The Brandeis School of San Francisco, or Brandeis, is an independent, co-educational,

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

day school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, located in the

Park Merced Parkmerced is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, designed by architects Leonard Schultze and Thomas Dolliver Church in the early 1940s. Parkmerced is the second-largest single-owner neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the Mississi ...

neighborhood of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States. From its founding in 1963 until 1973, the school was known as Brandeis. Following the merge with the Hillel School, the school was known as Brandeis Hillel Day School. As of July 1, 2015, the San Francisco campus of the former Brandeis Hillel Day School is now The Brandeis School of San Francisco. The school is a member of the California Association of Independent Schools.

History

Brandeis was founded in 1963 by Rabbi Saul White of Congregation Beth Sholom and named after

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

Louis Brandeis Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. Starting in 1890, he helped develop the " right to privacy" concep ...

. In 1973, Brandeis merged with the Hillel School and became known as Brandeis Hillel Day School (BHDS), and in 1983 BHDS moved to its present location on Brotherhood Way. The school was designed by architect

Robert Marquis Robert Marquis (1927 – January 3, 1995) was a German-born American architect and academic known for his socially conscious architecture. Primarily active in San Francisco, he was a professor of architecture at the University of Virginia in the ea ...

. In 1978, Brandeis Hillel Day School opened a second campus in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish for " St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's popula ...

. In 2014, the Brandeis Hillel Day School Board of Trustees approved the creation of two separate independent schools. As of July 1, 2015, the San Francisco campus is now The Brandeis School of San Francisco.

Facilities

In addition to lower school and middle school classrooms, Brandeis has a cutting-edge science center, an art studio, a regulation-size

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

nasium, and large outdoor athletics and play areas. In 2002, Brandeis completed the newest building, the mercaz, a $10 million, 24,200 square foot building which houses the kindergarten through third grade classrooms; administrative offices; a 2,800 square foot media resource center and library; an acoustically-designed music room; and beit midrash (used for weekly

tefillah Jewish prayer ( he, תְּפִלָּה, ; plural ; yi, תּפֿלה, tfile , plural ; Yinglish: davening from Yiddish 'pray') is the prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with i ...

Athletics

Brandeis offers athletics opportunities in cross country,

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

, and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

for boys and girls in fifth through eighth grades. The school participates in the Bay Area Interscholastic Athletic League (BAIAL) with other

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

independent schools. In some sports, Brandeis participates in the

Catholic Youth Organization Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) is an international Catholic youth movement founded by Bishop Bernard Sheil in Chicago in 1930. It would become a major factor in the development of race relations in the US Catholic Church following World War ...

Student Community Board

Every year, the middle school Student Community Board (SCB) holds elections for the executive board. Positions up for election are co-presidents, secretary, treasurer, and Jewish voice. In addition to the executive board, each middle school advisory group (of which there are 12) selects a representative for SCB. The SCB helps plan the school dance, runs the school store, and organizes the annual basketball tournament. The annual basketball tournament is hosted by SCB to raise money for

tzedakah ''Tzedakah'' or ''Ṣedaqah'' ( he, צדקה ) is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but commonly used to signify '' charity''. This concept of "charity" differs from the modern Western understanding of "charity". The latter is typically u ...

. Teams of middle school students face off against each other all week. The winning team competes against a team of faculty and staff during a Friday afternoon event attended by the entire school. The money raised from the tournament and all proceeds from the school store on the day of the students vs. faculty/staff basketball game are donated to a cause selected by the middle school students. The SCB also spearheads an annual penny war in which advisories compete to raise money. The winning advisory selects where the money is donated. Money raised during the 2014–15 penny war was donated to Develop Africa.

Sukkot in Yosemite

Beginning in 2001 and occurring every three years, Brandeis hosts

Sukkot or ("Booths, Tabernacles") , observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans , type = Jewish, Samaritan , begins = 15th day of Tishrei , ends = 21st day of Tis ...

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

. Hundreds of members of the community come together to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot. The event takes place in October.

''The Opposite of Spoiled''

In February 2015, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' personal finance columnist

Ron Lieber Ron Lieber (born 1971) is an American journalist for ''The New York Times'', where he writes the "Your Money" column. He is the recipient of three Gerald Loeb awards for his writing in the column. He previously wrote the "Green Thumb" column for ...

published the book ''The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart about Money.'' The book features a section about Brandeis and the school's seventh grade Tzedek Fund. When interviewed about the book, Lieber said, "I visited the Seventh Grade Philanthropy Fund t Brandeis Hillel Day School in the San Francisco Bay Areaand it was completely inspiring. In addition to giving 13 year olds adult responsibilities and seeing them rise to the occasion and evaluating adults that come to them for money, it's a lesson for tradeoff: Who is most in need? Who are we to make that decision? What do we need to know about the world in order to make a good choice? It's so spectacular in so many ways."

Notable students

* Charlee Minkin (born 1981), Olympic judoka *

Rafael Mandelman Rafael Mandelman (born October 17, 1973) is an American attorney and politician currently serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing District 8. Prior to his election to the Board of Supervisors, he served on the City Colle ...

, Member of San Francisco Board of Supervisors

References

External links

The Brandeis School of San Francisco official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandeis School of San Francisco Schools in San Francisco Private elementary schools in California Private middle schools in California Educational institutions established in 1963 1963 establishments in California