The oldest U.S. Jewish seminary, Hebrew Union College, shuts down a rabbinical program

Hebrew Union College, the oldest Jewish seminary in the United States, was established in 1875 in Cincinnati by the founder of Reform Judaism in North America. The college has other campuses, but its rabbinical program in Cincinnati will shut down and graduate its last four students at the end of the first week in May. AILSA CHANG, HOST: The final class of students at the first permanent Jewish institution of higher learning in America will graduate this weekend. The school is called Hebrew Union College, and it's not closing, but it will no longer offer classes in the city where it was founded. Tana Weingartner with member station WVXU in Cincinnati has our story. (SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING) TANA WEINGARTNER, BYLINE: It's a quiet spring afternoon on the green lawn of Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Gone are the boisterous students playing frisbee that Rabbi Laura Baum experienced when she arrived from her home state of Connecticut two decades ago. LAURA BAUM: I loved being a student here. It was a really fantastic decision. WEINGARTNER: Soon, there will be no students here at all. The 151-year-old school will graduate and ordain its final four rabbis this weekend. Reform Judaism in North America was founded in Cincinnati in the 1870s, and Hebrew Union College, or HUC, is the country's largest reform rabbinical seminary. It has three other campuses in New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem, but Cincinnati is the birthplace. …