CINCINNATI — Two years after the leaders of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion voted to stop ordaining rabbis in Cincinnati, four of its former board members are trying to start a new Jewish seminary to compete against the historic school.
“The City of Cincinnati is going to lose a lot by the absence of a rabbinical school here,” said Andy Berger, local attorney and chairman of the nonprofit, College for Contemporary Judaism. “Rabbinical students and faculty have been active in the Jewish community here. They’ve been out teaching in synagogues, teaching adult education. They’ve been in social service agencies here. People have been involved in interfaith relations with the Christian, Muslim (and) other communities in Cincinnati. And that’s going be lost.”
Although it remains a fledgling effort, the proposed college has spent more than $89,000 on “formation activities” and “feasibility assessments,” according to its tax return for the year ending last June. The document lists $57,000 in assets and one donor, whose name and contributions are listed as “restricted.”
The organization’s purpose will be to “promote the academically rigorous study of the Jewish religion, history, texts and literature” and “train persons for the Jewish ministry, research and community service.”
Berger said he began working on plans for a new seminary a few months after the HUC-JIR board voted to close its rabbinical residency program by 2026.
The New York-based leadership of HUC-JIR was not available for an interview but provided a statement about the new potential rival.
“While we do not know the specifics of the intended seminary's plans, we welcome any initiative that expands access to Jewish education,” spokeswoman Patricia Keim wrote. “HUC-JIR is committed to diverse approaches to learning and will continue to pursue innovation and accessibility in education to serve the Jewish People.”
Declining enrollment and an increase in online educational options have made the development of new colleges a tough task.
The number of degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the United States declined 16% to 3,542 in the ten years ending in 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Despite the shrinkage, new colleges are forming in degree fields with heavy job demand, including data science, engineering and green energy. Xavier University is planning to spend $109 million on a new college for a College of Osteopathic Medicine, which is slated for groundbreaking this fall.
Berger was tight-lipped about fundraising objectives for the new seminary, although he quipped it would cost less than Xavier’s new venture.
He said organizers are “exploring different locations in Cincinnati” as a home for the new school. While it’s not likely to be located on the HUC campus, he expects students will the school’s world-famous resources, including the Klau Library and American Jewish Archives, for their studies.
“Those resources are open to everybody,” Berger said.
Prospects rise on rare books, rabbi shortage
Enthusiasm for the project increased after recently published reports that HUC-JIR might be considering the sale of rare books from the Klau Library. School officials denied such a plan exists, but could not rule out the sale of rare books in the future.
“A lot of people are very concerned about the sale, or potential sale of rare books. And I happen to agree with them,” Berger said. “We are just gaining more supporters all over the place and all the time.”
One of those supporters is Micah Greenstein, Senior Rabbi at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tenn. The 1991 graduate of Hebrew Union College said the planned closure of a residential rabbinical program in Cincinnati has exacerbated a national rabbi shortage that will hit the middle of the country hardest.
“It’s not a challenge. It’s a crisis,” Greenstein said. “And there’s no plan for the training of highly skilled and effective rabbis for America’s Jewish future.”
Greenstein said there are 950 reform rabbis who will be eligible to retire within 10 years in the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the oldest and largest rabbinic organization in America, with about 2,200 rabbis who serve more than 2 million worshippers in North America, Israel and elsewhere.
That means “39 rabbis will need to be ordained annually just to replace those who are retiring,” Greenstein said. “We just ordained a handful – and the ones ordained may not be suited for Denver or Chicago or Memphis or New Orleans or St. Louis.”
That’s because rabbis tend to form connections with the communities where they are ordained. And those ties run particularly deep for many graduates of Hebrew Union College.
“Cincinnati is the mothership for the reform movement,” Greenstein said. Although he has Ivy League has degrees from Harvard and Cornell, “the diploma that I venerate the most is my Hebrew Union College diploma because it has the signatures of some of the greatest scholars of all time.”
Berger heard that kind of devotion from dozens of rabbis who wrote the HUC-JIR board in 2022, asking it not to close the residential rabbinical program in Cincinnati.
“They would never have gone to rabbinical school had they not been able to come to Cincinnati,” said Berger. “And once HUC in Cincinnati closes, the only seminaries will be on the coasts.”
