The organizers behind an initiative to create a rabbinic seminary in Cincinnati have reached what they're calling a key milestone. The College for Contemporary Judaism (CCJ) has announced the members of its inaugural Board of Trustees.
The idea for a new rabbinical college was announced in 2024 by four former Hebrew Union College (HUC) Board members. It grew out of HUC's 2022 decision to shutter most programs on its Cincinnati campus. The founding president is Rabbi Gary Zola, a former professor of the American Jewish Experience at HUC and executive director emeritus of the American Jewish Archives.
"Each of these individuals brings a lifetime of service, wisdom and dedication to the Jewish people. For over three years, this group has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to lay the groundwork for an institution that will educate transformative rabbis for generations to come," Zola writes in a release.
The Board includes business people, medical professionals, rabbis and religious leaders. Most are located in Cincinnati, though some are from the Midwest and south. Rabbi Sally Priesand, HUC's first female rabbinic graduate and the first woman ordained in North America, is serving as honorary president.
The college's creators say they're building "a new model of rabbinic education to address the critical and growing shortage of congregational rabbis, especially across the Midwest, South and Mountain West."
They point out now that HUC is no longer ordaining rabbis in Cincinnati, there are no non-Orthodox rabbinical seminaries outside of the coasts.
The College for Contemporary Judaism is based in Liberal, or Reform, Judaism, and isn't affiliated with a particular denomination. Reform Judaism in North America was founded in Cincinnati in the late 1800s by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise.
Hebrew Union College said it made the 2022 decision to shutter its graduate school and stop ordaining rabbis in Cincinnati because of low enrollment and a large financial deficit. HUC is the country's largest reform rabbinical seminary, but its made cuts on its other two domestic campuses in New York City and Los Angles, as well.
President Andrew Rehfeld says the Cincinnati decision was painful but necessary. And it's not just HUC.
"All of our rabbinical seminaries have seen a general decline since the beginning of the century, so the last 25 years. We're down by about 40 percent," he told WVXU and NPR in April.
A 2025 study by the Atra Center for Rabbinic Innovation reports smaller and nondenominational schools held steady or grew modestly in recent decades, but enrollment in those places has plateaued in the last five years. It also found seminaries are turning out new rabbis fast enough to keep pace with aging exit patterns, adding that "the challenge is not inspiration. The challenge is that the path is too costly, too risky, too hard to access."
CCJ Founding Board Chair Andrew Berger says "The need has never been greater for a vibrant, forward-thinking rabbinical school to serve the heart of America. Our board is committed to ensuring that CCJ will have the resources and expertise needed to accomplish its mission to recruit, educate, and empower the next generation of rabbinical leaders."
The college's website says it intends to be fully accredited and offer full scholarships for rabbinic education along with living stipends. It will initially offer two degrees — a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters (M.A.H.L) or a Master in Jewish Studies (M.J.S.) — and graduates will be ordained as rabbis by the college president.
A spokesperson for the college says it is preparing to formally initiate the accreditation process and there isn't yet a date for when the school will open. A location hasn't been announced yet.
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