COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is seeking a court order to prevent the sale of copies of the Talmud and other ancient books in the Klau Library at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, arguing that scholarship would cease if the materials fell into private hands.
The five-story Cincinnati Klau Library contains a rare book and manuscript collection that includes Biblical codices, illuminated manuscripts, communal records, legal documents, scientific tracts and incunabula, or printed books and pamphlets from before 1500. The library began, according to Yost’s request for a temporary restraining order, in 1875 with 130 donated items and now has over 600,000. It’s considered a top collection of Hebraica in the country and world.
