FAU’s Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education Honors Educators

The Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education (CHHRE) at Florida Atlantic University has announced the recipients of the 2025 Gutterman Family Outstanding Holocaust Educator Awards.  This year’s honorees will be recognized on Thursday, October 30, 2025 at the 16th Annual Award Dinner Honoring Outstanding Holocaust Educators, to be held at the Marriott Boca Raton.                                           

The 2025 award recipients include:        

• Broward County Public Schools: Hannah Levitt, McFatter Technical High School
  
  
• Broward County Public Schools: Lisa Schuurmans, Instructional Specialist – Secondary Learning          
            
• Palm Beach County School District: Lisa Brown, Lake Worth High School

The Gutterman Family Outstanding Holocaust Educator Award honors educators who have made a significant impact within their schools and the broader community in the areas of Holocaust, genocide, and human rights education. The award recognizes those who, through their teaching and leadership, inspire students to become responsible global citizens and to uphold the dignity and rights of all people.

Thanks to the generous support of the Arthur Gutterman family, each award recipient will participate in an educator field study. The 2025 honorees will travel with the 2026 award recipients during the Summer of 2027.

 

“Each year for the past 16 years, we have celebrated the accomplishments of outstanding teachers who go above and beyond the requirements of the Holocaust education mandate and are truly making a difference in the lives of their students, in their schools, and in the world,” said Linda Medvin, Director of the Gutterman Family CHHRE. “While much has changed, one thing remains constant: education is our best hope against hatred. The Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Family Center remains committed to continuing our mission – to keep that hope alive.”

 

The Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote respect for all people through the study of Holocaust, genocide and human rights, is an integral unit of FAU’s Peace, Justice and Human Rights Center and serves as a Designated Site of the Florida Department of Education Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education and as a partner in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Community of Holocaust Education Centers (CHEC).

The Gutterman Family Center will be part of the Kurt and Marilyn Wallach Holocaust and Jewish Studies Building that will be located on Florida Atlantic’s Boca Raton campus. The building, slated for groundbreaking in August 2025, will also house the Peace, Justice and Human Rights Center, the Herbert and Elaine Gimelstob Eminent Scholar in Jewish Studies, the Raddock Family Eminent Scholar in Holocaust Studies, and the Leon Charney Diplomacy Program.

The Gutterman Family Center relies exclusively on private donations to provide professional learning programs and classroom resources for teachers and students, and community programs to support the mandated instruction of the Holocaust required by Florida law.

Programs include teacher workshops, Holocaust Summer Institute, and an annual trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as well as programming open to the community and FAU students, faculty and staff. The Gutterman Family CHHRE serves K-12 educators in public, private, charter, parochial and Jewish Day Schools throughout Broward, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Martin, and Glades counties. For more information about the Gutterman Family Center, visit www.fau.edu/artsandletters/pjhr/chhre/ or contact Linda Medvin at 561-297-2929 or lmedvin@fau.edu.

For information about the Annual Gutterman Family Outstanding Holocaust Educator Awards Dinner, contact Ellen Sax at 561 297-0849 or esax@fau.edu.