Founded in 1981, the undergraduate Jewish Studies Program at Purdue provides students with the opportunity to become acquainted with the culture, language, literature, history, philosophy, and religious customs of the Jewish people from antiquity to the present. A major and a minor in Jewish Studies are offered, and there is considerable flexibility in fashioning a program for individual interests and goals. Extracurricular activities complement the academic course of study.

The Jewish Studies Program:

• offers an undergraduate major and minor in Jewish Studies
• sponsors a noon discussion series and an evening lecture series
• publishes a newsletter
• edits Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies
• awards the Edward Simon B'nai B'rith Barzillai Lodge 111 Prize in Jewish Studies (an award for the outstanding undergraduate essay or project on a theme related to Jewish Studies) each spring semester
• awards the Joseph Haberer Book Prize in Jewish Studies to the outstanding senior in Jewish Studies each spring semester
• co-sponsors the Larry Axel Memorial Lectureship in Religion

Decalogue Parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer (1768)