Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles

This article is about the Modern Orthodox High School in Los Angeles. For Yeshiva University in New York City, see Yeshiva University and Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

The Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles (abbreviated YULA, pronounced /ˈjulə/) is a college-preparatory, Modern Orthodox Jewish high school founded in 1979 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. It has no affiliation with Yeshiva University in New York City.

Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles YULA
Address
Boys: 9760 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035 Girls: 1619 S. Robertson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035 Los Angeles , California United States
Information
Type	Independent, Yeshiva
Motto	Primacy and Relevancy of Torah, Uncompromising General Studies, and Character Development (boys) Torah Umada Lchatchila (girls).
Established	1979; 45 years ago (1979)
Founder	Marvin Hier
Religion	Modern Orthodox Judaism
NCES School ID	01899004[1], A9101504
General studies principals	Richard St.-Laurent (boys) Yehudis Benhamou (girls)
Judaic studies principals	Joseph Schreiber (boys) Racheli W. Luftglass (girls)
Head of school	Arye Sufrin
Faculty	36.1 FTE (girls)[2] 28.9 FTE (boys)[1] (2017–2018)
Grades	9–12
Gender	Two single-sex divisions
Enrollment	230 (Girls)[2] 250 (Boys)[1] (2021–2022)
Student to teacher ratio	4.6:1 (Girls)[2] 5.5:1 (Boys)[1]
Color(s)	Yellow and black
Mascot	Black Panther
Nickname	YULA
Accreditation	WASC
Newspaper	The Panther Post
Revenue	Boys: US$5,753,381 (50.8%)[3] Girls: US$5,043,312 (26.7%)[4] (2018)
Website	yula.org

The school is financially independent of and separately incorporated from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, despite their juxtaposition.^[5]

History

YULA was proposed by rabbi Marvin Hier in 1977 along with a center to honor Simon Wiesenthal, shortly before he and his family arrived in Los Angeles. YULA was intended to be an affiliate of Yeshiva University offering secondary and tertiary education, but ultimately, it became solely a high school. As time passed, the Los Angeles Orthodox Jewish community perceived that Hier had placed more attention on developing the Wiesenthal Center, as opposed to the educational center.^[6] The school was ultimately founded in 1979.^[7]

Yeshiva University of Los Angeles purchased a $2.25-million facility for high school classes, located on Robertson Boulevard, in late May 1990. Hier had outbid Sephardic Jewish and Sikh organizations for the site. Prior to the purchase, Hier had asked for $5 million in additional federal funding for the Wiesenthal Center. In response, there were serious considerations for establishing a new Orthodox Jewish high school in Los Angeles, and some parents at YULA had threatened to remove their children.^[6]

Campuses

YULA has separate campuses for boys and girls within the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles. The campus of the boys' school has 15 classrooms as well as a Beit Midrash and a Sephardic Beit Midrash which served as locations for davening and assemblies before the COVID-19 pandemic.^[8] The campus of the girls' school also has 15 classrooms, as well as two science labs. ^{[citation needed]}

YULA Boys School Campus

Academics

The YULA curriculum is split into general (secular) studies and Judaic studies components, providing both separate and cumulative GPAs for coursework completed.^[9] In 2018, YULA offered 13 Advanced Placement classes.^{[citation needed]}

Composition

Each school has a student body of approximately two hundred students from different areas of Los Angeles. Many students live in the Pico-Robertson and Beverlywood neighborhoods, and in the San Fernando Valley. The boys' school has 29 full-time equivalent faculty,^[1][10] while the Girls' School has 36 full-time equivalent faculty.^[2][11]

Student life

Sports

The school assigns teams to compete in basketball (varsity and junior varsity), baseball, fencing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, cross country, flag football, golf, and soccer.

In 1997, the school asked the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) to move the November cross-country championships to a day other than Saturday; Orthodox Jews would not participate if the competition was held on a Saturday. The initial request was denied, but the school said they planned to file an appeal.^[12]

In 2009, the boys' basketball team forfeited two games against the Oakwood Gorillas in the CIF Liberty League, because the opposing team had drafted a 17-year-old girl– the all-boys team would violate religious practices by playing organized sports with a girl after their bar mitzvah. Rather than press the issue, as the other team was determined to uphold their Title IX right to maintain women members of the team, YULA chose to forfeit the two upcoming games against Oakwood. YULA asked the league to reconsider the forfeitures after an upset win placed them in contention for the playoffs, and shrink their season from 20 games to 18, but the request was denied.^[13]

Notable people

Alumni

• Ben Shapiro, American political commentator, columnist, author, radio talk show host, and attorney^[14][15][16]
• Noam T. Wasserman, American dean, professor, and academic^[17]

Faculty

• Shlomo Einhorn, dean and rav of Yeshivat Yavneh, rabbi of Kehillat Yavneh

See also

• Greater Los Angeles portal
• Schools portal
• Judaism portal

• History of the Jews in Los Angeles

References

1. "Search for Private Schools – School Detail for Yeshiva University Boys High School of Los Angeles". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
2. "nces search results-YULA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL". Archived from the original on 2021-11-21. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
3. "Yeshiva University Of Los Angeles Boys High School - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2021-11-21. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
4. "Yeshiva Of Los Angeles Girls High School - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
5. May, Meyer H. (Rabbi and Executive director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center). "Rabbi Hier." Los Angeles Times. September 2, 1990. Retrieved on January 11, 2016.
6. Teitelbaum, Sheldon and Tom Waldman. "The Unorthodox Rabbi : By Invoking the Holocaust and Bullying the Establishment, Marvin Hier Has Made The Simon Wiesenthal Center the Most Visible Jewish Organization in the World." Los Angeles Times. July 15, 1990. p. 6. Retrieved on January 17, 2016. "Their fears were well-grounded--the school never evolved into a full-scale affiliate of Yeshiva University in New York. Today, YULA is, in essence, a high school."
7. "About YULA." YULA Boys High School. Retrieved on January 17, 2016.
8. "YULA Kollel".
9. "Academics Home".
10. "Fast Facts – About YULA – Yeshiva University of Los Angeles Boys High School".
11. "School Snapshot – About YULA – YULA Girls High School". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
12. "Jewish Athletes to Appeal Scheduling of Track Meet". Los Angeles Times. 1997-10-21. Archived from the original on 2011-03-21. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
13. "YULA Panthers forfeited two games over Oakwood girl". Jewish Journal. 2009-02-16. Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
14. Pope, Justin (June 10, 2004). "School liberalism blasted". Deseret News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on June 4, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
15. "Ben Shapiro: Proud Torah- Observant Jew and Rising Star in America's Conservative Movement" (PDF). Zman Magazine. March 2012. p. 57. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-22. In his early years in public school, he skipped from second grade into fourth...[Shapiro] skipped ninth grade...
16. Keller, Chris; Lauder, Thomas Suh (August 9, 2017). "How Steve Bannon became the face of a political movement with roots in Los Angeles". www.latimes.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-20. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
17. Frishman, Eli; Lavian, Eitan (22 September 2019). "An Interview With Dean Wasserman". YU Commentator. Retrieved 10 December 2020.

External links

• YULA.org
• Articles about "Yeshiva University High School" at Los Angeles Times