ABOUT US
HISTORY
GAON Academy was the idea of Rabbi Moises Benzaquen. The Rabbi was concerned with the number of families who were opting out of a Jewish education simply because they could not afford it. He felt personally responsible for rectifying the situation and created the idea for an innovative, affordable Jewish day school to accommodate a variety of students.
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Mr. Efrem Harkham committed his partnership to the school, as he believed in the school's concept. GAON represents the initials of the three teenage boys – Gimel for Gilad, Alef for Ayel, Noon for Naftali – who were kidnapped and murdered in Israel in the summer of 2014 (the added O connects the letters together and transforms the boys’ initials into the word “Genius”). While we honor Mr. Harkham and his family name, we also pay homage to the three successful high school students whose lives ended so abruptly and tragically. Our goal is to continually honor those individuals in meaningful ways. Our school community looks forward to improving our programming for the future and sustaining our growth.
ACADEMIC MODEL
GAON's model is unprecedented, designed with an innovative approach to offering Judaic and General studies in a blended learning model.
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Students work with a highly personalized program.
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Students work at their own pace.
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Students access their general studies curriculum through StrongMind, an online college prep program that provides excellent, WASC-accredited curriculum.
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Our innovative approach allows for affordable tuition.
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Our students are eligible for a “Concurrent Enrollment Agreement” with all community colleges, giving our students dual high school and college credit.​
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We offer a variety of co-curricular/extra-curricular classes such as Sports, Drama, e-sports, Model UN, and Rock Band.​
EXTRA-CURRICULAR PROGRAMMING
We offer a variety of co-curricular/extra-curricular classes such as Art, Sports, Model UN, Music, and monthly fieldtrips.​
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