Taube Family Foundation Pledges $300K to the Graduate Theological Union

BERKELEY, CA – November 15, 2022 — Building on a distinguished, decades-long collaboration, the Graduate Theological Union today announced receipt of a $300,000 grant from the Taube Family Foundation.  The three-year grant will fund the further growth and development of GTU’s Interreligious Chaplaincy Program (ICP), which Taube Family Foundation has previously supported through the establishment of the Taube Family Fellows Program in 2019. In addition, it will establish a dedicated content series focused on Jewish Life and Culture through GTUx, the GTU’s innovative platform for online learning.  

“As a long-time advocate for Jewish studies and interreligious studies, I've been consistently impressed by GTU's leadership and academic achievement," said Tad Taube, chairman of Taube Philanthropies. "Accordingly, Taube Philanthropies has been supporting GTU continuously for more than 20 years. I'm proud to have played a part in the development of the Center for Jewish Studies and the Interreligious Chaplaincy Training Program." 

The Foundation has designated $240,000 of the grant to support ICP, a first-of-its-kind program that was founded in 2019 to equip spiritual caregivers to serve diverse communities from an array of faith backgrounds, with special emphasis on traditions historically underrepresented in the chaplaincy profession. In addition to continuing the Taube Family Fellows program, which provides tuition funding for students affiliated with the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the GTU, this generous gift will also allow for the expansion of faculty positions, new course offerings, public programs, and community outreach. 

“Taube Family Foundation’s support has been crucial to extending the impact of ICP,” said Dr. Kamal Abu-Shamsieh, Director of the Interreligious Chaplaincy Program. “This generous gift will not only change the lives of students, creating pathways of learning for aspiring spiritual caregivers, but will further touch the lives of so many whom our students will go on to serve.” 

The remaining $60,000 of the pledge will fund the creation of a GTUx content series focused on Jewish life and culture, developed in collaboration with faculty at the Center for Jewish Studies. 

Introduced in 2021, GTUx extends the GTU’s campus and furthers its mission by serving as a dynamic, digital learning resource for individuals and communities across the globe to engage with the world’s wisdom traditions. Providing unique online learning opportunities, virtual programs and events, and unparalleled digital collections and resources for the study of religion and theology, GTUx encourages spiritually rooted engagement with the critical issues of our time to inspire transformational change for the creation of a more just, compassionate, and sustainable world. 

“This generous pledge from the Taube Family Foundation makes a confident statement about the ways in which the GTU is uniquely poised to serve the needs of our world today,” said GTU President Dr. Uriah Kim. “Both the ICP and GTUx are groundbreaking programs, and we are grateful to partner with Taube to work toward our institutions’ shared vision of a more just and compassionate world."  

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About Taube Philanthropies 

Dedicated to the principles of a democratic society, including open economic enterprise, self-reliance, freedom of inquiry, and limited government, Taube Philanthropies works to ensure that free citizens will have full opportunity for advancement of their goals and dreams. Taube Philanthropies supports programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, Poland, and Israel. Areas of concentration include education and scholarship, Jewish cultural renewal and heritage preservation, institution and community building, and public policy initiatives oriented to preserve American principles. 

About the Graduate Theological Union 

The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is one of the world’s most comprehensive centers for religious education, and one of the largest and most diverse partnerships of seminaries and graduate schools in the United States.  

More than a consortium and academy, the GTU is a dynamic laboratory that provides scholar-innovators with a staging ground to reimagine the future of interreligious life. An education with the GTU equips leaders to translate learning into action that will have tangible impact in the world. 

Since its founding in 1962, the GTU has been at the forefront of interreligious education and dialogue. The work of our eminent alumni, students, and faculty across cultures, traditions, and technologies continues to create new pathways to a truly pluralistic future. 

Discover more about our programs and the work of our alumni and community at gtu.edu.