14/09/2025
We are deeply saddened that Tad Taube, the man to whose vision, initiative and generosity we owe the existence of our Centre, died on September 13, 2025, at the age of 94.
Born on April 1, 1931, in Krakow, the son of Zygmunt Taube, a Jagiellonian University graduate, and Lola Taube, just a few months before the outbreak of World War II emigrated to California, where he remained until his death. He graduated from Stanford University, served in the United States Air Force, and achieved considerable business successes, particularly in real estate. His spectacular professional successes enabled him to become involved in charitable work, which was at the core of his identity and lifelong mission.
Tad Taube was the founder and president of Taube Philanthropies, the largest American-Jewish family foundation with an office in Poland, and the long-time president of the Koret Foundation, based in San Francisco. In 2008, he endowed the Irena Sendler Award. He was one of the most generous donors to the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. He was the initiator and main sponsor of the Global Education Outreach Program, a research and educational program for Judaic studies in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.
Programs sponsored by Taube Philanthropies support various charities, academic institutions, cultural, and religious organizations in the United States, Israel, and Poland. Tad Taube's philanthropic activities were particularly focused on his hometown of Kraków, where he actively supports the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Jewish Community Centre, the Jewish Culture Festival, and, since 2019, the Taube Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences at the Jagiellonian University.
In 2004, Tad Taube was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit. In 2007, he became Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in San Francisco. In 2015, he received the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland from the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski.
In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate from the Jagiellonian University in recognition of his commitment to rebuilding the reviving Jewish communities in Poland, his work in Poland and the United States to build good Polish-Jewish relations on the solid foundations of a democratic civil society, and the development of Jewish studies in Poland, particularly at the Jagiellonian University. The Jagiellonian University Senate also honoured him for rebuilding the memory of Jewish society and culture in Poland and promoting studies on the history and culture of Polish Jews internationally.
We extend our condolences to Tad Taube's Family and Friends, and we want to assure that we will share Tad’s vision and continue the mission we jointly agreed upon by establishing the Taube Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences at the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University.
May He rest in Peace.
