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Hebrew Union College to end 4 graduate programs, including 2 in Cincinnati
(JTA) – When Reform Judaism’s leading educational institution adopted a controversial plan last year to discontinue rabbinical seminary studies at its flagship Cincinnati campus, leaders were insistent that other graduate programs would still be on offer there.
That no longer appears to be the case, as Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s president has announced that the school will shutter all of the full-time degree programs based in Cincinnati.
In a letter to the school community sent Tuesday, HUC-JIR President Andrew Rehfeld announced that the four-campus school would discontinue four programs: the doctoral and master’s degree programs in Jewish studies that are based in Cincinnati, as well as a doctoral program in interfaith ministry in New York and a master’s program in educational leadership in Los Angeles.
Rehfeld cited “financial constraints” and enrollment among the reasons for discontinuing the programs.
HUC-JIR’s rabbinical and cantorial programs remain intact, although Rehfeld said the schools would each soon adopt a new curriculum and a “new hybrid pathway that will help us attract and retain highly qualified and dedicated individuals and be more responsive to the diverse needs of our students.” Rehfeld had previously indicated that HUC-JIR would make itself more hospitable to students who cannot or do not want to commit to a five-year course of study in New York or Los Angeles.
Rehfeld said the educational leadership master’s degree program would admit its final class in 2024 and cease operations by 2026, while the school would be “supporting all current students in these programs through the completion of their degrees.” A part-time, non-residential doctor of Hebrew letters course for ordained rabbis that has been based in Cincinnati is not being discontinued. A master’s degree program for Jewish day school educators and an array of certificate programs for teachers and nonprofit professionals who wish to enhance their training also remain.
“We are committed to supporting both our current students in completing their programs and our accomplished alumni — their dedication to HUC-JIR and to advancing Jewish learning is an inspiration to all of us,” Rehfeld wrote in his email. He also said the institution would hire an executive director to oversee the remaining elements of the Cincinnati campus — the American Jewish Archives, a library and a museum — which the school collectively dubs its “Research Center.”
A spokesperson for HUC-JIR did not immediately return a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment. But the board’s decision last year to stop training rabbis at HUC’s 148-year-old flagship Cincinnati campus, in favor of investments in its New York and Los Angeles outposts, opened up fault lines in the Reform community and some political opposition from Ohio officials. Rehfeld’s own faculty openly rebelled against him, as did a large network of HUC alumni, many of whom said the Reform movement was abandoning the middle of the country and its own history with its plan.
Proponents of the plan argued at the time that HUC’s declining enrollment and the Reform movement’s overall challenges with financing its programs necessitated a changes. The campus’s graduate programs had limited enrollment as well, with Rehfeld telling JTA last year that only 13 students were enrolled there at the time. Rehfeld had promised the board would be “doing an evaluation of our graduate program” in its first year of phasing out the rabbinical program.
“I just think already much of the education is being done outside of Cincinnati,” he said at the time.
A page on HUC’s website meant to advertise its Cincinnati campus was sparsely populated as of Tuesday.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.