through this project-based curriculum, students and teachers are taught how to integrate the program into their schools.”
Rabbi Peikes, Head of Torah High and co-sponsor of the exhibit, was first introduced to the DLP’s teaching methodology by Leeman. “The impact of bringing DLP’s educational approach to Torah High School through Rebecca, docent and curator, was amazing. This was one of the most meaningful and impactful educational programs our school has ever done. Through the DLP’s engagement techniques, each student becomes a witness, and all the students become engaged. Rebecca did such an amazing job guiding the other students in becoming fully immersed in ‘reading the art’ through the historical context. By teaching about the artist’s life, all the different elements of the program work – the art, bringing in student participation and input, and being allowed to give their own voice to their feelings in response to the art.”
This program allowed for group work in studying the art, allowed for smaller group discussions to better understand the work, and eventually allowed for reflective writing projects, which gave students a chance to pause and dive into the art and feel a sense of connection to the work.
Jordan Fruchtman, Chief Program Officer at the LFJCC shared that he is “excited to hold the debut San Diego exhibit that showcases not only man’s inhumanity, but also the spirits of resilience of the Jewish people, at the center’s dedicated art gallery. This exhibit is so important as the lessons of the Holocaust have never been more relevant, and art is one of humanity’s most powerful storytelling mediums.” Program Director Adam Nicolai asked the public to come learn from our speakers, participate in our programs, and explore the exhibit.
The exhibit will open on Friday, March 8, to the public, with an interactive component to explore the artwork further.
The exhibit with guided student docent tours is open to the public at no cost.
Schools and groups can arrange for guided docent tours.
With Holocaust Commemoration Sunday, May 5, 2024, the viewing of David Labkovski’s art will take on significant meaning with a keynote lecture by Raikin and Leeman.
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