Rabbinical school turf war brews in Ohio over Hebrew Union College’s assets

A legal battle is brewing in Ohio over the assets of the historic Hebrew Union College campus in Cincinnati, which recently graduated its final rabbinical class. The College for Contemporary Judaism (CCJ), a new seminary founded in 2022, has entered the fray, seeking to become the steward of HUC's Cincinnati assets, including its library, archives, and museum.

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The Attorney General has appropriately stepped forward to enforce the charitable trust obligations that bind those assets to the State of Ohio and their underlying charitable mission.

CCJ has joined a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The state's suit alleges that HUC, the Reform movement's rabbinical school, violated state nonprofit law and misled donors by closing its Cincinnati campus. CCJ's motion to intervene argues that it is a mission-aligned candidate capable of carrying forward the "permanent" charitable purpose for which the assets were intended.

HUC, which maintains campuses in New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem, has been the Reform movement's primary seminary since its founding in Cincinnati in 1875. The school is pushing back against the lawsuit, with President Andrew Rehfeld stating that the allegations "mischaracterize our decision-making, misrepresent our stewardship of donor funds and ignore our sustained record of transparency and good faith."

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The allegations 'mischaracterize our decision-making, misrepresent our stewardship of donor funds and ignore our sustained record of transparency and good faith.'

Despite its ambitions, CCJ currently exists only in name. It has no permanent home, has yet to enroll students, and lacks a timeline for its first class. Its founders, many with deep ties to HUC, believe they are best positioned to continue ordaining liberal rabbis in the Midwest, a mission they argue HUC is abandoning.

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permanently maintain