Ohio AG Sues Hebrew Union to Prevent Campus Sale

Ohio attorney general Dave Yost is suing Hebrew Union College in hopes of preventing the institution from selling its Cincinnati campus, WCPO 9 News reported.

Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion decided in 2022 that it would wind down its Cincinnati rabbinical school program by the end of the 2025–26 academic year. It maintained its programs in Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York and launched a virtual option last year. The Cincinnati campus would still host academic resources like the college’s archive and library.

The lawsuit, filed last week, claims Hebrew Union College promised in a 1950 agreement to “permanently” maintain a rabbinical school in Cincinnati. It argues that the college breached Ohio law and its charitable trust by removing language about the Cincinnati rabbinical school from the agreement and by spending funds intended for the Cincinnati campus on its other branches. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the institution from selling its land in Cincinnati and to block donor funds intended for the Cincinnati campus from going to out-of-state programs. It also demands an accounting of the college’s Ohio-based assets.

“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 news release. “We’re suing to keep these assets in Cincinnati where they belong.”

Yost previously sued the college in 2024 to prevent it from selling off rare Jewish books and manuscripts housed at its Cincinnati Klau Library. But Yost and the college came to an agreement last year, in which the institution can sell off books if it notifies the attorney general’s office and uses any funds obtained to support the library, WCPO 9 News reported. The college also has to maintain records of library assets and any acquisitions or sales of library items for up to seven years.