Mission and History

Our Mission Statement

Our pluralistic Jewish community day school prepares and inspires Jewish students through an extraordinary secular and Judaic education to live purposefully, act ethically, and thrive in the world.

Our History

Denver Jewish Day School has been educating the area's Jewish youth since 1975.

We are an independent, Jewish community day school with approximately 350 students in Pre-K through 12th grade. Our school sits on a beautiful campus in Denver, Colorado with an amazing view of the Rocky Mountains. As the only Pre-K - 12 Jewish community day school in the Rocky Mountain region, Denver JDS sets the bar high and is committed to educating the whole Jewish child, inspiring them to grow intellectually, socially, spiritually, and ethically in a student-centered, challenging, and nurturing environment.

Theodor Herzl Jewish Day School (Herzl) was founded in 1975, serving 14 students in grades one through five. Four years later, in 1979, Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy (RMHA) was established, with 10 students in grades nine through 12.

In 1994, members of the Herzl and RMHA boards began work on a vision of a single, unified space for Jewish education. In April of 1998, the trustees of both boards voted overwhelmingly to merge the two schools into one institution: the Denver Campus for Jewish Education (DCJE), which then became known as both DCJE and Herzl/RMHA.

In 2001, Phil Kalin became the first president and CEO of DCJE. He served in that role until 2007, when our current Head of School/CEO Avi Halzel took the helm. In August 2010, our school was re-branded and became known as Denver Jewish Day School (Denver JDS).

Since our founding, we have educated more than 2,600 students.