Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC), the academic and leadership center of Reform Judaism, has officially sold its flagship downtown building in New York City, announced in January, and will relocate to the Upper West Side. It’s a move that experts told JNS reflects the contraction of the Reform movement in the United States and a broader trend of American Jewish institutions re-evaluating their financial and structural needs.
HUC’s Manhattan campus will move from the West Village, where it has been a mainstay since 1979, after selling its property to New York University for an estimated $75 million.
Its new flagship location is set to open at the First Battery Armory at 56 W. 66th St. between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West in Manhattan by 2027, according to a press release.
Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, told JNS that the sale may reflect a broader decline of Reform Judaism in the United States.
“It’s no secret that the Reform movement, particularly its major institutions like the Union for Reform Judaism and Hebrew Union College, has been struggling financially,” he said. “A big part of this has to do with changes in synagogue dues, as many congregations no longer contribute as they once did to support these central institutions.”
Sarna noted that Hebrew Union College is “training far fewer students than in the past, due to increasing competition. Hebrew College, Hartman, Hadar and other institutions now offer alternative rabbinical training programs, including online options. Fewer students, fewer contributing congregations and fewer affiliated temples all add up to a shrinking financial base.”
He was referring to Hebrew College in Massachusetts, Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and Hadar Institute on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“Against this backdrop, the Reform movement faces serious challenges and trustees are making tough financial decisions, recognizing that continued deficits could jeopardize the seminary’s very existence,” he added. “The era when the Reform movement was the largest, wealthiest and most self-confident denomination, having overtaken the Conservative movement, has come to an end.”
‘Speak of a crisis’
Sarna noted a broader trend of Jewish institutions across American life downsizing their property holdings in the post-COVID era.
“All sorts of Jewish organizations in the ‘Zoom era’ have figured out that owning property is expensive and that they can function with much less,” he said. “The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, for example, gave up its central headquarters, and the American Jewish University in California also made a significant decision to sell off property.”
Many synagogue events and meetings have become online-only to draw in more attendance and because of sheer convenience.
“Some of this shift,” he added, “is also influenced by the realization that organizations like Chabad operate very efficiently with limited space, doing a great deal with relatively little. That puts pressure on others to reassess their own needs, and in this case, HUC had a massive building and an eager buyer.”
Lauren Strauss, professor of modern Jewish history at American University, told JNS that there has been an increasing trend of non-Orthodox institutions downsizing.
“It goes beyond the current news about Hebrew Union College’s New York building,” she said. “Witness the sales of properties owned by Hebrew College in Boston, American Jewish University in Los Angeles, HUC’s Cincinnati campus and others.”
“Perhaps more significant are the declines in the professional sectors of these movements,” she added. “The dwindling numbers of rabbinical students in the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements have led many observers to speak of a ‘crisis.’”
It would be premature, however, to assume that this marks a lessening in the importance of these more liberal denominations of Judaism, according to Strauss.
“On the other hand, some aspects of these movements continue to thrive, especially the long-term success of their summer camps and the lifelong bonds created there,” she said. “Perhaps this partially explains these perceived declines—the success of creative, experiential ways of transmitting Jewishness answer a need for expression outside of traditional roles or institutions.”
“We have seen this before in American Judaism,” she said. “Particularly in the late 1960s’ embrace of havurah-style informal worship and song. Another aspect of this shift away from the older schools is the growing prominence of non-movement-affiliated institutions like Hadar and Pardes, which incorporate creative methods into a serious educational setting.”
Zev Eleff, president of Gratz College in the Philadelphia suburbs, told JNS that the non-Orthodox rabbinate is in flux.
“For perspective, you could fit every current rabbinical student at non-Orthodox seminaries into a single facility in Lakewood,” a township in New Jersey with a sizable religious population, he said. “Thousands of students are studying in Lakewood, while I would estimate there are no more than 200 non-Orthodox rabbinical students in physical classrooms nationwide.”
Eleff noted that financial pressures in the post-COVID era have impacted Jewish institutions of all denominations, and “Jewish nonprofits are wrestling with space as both a liability and an asset as buildings deteriorate and depreciate, and maintenance costs have risen significantly.”
Trends within American Judaism operate in cycles, according to Eleff.
“While we may currently see a downturn in non-Orthodox rabbinic leadership, it’s never safe to assume that this trend will continue indefinitely,” he said. “History shows there are always peaks and valleys.”
“This is an opportunity for HUC to rethink not just its physical space but how it continues to lead in training Jewish leaders, particularly for the Reform movement,” he added.
‘Victim of our own success’
Andrew Rehfeld, president of HUC, told JNS that envisioning the physical move as a sign of a decline in Reform Judaism’s significance in American life is an oversimplification.
“We have been through a remarkable 40-year period of what was a golden age of liberal Judaism in the United States,” he said. “Reform Judaism set the standard of what it meant to be a liberal Jew, and today, we are, in a sense, a victim of our own success.”
He continued: “Because we were so successful in reforming Judaism, there are many different ways that people are articulating it and that means that the institutions of the Reform movement are no longer demanding the kind of loyalty in denominational terms that they used to. I see that as an incredible story of having successfully transformed an American Jewish community.”
These changes mean that HUC—as the flagship institution for Reform Judaism—must become more nimble and competitive, according to Rehfeld.
“This move is a bold statement that we are in a new era and that we’re facing that new era with confidence and strength,” he said. “I mean, you can look at the new building compared to the building that we are in. If you want to talk about a symbol, one says strength and commitment and longevity, the other says ‘there’s an office building here.’”