Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit against Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to stop the institution from shutting down its 150-year-old rabbinical program in Cincinnati at the end of the current school year.
Yost’s office submitted the lawsuit on April 10 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, arguing that closing the school would violate Ohio laws designed to protect the intent of donors who contribute money or property to charitable organizations and private institutions.
Yost said that if donors intended their contributions to support the Cincinnati rabbinical school, those assets must remain in Cincinnati. He also stated that the school’s board of governors must honor a 1950 consolidation agreement that committed to “permanently maintain” campuses in Cincinnati and New York.
“Hebrew Union accepted millions of dollars in donations based on a 76-year-old promise it now would like to break,” Yost said in a statement about the lawsuit. “We’re suing to keep these assets in Cincinnati where they belong.”
The lawsuit also asks a judge to block the school’s closure until the case can be argued in court. It further alleges that Hebrew Union College officials are “actively pursuing the sale or lease of the land that it owns which houses its Cincinnati rabbinical school.”
Officials from Hebrew Union College did not immediately respond to phone calls or an email requesting comment.
This latest legal dispute over the school’s future follows years of financial and legal challenges at Hebrew Union College. Founded in Cincinnati in 1875 by Isaac Mayer Wise, it stands as the nation’s oldest Jewish seminary and has trained rabbis for congregations across the United States.
Wise, who founded the American Jewish Reform Movement, arrived in Cincinnati from Bohemia in the mid-1800s. He served as rabbi of Congregation B’nai Yeshurun, which initially met at The Lodge Street Synagogue before relocating to what is now the Isaac M. Wise Temple on Plum Street in downtown Cincinnati.
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion expanded to New York in the 1950s before later growing into Los Angeles and Jerusalem. However, school officials have said the Cincinnati campus has struggled for years with financial difficulties and declining enrollment.
When officials announced plans in 2022 to shut down the rabbinical program, the college was dealing with a record $8.8 million deficit, and enrollment of rabbinical students had fallen by 37% over the previous 15 years.
At that time, administrators said they would not close the campus, though they did not outline long-term plans. They stated the site would host smaller study sessions and emphasized that it would remain home to the Klau Library, American Jewish Archives, and Skirball Museum.
“We recognize the pain that this decision causes and expect to take the appropriate time and care to implement this decision in a sensitive and constructive manner, in collaboration with our community,” said the college’s president, Andrew Rehfeld, in 2022.
According to the college’s website, officials still plan to establish a single national rabbinical school that will not operate in Cincinnati. They say the plan includes “reimagining our historic Cincinnati campus,” though they have not provided further details.
Dave Yost has filed this lawsuit as the second legal action his office has taken against the college in recent years. In 2024, he sued the institution to block a potential sale of books and rare manuscripts from the Klau Library.
He said he filed that lawsuit after officials brought in a consultant from the British auction house Sotheby’s to assess the collection and determine its value. Based on that evaluation, officials said they would consider “deaccessioning,” or removing books from the collection, if certain texts were deemed “redundant or not central to our mission.”
Yost made the same argument then as he does now, asserting that the college cannot sell assets donated with the intent that they remain at the Cincinnati campus.
Under a settlement reached last year, the college must provide the attorney general’s office with a full inventory of items in the library’s special collections, including rare books and manuscripts.
The agreement also requires the college to identify any materials with donor restrictions and to notify the attorney general at least 45 days before attempting to sell or remove items. Proceeds from any sales may only be used to acquire new materials for the library, unless the board declares “an acute financial need” through a two-thirds majority vote.
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