The administration of Seattle University, a Jesuit institution, has bowed to student demands, supported by the faculty senate, and agreed to reinstate Rabbi Arthur Jacobovitz as a member of the faculty, to teach one course in Judaica in the next Spring term. Previously, the administration had dropped the Jewish theology courses which Dr. Jacobovitz had given there since 1961, on the grounds of economy although the rabbi, who is Hillel Foundation director at the University of Washington, had offered to teach without fee. More than 1,100 students signed the petition urging the rabbi’s reappointment.
The faculty senate, by a nine to eight vote, requested a budget grant of $1,000 to permit continuation of Rabbi Jacobovitz’s two courses in Jewish history and Jewish theology, but the university administration allowed only $500 for one course. The Seattle University student newspaper, the Spectator, reporting the student demands for retention of the Judaica courses, said that “there has been hardly an issue in-resent times which has aroused so unanimous an expression of student and faculty feelings as the call for rehiring of Rabbi Jacobovitz.” Rabbi Jacobovitz began teaching this term at St. Thomas the Apostle Major Seminary, where men are educated for the Catholic priesthood. With two priests, he is presenting a seminar there on “Judaism and Job in the 20th Century.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
