Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

HUC campus in Jerusalem
Type	Private
Established	1875
President	Rabbi Aaron Panken
Location	Cincinnati, New York City, Los Angeles, Jerusalem
Affiliations	Reform Judaism, Union of Reform Judaism
Website	www.huc.edu

The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (also known as HUC, HUC-JIR, and The College-Institute) is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas, and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.

HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, Ohio, New York City, Los Angeles, California and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem campus is the only seminary in Israel for training Reform Jewish clergy.

HUC was founded in 1875 under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise in Cincinnati. The first rabbinical class graduated in 1883. The graduation banquet for this class became known as the Trefa Banquet because it included food that was not kosher, such as clams, soft-shell crabs, shrimp, frogs' legs and dairy products served immediately after meat. At the time, Reform rabbis were split over the question of whether the Jewish dietary restrictions were still applicable. Some of the more traditionalist Reform rabbis thought the banquet menu went too far, and were compelled to find an alternative between Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. This was a major cause of the founding of American Conservative Judaism.

In 1950, a second HUC campus was created in New York through a merger with the rival Reform Jewish Institute of Religion. Additional campuses were added in Los Angeles in 1954, and in Jerusalem in 1963.