Youngstown State University students, faculty and community supporters plan to deliver a petition and letters of support for YSU professor Jacob Labendz and the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday on the steps of Tod Hall.
Labendz is director of the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies and a renowned scholar of history and Jewish studies. He was among nine full-time faculty who received emails last fall informing them that their contracts would not be renewed for the 2022-2023 academic year.
According to organizers, the petition includes signatures from more than 850 students, alumni, fellow academics and supporters from around the world. In addition, the group will deliver letters of support from students and professional societies such as the American Historical Association and the Ohio Academy of History.
“The failure to renew Dr. Labendz’s contract not only deprives present and future YSU students of the opportunity to learn from a brilliant scholar, but it also places the future of the CJHS in serious jeopardy. We seek what the community clearly mandates, Dr. Labendz’s safe future at YSU and a commitment to full-time tenure or tenure track academic leadership of the Center,” said Alexis Heldreth, YSU alumna.
“Anything less is an insult to the students and Mahoning Valley community that depends on the Center for fostering a deep understanding of history and the pitfalls of hate, which are still looming large around us,” Heldreth said.
In a joint letter of support, which was published in the Dec. 9 edition of the The Jambar, leaders of the Islamic Society of Greater Youngstown and the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation wrote:
“The study of the historical lessons of the Holocaust is equally as crucial. During these perilous, polarized times, where we are seeing a substantial uptick in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and political misappropriation of Holocaust history, it is more vital now than ever that a pedagogically qualified historian be present on campus to teach about and direct programming on this material. Because Dr. Labendz is the only current YSU professor who is qualified to teach Judaic and Holocaust studies, and because of the administration’s apparent decision to shrink the footprint of history education at the University, any future efforts to present Judaic/Holocaust opportunities, without an appropriate scholar as a full-time member of the faculty, will dilute the impact of this education to the point that it is rendered meaningless. The history of the Holocaust matters and cannot be forgotten.”
Labendz was named the Clayman Assistant Professor of Judaic and Holocaust Studies and the director of the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at YSU in 2017.
He holds a PhD in history from Washington University in St. Louis. His areas of research include European Jewish History, Modern Central European and German History and the History of the Modern Middle East.
Labendz completed a post-doctoral teaching fellowship in the Jewish Studies Program at Penn State University during the 2016-17 academic year. He has presented at numerous workshops, lectures and conferences around the world, and spent the spring 2016 semester teaching in Prague.
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