Court order prevents sale of rare books by Hebrew Union College

The rare books are safe — for now — at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.

The school and Ohio’s attorney general have agreed to a 6-month ban on the sale, transfer and “removal from Ohio” of rare books from the Klau Library on Clifton Ave. That agreement was approved as a court order Thursday by Hamilton County Judge Megan Shanahan.

But the legal dispute about the long-term fate of the artifacts is not over.

“We continue to dispute the allegations in the Ohio Attorney General’s complaint, and as we have repeatedly stated, we have no plans to sell our rare book collection,” HUC-JIR said in a statement. “This is a complicated time for both higher education and the Jewish world, and HUC-JIR will be faced with difficult choices as we shape the future of our institution and the road ahead.”

As the WCPO 9 I-Team reported in May , school officials in Cincinnati sounded the alarm about a potential sale after advisors from the Sotheby’s auction house visited the Klau Library in March and the school’s director of libraries resigned in January, citing pressure to sell items from its world-famous collection.

Established in 1875, the Klau contains more than 14,000 rare books, including the world’s largest collection of Chinese manuscripts that identify Jewish families dating back to the Ming dynasty and a multilingual version of the Book of Psalms created in 1516.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sought a court order preventing the sale, arguing the school has “failed to live up to its fiduciary responsibilities” under Ohio laws governing charitable trusts by “secretly taking steps to sell or deaccession collection items.”

The school flatly denied that allegation in its July 1 response to Yost’s complaint.

“HUC is not now—nor has it ever been—in breach of its fiduciary obligations,” said the filing. “To the contrary, 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.”

Thursday’s order prevents the sale of items inventoried by Sotheby’s employees but allows “routine interlibrary loans from the general Cincinnati library collection to the libraries” on other HUC-JIR campuses.

The next step in the case is an August 12 case management conference. No trial date has been set.