![The San Diego Jewish Academy campus at dusk](https://sdja.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SDJA-Dusk-4.jpg)
About SDJA
![GMLS music class GMLS students laugh and play during music class](https://sdja.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GMLS-1024x768.jpg)
The SDJA Difference
For more than 40 years, SDJA has been a leader in preschool to 12th-grade education – inspiring and supporting students with personalized, innovative learning guided by Jewish values that creates meaningful Jewish life for generations.
At SDJA, students receive personalized attention, engage in innovative approaches to learning, and are a part of academics that challenge and inspire all in a supportive, welcoming Jewish community environment.
Our Mission
SDJA empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.
Our Vision
San Diego Jewish Academy is shaping the foundation of future thinkers, creators, and community leaders by blending modern education with greater purpose and meaning.
Zvi Weiss Head of School
Welcome from our Head of School
Stepping onto the SDJA campus, I am always struck by the sheer joy exuded from all corners of our state-of-the-art campus. Students are engaged in meaningful learning, collaborating, and helping one another. Teachers show a genuine passion for tapping into each student’s interests and are committed to helping each student thrive. This is the SDJA experience–whether in classrooms, gardens, labs, playgrounds, athletic facilities, or art & music studios, from the Early Childhood Center through the Golda Meir Lower School and Maimonides Upper School.
As a strong and vibrant community grounded in Jewish values, SDJA weaves Jewish and secular learning intentionally and purposefully, bringing meaning to children’s lives. SDJA empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in the strength of community.
Accreditation teams and other independent sources, including our Blue-Ribbon award from the U.S. Department of Education, affirm the SDJA approach. So, too, do our alumni who are leaders, changemakers, and active contributors to society in the United States, Israel, and around the globe. Yet, we find the most affirmation for our approach in our students' enthusiasm, joy, and engagement.
This website offers just a snapshot of who we are as an SDJA family and the experience of our students. Come see for yourself how we challenge minds, inspire purpose, and explore possibilities. I encourage you to join us soon for a campus tour. B’ruchim habaim - Welcome!
Zvi Weiss, Head of School
Portrait of an SDJA Graduate
Our graduates are leaders and positive changemakers in their communities and worldwide. SDJA instills in each student a foundational set of values, skills, knowledge, and experiences so that every SDJA graduate:
- Actively embodies a meaningful, informed, and personal connection to Judaism, Israel, and the Jewish people that infuses and enriches all aspects of their lives and guides their interaction with the world around them.
- Thoughtfully approaches opportunities and challenges in any field, subject, or life circumstance with the curiosity to ask significant questions, the passion to learn, and the confidence to implement solutions.
- Creates and maintains lifelong relationships that add meaning to their lives, enabling them to support each other and connect and engage deeply in community and society.