The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has reached a temporary agreement with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office that prevents the college from selling any items from the Cincinnati Klau Library without first giving the AG 30-days notice to approve sales.
No agent of HUC-JIR will “sell, transfer, remove from Ohio, or dispose of any item in the Cincinnati Library’s collections without either advance agreement of the parties or order of this Court,” said today’s filing, signed by Hamilton County Judge Megan Shanahan.
The order doesn’t stop the Klau Library from giving inter-library loans to other HUC-JIR campuses or other institutions.
The order for preliminary injunction expires in six months, but can be ended earlier or extended further by Shanahan depending on other motions or agreements between the college and the AG.
“The parties have agreed to resolve certain issues in this action to avoid the costs, burdens, and risks of a preliminary injunction hearing,” the order said. A hearing was originally scheduled on July 12, but was abruptly canceled shortly before it took place.
The agreement comes over a month after the AG first took legal action – sparked by Cincy Jewfolk’s reporting – against HUC-JIR.
The initial filing claimed HUC-JIR mishandled the Klau Library on six counts violating Ohio law, including deceptive acts or practices in charitable solicitations, breach of fiduciary duty, and abuse of charitable trust.
Shanahan approved the temporary restraining order the AG was seeking to prevent the college from selling items from the Klau Library.
“Considering [the attorney general’s] likelihood of success on the merits of its claims, likelihood of irreparable injury if immediate relief is not granted, and likelihood of harm to other parties, it is in the public interest to enter this temporary restraining order,” the judge’s filing stated.
The Klau is HUC-JIR’s primary research library, known for its substantial collections on the traditions, history, and philosophy of world Jewry across more than a dozen languages – including Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese – and a renowned assembly of Jewish liturgical music.
The attorney general’s case was largely built around Cincy Jewfolk’s April reporting – which is referenced and quoted extensively in the filings – about HUC-JIR’s efforts to sell rare items from the Klau, and the college administration’s budget cuts at the library.
While no sales have taken place, and the college says it currently has no plans for any sales, HUC-JIR did bring Judaica specialists from the auction house Sotheby’s to evaluate the Klau Library holdings in mid-March.
Earlier in 2024, Yoram Bitton, HUC-JIR’s national director of libraries, resigned after allegedly being pressured by the administration to sell rare books from the Klau.
“A library without its most precious artifacts and texts is like a body without a soul,” said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost in a press release announcing the legal action in early June. “We are committed to ensuring that these irreplaceable items remain available to the public and are cared for as their donors intended.”
In its filing responding to the AG’s claims, HUC-JIR denied any wrongdoing and attacked Cincy Jewfolk’s reporting.
The Ohio Attorney General’s “complaint is based on spurious and unsubstantiated claims published in an article in April 2024,” the filing said. “Indeed, the Complaint contains no material allegations of fact other than what Plaintiff parroted from that article. The unsupported claims in that report were and are false.
“HUC has been and remains committed to operating the Klau Library and managing its collection consistent with its fiduciary obligations and its goal as a religious institution of preserving the Library’s collection to advance the understanding and study of Judaism.”
In April, HUC-JIR did not respond directly to Cincy Jewfolk questions about Sotheby’s evaluating the Klau holdings, and the college did not deny that it might sell rare items from the Klau Library.
Reached for comment about today’s temporary agreement, a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office only said, “We don’t have anything to add at this time.” Cincy Jewfolk also reached out to HUC-JIR for comment, and will update this story with any responses.
Kudos to Cincy Jewfolk for exposing the ongoing events at HUC. Your article got the facts straight and was instrumental in the AG’s decision to act. Thank you, thank you, thank you.