JACOB ARI LABENDZ
Department of History
Washington University in St. Louis
1 Brookings Drive, Box 1062, St. Louis, MO 63130
(973) 768-0994; labendz@wustl.edu
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Candidate, Washington University in St. Louis, History, PhD expected Dec. 2013
Dissertation: “Jews and the State in Communist Central Europe: The Czech
Lands, 1948-1989”
Dissertation Committee: Hillel Kieval (chair/director), Andrea Friedman, Erin
McGlothlin, Antony Polonsky, Nancy Reynolds, Corinna Treitel
M.A. Washington University in St. Louis, History, September 2009
Examination Fields: Jewish History, Modern Central Europe (with Germany),
Modern Middle East
B.A.
Brandeis University, Linguistics and Cognitive Science / Philosophy, May 2000
Summa cum laude with highest honors in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Phi
Beta Kappa
PUBLICATIONS
“‘In unserem Kreise:’ Czech-Jewish Activism and Immigration in the USA, 1938-1994,”
under review at Jewish Culture and History
“‘Jewish Power’ in Communist Czechoslovakia,” solicited by and in progress for East
European Jewish Affairs.
PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION
Summer Research Workshop, “Confronting the Holocaust in Postwar Czechoslovakia,
Poland and Hungary,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, August 1 - 10,
2012.
“‘Jewish Power’ in Communist Czechoslovakia,” Panel: “Fantasies of Jewish Power in
the Twentieth Century,” Chair: Karen Auerbach, Association for Jewish Studies
Conference, Washington, DC, December 2011
“A Moribund Diaspora: Czechoslovak-Jewish Nationalism in Exile, 1943-1991,”
Washington University History Department Graduate Research Series, March
2010
Film Screening and Discussion: Juraj Herz, “The Cremator,” Washington University
Graduate Film Workshop, funded by the WUSTL Center for the Humanities,
March 2010
“Along Came a Spider: ‘Of Jewish Descent’ & Jewish Policy in Czechoslovakia, 19521972,” Panel: “Jews and the State in Communist East Central Europe: Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia,” Chair: Antony Polonsky, Association
for Jewish Studies Conference, Los Angeles, CA, December 2009
“Along Came a Spider: ‘Of Jewish Descent’ & Jewish Policy in Czechoslovakia, 19521972,” invited presenter, University of California at Berkeley, Krouzek - Culture
and History of East Central Europe Working Group, October 2009
“‘Of Jewish Decent:’ Competing Interpretations of a Discourse in Communist
Czechoslovakia, 1952-1969,” Max and Hilde Kochmann Summer School for
PhD-Students in Modern European-Jewish History and Culture, Centre for
German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex, July 2009
“Re-Imagining Zionism and the Jews - Domestic Diffuse and Dangerous: 1967 as a
Turning Point in State-Jewish Relations in Czechoslovakia,” New Approaches:
Home, Nation, and Landedness in Modern Identity, Harvard University, May
2008
FELLOWSHIPS/GRANTS
Research, Dissertation, and Study:
Dissertation Fellowship, Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2013
Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Foundation for
Jewish Culture, 2012-2013
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2010-2011
Targum Shlishi Foundation Dissertation Grant, Spring 2010
Wexner Graduate Fellowship, 2006-2009
Washington University International & Areas Studies Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, 2009
Washington University Frankel Fellowship, 2006-2007
Travel:
United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum Summer Research Seminar, “‘The
Struggle of Memory against Forgetting’: Confronting the Holocaust in Postwar
Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary,” July 30 - August 10, 2012
Posen Foundation Travel Grant to the Association for Jewish Studies Conference, 2011
University of California at Berkeley, grant for travel to Krouzek workshop, 2009
University of Sussex, grant for travel to the Max and Hilde Kochmann Summer School
for PhD-Students in Modern European-Jewish History and Culture, 2009
R. W. Davis Travel Grant, 2008, 2009, and 2011
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teaching Assistant:
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, Prof. Matthew Brown, Spring 2012
The Middle East in the 20th Century, Prof. Nancy Reynolds, Spring 2010
The Jews in Islamic Lands, Prof. Martin Jacobs, Fall 2009
Western Civilization II: 1648-1989, Prof. Corinna Treitel, Spring 2009
The Jew in the Modern World, Prof. Matthew Brown, Fall 2008
Introduction to Jewish Civilization, Prof. Gil Ribak, Spring 2008
Introduction to Islamic Civilization, Prof. Ahmet Karamustafa, Fall 2007
Syllabus Design:
“Remembering the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic and America” for
CET Academic Programs: Jewish Studies in Prague.
Guest Lecturer:
“Jews in Communist Czechoslovakia” and lecture-tours “Prague: Medieval to Modern,”
and “The Jewish Cemetery of Prague,” CET Academic Programs in Prague,
Summer 2012
“Czechoslovak Holocaust Film,” with Keith Jones, NYU in Prague, Summer 2008.
ACADEMIC SERVICE
Academic Advisory Board, CET Jewish Studies in Prague (study abroad), 2006-Present
Co-Chair, Washington University Graduate History Association, 2011-2012
Founding Co-Convener, Washington University Graduate Film Workshop, funded by the
WUSTL Center for the Humanities, 2010-Present
Representative, Washington University Graduate History Association, 2008-2009
RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Historical Consultant, Joanie Schirm, The Golden Youth: Adventurers Against Their Will,
2011 - 2012
Translator, Czech Centre Prague, Czech Republic, 2010 - Present
Research Assistant, Hillel Kieval, Summer 2010
Prague Programs Manager, CET Academic Programs (study abroad), January 2005 June 2006
Resident Director of CET Jewish Studies in Prague, CET Academic Programs, January
2002 - June 2004
PUBLIC HISTORY
“Jewish Youth in the Communist Czech Lands,” Online Oral-History Exhibition, Jewish
Museum in Prague (under production)
Film screening and discussion: Veit Harlan, “Jud Süß,” St. Louis Holocaust Memorial
and Learning Center (HMLC), October 2012
“The Czech Torah Scrolls: History, Memory, and Legacy,” HMLC, February 2012
“Jews and the State in Communist Czechoslovakia,” CET Jewish Studies in Prague,
October 2010 and September 2011
“The Jewish Museum in Prague under the Nazis, 1942-1945,” HMLC, February 2010
Film screening and discussion: Zbeněk Brynych, “Transport from Paradise,” HMLC,
April 2009
“Commemorating the Holocaust in Central Europe, 1945-2008,” HMLC, November 2008
Film Screening and Discussion: Zuzana Justmann, “A Trial in Prague,” HMLC, October
2008
“The Expulsion of the Israeli Diplomatic Corps in 1967 as a Turning Point in StateJewish Relations in Czechoslovakia: A New Perspective in How to Think about
Czechoslovak History,” National Czech and Slovak Museum, March 2008
“The Czech Holocaust,” HLMC, March 2007
LANGUAGES
Native English, advanced Czech, Slovak, and Hebrew, intermediate German, reading
Polish, and basic Spanish.