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This interdisciplinary program offered by the Taube Center for Jewish Studies promotes research on Jewish literatures, languages, religion, politics, and history. In addition to traditional strengths in history and religious studies, the program also comprises scholarship on the role of the arts, especially music and theater, in Jewish culture.

Courses offer a rich understanding of the many areas of Jewish studies, such as Jewish history, Israeli culture, religious literature, and the Hebrew and Yiddish languages. Undergraduates may earn a major or minor in Jewish studies. The Taube Center also supports graduate students and visiting scholars as part of its mission to educate the broader community, Jewish and non-Jewish, through lectures and other public events.

Stanford’s Department of Religious Studies provides a range of perspectives on the history, literature, thought, and practice of religious traditions. In addition to housing core faculty with strengths in the study of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, the department collaborates with a number of programs on campus. These include the Department of Philosophy, the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, and the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

The department also supports the study of languages needed to understand sacred texts and interpretive traditions, as well as research at Stanford’s overseas centers, where religions can be observed and experienced in their appropriate cultural contexts.

View highlights of the religious studies department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate religious studies alumni.