Gratz College is the oldest independent college of Jewish studies in North America. Founded in 1895, it encompasses all streams of Jewish life. Since its inception, Gratz College has planted seeds for the future. It has sown learning in the fertile minds of Jewish leaders, teachers, and active participants from Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, and secular backgrounds. They in turn have passed the heritage of millennia to each new generation and thus laid the foundation for the continuing vitality of American Jewish life.

The Gratz College School of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies attracts a wide variety of students including young adults, professionals serving the Jewish community, lay leaders desiring a deeper grounding in Jewish studies, seekers of new challenges in mid-life, and senior adults who constantly strive to improve themselves.

The College Division provides a broad array of academic programs and course offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels in virtually every area of higher Jewish learning. Bachelor, master and certificate programs serve the educational needs of aspiring Jewish educators, communal professionals, musicians, cantors and those seeking to become more Judaically knowledgeable.

Students undertake challenging academic programs that meet their individual needs. Gratz College offers academic programs that prepare graduates for a wide range of career options including:

• Jewish Communal Service. Training professionals for leadership in Jewish federations, family services, community centers, and charitable foundations.
• Jewish Education. Combining educational methodology and theory with strong grounding in Jewish studies. Students can choose to concentrate in:
  • Teaching - Administration
  • Day School - Early Childhood
  • Special Needs Education
• Jewish Music. Provides beginning as well as advanced credentials to students eager to pursue careers in Jewish music, Jewish education and the cantorate
• Jewish Studies. Includes the Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies and the more advanced Master of Arts in Jewish Studies.
• In addition to its offerings in the Jewish scholarship and professions, Gratz offers a Master of Arts in Education, which provides advanced training and credentials to hundreds of certified teachers in public and private schools.

Gratz collaborates with other leading academic institutions to offer the following approved and accredited joint programs:

• M.A. and Pennsylvania State Certification in Early Childhood Education at Chestnut Hill College
• M.B.A. with Temple University’s Fox School of Business
• M.S.W. with University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Work
• Cantorial Investiture with the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
• Ph.D. in American Jewish History with Temple University’s Department of History
  

From those simply taking a few adult courses to those pursuing fully accredited degrees, all Gratz students gain the knowledge necessary to ensure the vitality of Judaism for generations to come.