About Leora

 

South African-born, Los Angeles based, Leora Raikin is an international speaker captivating audiences throughout the world. As founder of the David Labkovski Project, educator, artist and author she co-developed a project based multi disciplinary educational program to teach students about Jewish life in Eastern Europe; before, during and after the Holocaust through the art of Lithuanian-Israeli artist David Labkovski (1906-1991) that has been successfully scaled and implemented in middle schools, high schools and colleges in the United States, Lithuania and Mexico.

Leora was honored by the Los Angeles City Council, June 7, 2019 for her commitment to educate and engage audiences with the art of David Labkovski that shares lessons of life, survival, tolerance, acceptance and the importance of bearing witness to Jewish history. For Holocaust Remembrace this year, Leora and the David Labkovski Project were invited to share thier exhibit at the state capital in Sacremntao and in September this year, the DLP exhibit- Documenting History through Art will be at the LA City Council in the rotunda.

Leora is passionate about using art as a tool to educate. She lectures on a wide range of topics throughout the United States, where she lives in Los Angeles: including the Diaspora Jews of South Africa, The Life and Art of David Labkovski- Documenting History through art and Tribal Arts through African Folklore Embroidery. Raikin also serves on the Council for Judaic Arts and on the teaching faculty at American Jewish University and Camp Ramah.

​Leora was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa and earned a Bachelor of Business Science undergraduate degree from University of Cape Town and a Masters in Research from UCT, South Africa. On graduating she served as Marketing Director for Broll Property Group and then went on to found Strategic Property Research. While living in Los Angeles, Leora served at Vice President of NATO (North American Testing Organization- 1999-2004) and prior to that as Senior Research Consultant at Robert Charles Lesser & Co.