COMING AUGUST 2023...

JLA is not just another Jewish Day School.  Its focus is exclusively on a segment of the population who are too often neglected in community-based schools: those with the greatest potential for leadership and academic achievement.  It will also be centrally located within easy commuting distance  from all of Miami’s Jewish population centers, including Aventura, South Miami and Miami Beach. 

Admissions to JLA will be limited to no more than 40 students per grade.  Selections will be made based on student character, ambition, and drive.  In addition, all students will have to demonstrate the ability to succeed in an educational program where the instruction in all courses will be at an Honors level or above.  Knowledge of Hebrew and Judaic Studies is not a prerequisite for admission. 

The JLA will be a need-blind institution (where a student’s ability to pay is not considered in its admission process), and will utilize a fully indexed tuition model where families pay what they can afford.  Full tuition will be on par with the country’s top tier Independent Schools, but additional tuition levels will exist for families for whom full tuition is out of reach.  All program costs, including JLA’s multi-week immersion program in Israel, its service trips, and daily food service, will be included in tuition.  JLA is deeply committed to educating mission appropriate students regardless of their ability to pay.

In order to foster independence of thought and a love for learning, student agency (choice of classes, choice of research areas, opportunities for student expression, etc.) will be a hallmark of JLA’s educational program.  Additionally, course curricula will favor depth over breadth with an emphasis on building each student’s capacity for critical and creative thinking rather than rote memorization and spit-back.  As a result, the school will develop its own college-level seminars for high school upperclassmen rather than utilizing the rigid, overly exam-based curricula of most AP courses. 

Yes.  Every student will learn conversational Hebrew through the school’s Israel immersion and Ulpan programs.  A multi-year Spanish program will be available for those students who want it as well.

Helping students develop healthy bodies in addition to healthy minds will be a core feature of JLA’s program.  Therefore students at the JLA will have a daily workout in the school’s indoor fitness center, outdoor track, or outdoor courts. However, given the limited student population, after school interscholastic sports will not be offered at JLA.  Students who want to participate in competitive after-school sports will be encouraged to do so in their local JCC.

The current tentative plan is for all High School students, and perhaps Middle School students as well, to spend the first 3.5 weeks of school every year studying Hebrew, Jewish History, Tanach, and contemporary Israel in an immersive, real world setting in Israel.  This annual study abroad experience will not only serve as a catalyst for student bonding to each other and to the State of Israel, but will allow for a greater focus on the school’s General Studies curriculum throughout the remainder of the year.

Students whose mother is Jewish or who have had an Orthodox conversion, regardless of current affiliation, observance or prior knowledge will be welcome at JLA.  For the purposes of kashrut, tefillah, and other areas of Jewish law, JLA will operate in accordance with a Modern Orthodox approach.  As a proudly Zionist institution, JLA will foster a love for Israel in its students while helping them to understand the complexities and nuance of its history and continued survival. The school will also aim to instill a strong connection to Judaism  in all of its students.  With morning prayer and one daily Judaic period in addition to Ulpan and the annual multi-week Israel immersion program, the JLA’s Judaic program will more closely resemble that of a Jewish Community School than that of a Yeshiva Day School.

Yes. A generous gift from the Ades Family Foundation has helped purchase the school’s site and has begun the process of building a state-of-the-art campus to be completed in July of 2023.  The Foundation is still looking, however, for (a) potential partner(s) who shares the vision for the project.  The Ades Family Foundation has also committed to offsetting the operational deficit created by the school’s indexed tuition model for the school’s first several years. Over the long term, the plan is to raise a significant endowment funded by the school’s community to ensure that the school’s indexed tuition program is sustainable over the long term. 

First, reach out to our founding Head of School and introduce yourself: gil@theadesfoundation.org.  Second, become an ambassador for the school.  Our team of community ambassadors will help us get the word out online about JLA and organize informational parlor meetings in the various communities the JLA hopes to serve: Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Aventura, North Miami Beach, and Hollywood.  Third, help connect us to potential funders with whom the mission of JLA will resonate deeply and who have the financial capacity to be meaningful partners in this project.