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Ohio Attorney General Seeks to Halt Sale of Rare Jewish Book Collection
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost attends a 2022 US midterm elections night party in Columbus, Ohio, US, Nov. 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Gaelen Morse
Cincinnati, Ohio is home to a robust Reform Jewish community. In the heart of downtown sits a cathedral-like synagogue built in 1866 known as Plum Street Temple. Located a few blocks away is Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion, or HUC-JIR for short. The Reform seminary in many ways feels like a small college campus, featuring classrooms, a small Judaica Museum, and even a vegetable garden. At the center of the campus sits the Klau Library — a four-story structure dedicated to all things Jewish.
The rare-books collection in the basement of the Klau Library is now at the heart of a legal battle between HUC-JIR and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican who has served in his current role since 2019.
Yost has alleged that HUC-JIR recently began the process of auctioning the collection through the auction house Sotheby’s to address what he described as the seminary’s “budgetary deficit.” On Tuesday, he sought a temporary restraining order against HUC-JIR in a court filing made in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, hoping to prevent the sale of valuable religious texts.
In his court filing, Yost alleged that the library was “violating Ohio law and breaching the charitable trust applicable to the Cincinnati Library” by “dismantling” its collection. Yost argued that HUC-JIR has violated its charitable fiduciary responsibility to its donors. A hearing on the attorney general’s is scheduled for July 12.
HUC-JIR’s financial troubles in Ohio are not new. In 2022, HUC-JIR’s board of governors voted to close their Cincinnati campus in 2026 after facing declining enrollment and an $8.8 million deficit. HUC-JIR still has campuses in New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem.
The Klau Library is home to a wide range of Jewish texts including pre-Holocaust sets of the Talmud; Israeli artifacts including phone books, novels, and directories; Yiddish manuscripts; and collections of Jewish thought. It is widely considered the greatest collection of Jewish texts in Cincinnati and the surrounding area.
In total, the library holds over 530,000 books and 2,500 manuscripts. The rare-books collection alone is home to over 14,000 items.
Yost claimed in a written statement that HUC-JIR’s sale of “priceless” religious texts “would not only betray donor trust but may also violate legal restrictions placed on gifts.”
In response, HUC-JIR said that it currently has no intention of selling its rare book collection and remains committed to the “responsible collection of the Klau Library.”
However, the seminary did not rule out the possibility of selling items from the library in the future in order to stay afloat financially.
“While we have no current plans to sell any part of our collection, it would be irresponsible to foreclose such actions should they be deemed necessary to preserve and maintain the collection and access to it,” HUC-JIR assistant vice president Patricia Keim said in a statement. “In any case, any such decision would be carefully reviewed and require approval by the Board of Governors.”
Nonetheless, the seminary in Cincinnati has taken steps that indicate an interest in auctioning some of the collection, according to Yost’s court filing. The document states, for example, that the chief librarian resigned this year “after allegedly being pressured by the administration to sell rare books for Klau [Library],” and that in March, a Sotheby’s consultant visited the library to appraise its rare-book collection for a potential sale.
One item of significance in the library’s rare-books collection is the Bomberg Talmud. Venetian publisher Daniel Bomberg printed the first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud in 1520, and a 1523 edition of the Bomberg Talmud can be found in the Klau Library.
In 2015, a complete set of the Bomberg Talmud auctioned by Sotheby’s was sold for $9.3 million.
HUC-JIR’s legal battle comes amid certain issues facing the future of the Reform Jewish community. A 2021 study from Yale University found that the Reform movement in America faces demographic challenges. The study projected that, by 2063, the total number of people in the Reform and Conservative denominations aged 30-69 will decline by 46 percent.
Jacob Frankel is working as an intern for The Algemeiner before heading to law school.
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At Least 12 Killed in Massive Russian Attack on Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Russia-Ukraine War: About three and a half years after the outbreak of the war, Russia carried out last night (Sunday) the largest air attack since it began. At least 12 people were killed, including three children, and dozens more were injured when 367 rockets and missiles were fired at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized US policy, which so far has taken a soft stance towards Russia, and recently hinted that it would stop mediating between the two countries: “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram. “Every such Russian terrorist attack is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in a night attack. According to him, they shot down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage was caused to several areas, including the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In parallel, a prisoner of war exchange deal was concluded. In Russia, reports said that 303 prisoners were transferred from each side. In total, over the last three days 2,000 prisoners, 1,000 Ukrainians and 1,000 Russians, have been returned to their countries. Zelensky thanked the servicemen of the armed forces, and promised to bring all the prisoners home. “Today, our armed forces, the national guard, the state border service, and the special state transport service are returning home.”
“I am grateful to the team that worked around the clock to successfully execute these exchanges,” he added. “We will certainly bring back each and every one of our people from Russian captivity.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that the Russian army may reach a severe shortage of manpower and weapons in the next year. The Ukrainian army is also in trouble, and it is offering generous economic grants to new recruits.
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UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a “teaspoon” of aid was getting in following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.
The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday, for a total of 305 since Monday when the blockade was relaxed.
But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful and U.N. officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed every day.
So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have got past the Kerem Shalom crossing point and into Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.
Despite the relaxation of the blockade, distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, an umbrella network representing Palestinian aid groups said.
“They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger,” the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks.
The U.N. World Food Program said 15 trucks carrying flour to WFP-supported bakeries had been looted, which it said reflected the dire conditions facing Gazans.
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity,” it said in a statement.
A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.
Israel imposed the blockade in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from armed looters.
“Hamas constantly calls the looters ‘guards’ or protectors’ to mask the fact that they’re disturbing the aid process,” an Israeli military official said.
‘DESPERATION’
With most of Gaza’s 2 million population squeezed into an ever narrowing zone on the coast and in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis by Israel’s military operation, international pressure to get aid in quickly has ratcheted up.
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A German government spokesperson said the aid was “far too little, too late and too slow,” adding that delivery of supplies had to be increased significantly.
Israel has announced that a new system, sponsored by the United States and run by private contractors, will soon begin operations from four distribution centers in the south of Gaza, but many details of how the system will work remain unclear.
The U.N. has already said it will not work with the new system, which it says will leave aid distribution conditional on Israel’s political and military aims.
Israel says its forces will only provide security for the centers and will not distribute aid themselves.
As the aid has begun to trickle in, the Israeli military has continued the intensified ground and air operation launched last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would end with Israel taking full control of the Gaza Strip.
The military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
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Swiss Authorities Exploring Probe Into US-Backed Gaza Aid Group
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Swiss authorities said on Sunday they were exploring whether to open a legal investigation into the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization that plans to oversee aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave.
The move comes after a Swiss NGO submitted a request for a probe into GHF’s aid plan, which the United Nations has opposed, saying it is not impartial or neutral and forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.
The GHF, which has said it hopes to start work in Gaza by the end of May, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians.
Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week after having stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2.
TRIAL International, a Switzerland-based NGO, on Friday said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate whether the Swiss-registered GHF complies with Swiss law and international humanitarian law.
The submissions were made to the Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on May 20 and 21.
The FDFA on Sunday confirmed to Reuters that both authorities had received the submissions.
TRIAL International said it asked the Swiss FDFA to explain if the GHF had submitted a declaration, in accordance with Swiss law, to use private security companies to distribute aid, and if it had been approved by Swiss authorities.
The FDFA told Reuters it is investigating whether such a declaration would be required for the foundation.
It said that the Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations cannot review whether foundations comply with their statutes until they start their activities.
The GHF told Reuters that though using private security firms represents a change from prior aid delivery frameworks, it would ensure aid is not diverted to Hamas or criminal organizations.
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