PJA's Mission & Core Values (Middot)

Our Mission

Portland Jewish Academy's mission is to ensure an academically excellent environment in which children thrive. Our school nurtures and inspires positive Jewish engagement, respect for human and religious differences, and responsibility for the world in which we live.

To ensure an academically excellent environment:

• Our dedicated and creative faculty members teach through hands-on experiences, to develop critical thinking skills and encourage problem solving.

• Students receive personalized attention so they can reach their full potential in the classroom.

• Our enhanced curriculum exceeds state guidelines. Math, science, language, and literature are only the beginning. They are complemented by art, culture, community service and much more.

• PJA is an International Baccalaureate® World School candidate for both the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes and is currently the only school in Portland to be a candidate at both levels.

 To nurture and inspire positive Jewish engagement:

• Everything we teach is infused with Jewish tradition and values, creating an atmosphere of respect, kindness, and caring.

• Our teachers help PJA students learn ethics and integrity from the start.  It shows in the way they treat each other, behave in school, and help the surrounding community.

• PJA's lower school students learn and follow a code of conduct called The Kavod LOOP which means respect for learning, ourselves, others, and property.

• Throughout their years at PJA, students practice tikkun olam (repairing the world) a Jewish value that teaches responsibility for the world.

Our Core Values (Middot)

The foundation of our mission -- and everything we do at PJA -- are these six Jewish values:

1. Limmud - Study
2. Kavod - Respect
3. Akharayut - Responsibility
4. Klal Yisrael - Community
5. Hoda'ah - Appreciation
6. Zehut - Jewish Identity