Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy

School History

From left to right, Mrs. Isabel Lipner , Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Mrs. Judy Goodman Speaking at a dinner for the Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy.

The Hebrew Academy of San Francisco opened its doors in the Fall of 1969 in response to five San Francisco families who wanted to create a Jewish day school that combined the best of rigorous secular and traditional Jewish education.

Founded and directed by Rabbi Pinchas Lipner, the Academy began an enrollment campaign and opened in a converted duplex with 53 students from nursery through 3rd grade.

By the following year enrollment had tripled. The Academy added a grade a year and in 1980 graduated its first high school class, all college-bound. The Hebrew Academy High School is now one of the most respected high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has sent its graduates to many of the country's leading universities, such as Harvard, Yale Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Wellesley, U.C. Berkeley, UCLA, Brandeis, Cal Tech, and many others.

In 1986, in response to a growing student body and the need for more modern facilities, the Academy moved into a spacious new state-of-the-art campus near Golden Gate Park.

The Academy continues to attract both fine students and the finest teachers available. Some of the faculty have been with the school since its early years.

The Hebrew Academy is a truly exciting campus, where learning is paramount, and the students' success is a tribute to the school's faculty and its philosophy.