The idea for a pluralistic Jewish high school serving the Bay Area was initially conceptualized by Nancy Zimmerman Pechner, a local artist, in 1997.

Rabbi Harwitz, then 37, had been the director of student affairs for Milken Community High School in Los Angeles, California.

[6] JCHS opened for its inaugural school year in September 2001 in an old pre-school on the campus of Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon, California.

[7] In the summer of 2001, the New York-based Keren Keshet Foundation spent $20 million to purchase the campus of the California College of Podiatric Medicine, located in the Western Addition Neighborhood of San Francisco.

Classes challenge students to develop their own ideas and questions while seeking to understand those of others, and to learn clear and concise writing, effective public speaking, logic, creative expression, and critical thinking.

JCHS has the highest student to teacher ratio of any independent high school in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[15] Students from play writing and screenwriting classes have had their work published and performed by prestigious journals and theater companies[16] JCHS also hosts the Jewish Community Youth Orchestra and Chorale (JCYO).

JCHS offers the following interscholastic sports: girls and boys soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, cross country, swimming, and tennis.

JCHS varsity teams are part of the Bay Counties League-Central (BCL-Central) and California's North Coast Section (NCS).

The laptop program was launched at the same time the school began implementation of Moodle, online course management software.

The award was established in 2004 to recognize food service professionals working to promote healthier school lunches.

[22] In 2010 the program earned the school a place among the top five "Veg-Friendly Cafeterias" in the country, according to PETA2, the youth-outreach arm of the animal rights PETA organization.

of food for the SF Food Bank; interviewed Holocaust Survivors for JFCS's Next Chapter project; served hundreds meals at Glide Memorial Church; helped seniors at adult day care programs; and worked with The Village Project tutoring local kids from Western Addition in reading, writing, social studies, and math every Monday and Thursday from September, 2009 through May, 2010, totaling over 250 hours.

· Located in the Western Addition neighborhood, in the geographical center of San Francisco · 19 classrooms including 3 science laboratories and 3 language labs · Outdoor stone courtyard with a basketball court and landscaped with among other plants, palm trees.

· 200-seat Performing Arts Theater · Combined Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) and JCHS Library with over 25,000 volumes · Kosher kitchen · Secure parking garage within gated campus JCHS received a full 6-year term of accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) in the spring of 2007.