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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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Antisemitic Incidents at Argentina Local Soccer Match Spark Official Investigations, Condemnations
Fans of Argentinian soccer club All Boys marched through the streets before their match against Atlanta soccer club, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Photo: Screenshot
Argentinian authorities and soccer officials have launched investigations following antisemitic incidents by Club Atlético All Boys fans during Sunday’s local match against Atlanta.
Atlanta, a soccer team based in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has deep historical ties to Argentina’s Jewish community, which has long been a significant presence in the area.
This latest antisemitic incident took place outside the stadium before the game had even started.
All Boys fans were seen waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag, and handing out flyers bearing messages like “Free Palestine” and “Israel and Atlanta are the same crap.”
Before a football match today against the Argentine sports club Atlanta, which is closely associated with the Jewish community, fans of the opposing team, All Boys, waved Islamic Republic and Palestinian flags while parading a coffin draped in an Israeli flag through the streets.… pic.twitter.com/IQs4v6eoFz
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 29, 2025
Then, during the match — which ended in a 0-0 draw — a drone carrying a Palestinian flag flew over the stadium, while some fans reportedly chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Local police confirmed they have issued citations to individuals accused of inciting public disorder and related offenses.
On Monday, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) condemned the incidents as “abhorrent” and confirmed the organization has opened a formal inquiry into the events.
“This is not folklore. This is discrimination,” the statement reads.
Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich also announced that a criminal complaint has been filed, citing “acts of violence, expressions of racial and religious hatred, and public intimidation.”
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, condemned the incidents and called on both local authorities and the soccer officials to “take firm action against these acts of hatred.”
“We urge the authorities to take all necessary actions and apply the full force of the law,” the statement reads. “Violence and discrimination must have no place in our society.”
Repudiamos enérgicamente las expresiones antisemitas ocurridas hoy en las inmediaciones del estadio Malvinas Argentinas.
Exigimos a las autoridades correspondientes, a la AFA y al Club All Boys que actúen con firmeza ante estos hechos de odio.
La violencia y la discriminación no… pic.twitter.com/3AmY7IQscY— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) June 29, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Argentina has experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Jewish hate crimes.
According to a recent report by DAIA, Argentina experienced a 15 percent increase in antisemitic activity last year, with 687 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded — up from 598 incidents in 2023 — marking a significant rise nationwide.
The study indicates that 66 percent of the antisemitic incidents originated in the digital realm, with a significant rise in Nazi symbols and conspiracy theories, but there was also a 34 percent increase in reported physical assaults, with such hate crimes rising in schools and neighborhoods.
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Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says
A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. Photo: File.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the U.S. military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.” Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department [of Defense] assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving U.S. intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the U.S. intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen [has] led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.
“No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged,” Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.
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Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Switzerland has moved to shut down the Geneva office of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid group, citing legal irregularities in its establishment.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
With a subsidiary registered in Geneva, the GHF — headquartered in Delaware — reports having delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
According to a regulatory announcement published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) may order the dissolution of the GHF if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Swiss decision to shut down its Geneva office.
“The GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland … and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered branch,” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities gave the GHF a 30-day deadline to address legal shortcomings or risk facing enforcement measures.
Under local laws and regulations, the foundation failed to meet several requirements: it did not appoint a board member authorized to sign documents domiciled in Switzerland, did not have the minimum three board members, lacked a Swiss bank account and valid address, and operated without an auditing body.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these vehicles are more neutral.
Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort.
The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
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