CINCINNATI — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is again suing Hebrew Union College, this time in an attempt to prohibit the sale of the campus.
The board of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion voted in 2022 to end its rabbinical residency program in Cincinnati by the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Now, Yost claims the college violated state law and its own founding documents.
"Hebrew Union accepted millions of dollars in donations based on a 76-year-old promise it would now like to break," Yost said in a press release. "We're suing to keep these assets in Cincinnati where they belong."
Yost claim that the college has diverted donations intended for the Cincinnati campus to its other locations in New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem. He points to a 1950 agreement stating Hebrew Union was legally required to "permanently maintain" a rabbinical school in Cincinnati; Yost claims because of that agreement, diverting any charitable funds meant for Cincinnati is a violation of donor intent and Ohio's charitable laws.
In the same vein, Yost said he's also asking the court to prohibit Hebrew Union's sale of the Cincinnati campus.
The lawsuit also asks for a full accounting of Hebrew Union's Ohio-based assets, and a court order redirecting those assets to support a permanent rabbinical campus in Cincinnati.
The 2022 vote meant that the more-than-150-year-old Jewish seminary school on Clifton Avenue would no longer operate; The college already phased out graduate programs in 2023.
The restructuring proposal was bitterly opposed by students, faculty and alumni of the Cincinnati campus. Critics warned it’s the first step toward closure of the historic property with deep cultural roots in the Tri-State. And, even then, the Ohio Attorney General's office said it might investigate whether the change would violate the school's 1950 merger agreement, which requires it to permanently operate rabbinical schools in Cincinnati and New York.
But in the end, it passed the HUC-JIR board of governors by more than a two-thirds majority.
This is Yost's second lawsuit filed against Hebrew Union College, but the first dealt with the school's rare book collection.
That lawsuit was resolved in 2025, after Yost and Hebrew Union came to an agreement that the college could still sell off rare books in its collection — but only if they notify the Attorney General's office first. Under that agreement, if any books are ever sold, the funds received can then only be used to obtain other items for Hebrew Union College's Klau Library.
Records must also be kept of all library assets, the acquisition of new ones or the sale or deacession of any items in the library for up to seven years.
