Mission, Values, and Community

The Adelson School—An Education for Life

The Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson School is an early childhood to 12th grade Jewish day school dedicated to forming committed Jews, proud Zionists, civic-minded Americans, and serious students with the foundations of academic excellence in every field of learning.  Our school has also traditionally welcomed non-Jews who share our vision of excellent education, a safe, secure, and drug-free campus, and a dignified school culture, all in a Jewish and Western framework. Founded and supported by the Adelson family and set on a stunning 13.4-acre campus, the Adelson School is a citadel of Jewish life and learning for Las Vegas Jewry. Our classrooms, our culture, and our spirit of inquiry reflect the core values of our visionary founders: Jewish, Zionist, American, and devoted to the classical arts of learning.

An Adelson Education is proudly Jewish

The Adelson School is committed to providing young Jews and non-Jewish fellow travelers with a sophisticated, spirited, and confident understanding of the West’s majestic Jewish heritage. This begins with the foundations of Jewish literacy—including the stories and rituals at the heart of the Jewish holidays, the meaning of Shabbat, and the rhythms and practices of the Jewish life-cycle. As they advance, Adelson students learn the key texts and ideas at the center of the Jewish literary and religious tradition. They study and internalize our canonical bookshelf and repository of wisdom for our people and the world. At the center of the Jewish bookshelf is Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, the book that shaped Western civilization and continues to nourish all that is good, true, beautiful, and holy in the wider world we live in.

The Adelson student will begin his or her study of Tanakh in preschool with stories, plays, and activities, before being introduced to the actual biblical text in first grade. As the student advances through lower, middle, and high school, vocabulary and syntax, themes and structures, will be introduced. Our graduates will have both a sense of the arc of the biblical narrative from Genesis to Chronicles, and a familiarity with the vital literary and theological themes at the heart of the Jewish worldview—such as creation and revelation, covenant and redemption, human dignity and human equality, family and community. Additionally, students will be introduced to the rabbinic tradition and the Oral Torah as an expansion and elaboration of Tanakh. Adelson students will learn to think biblically, which really means to think Jewishly, in the spirit of our heritage and as they become part of our people’s most cherished legacy.

An Adelson Education in proudly American

America is a remarkable land of hope, freedom, and prosperity that has welcomed Jews since before its founding and until this very day. Religious liberty and the love of the biblical story of Israel has been the backdrop for Jewish flourishing in America from George Washington’s letter to the Newport Hebrew Congregation in 1791 to President George W. Bush’s historic address in 2005 in the Knesset. Jewish ideas have shaped the American spirit and American Jews have contributed greatly to the American story.

At the Adelson School, we will teach our children to be proud Jewish Americans, patriotic sons and daughters of this great republic. Like every great nation, America has a long history of growth, conflict, and democratic renewal, including reckoning with its flaws and dealing with war, upheaval, and technological change.  Yet through it all, America remains a city on a hill and the most enduring and stable engine of liberty, freedom, and political wisdom that the world has ever seen. An Adelson education, while fostering critical skills of analysis, argument, and civil debate, will seek to impart an abiding loyalty to the American regime, rooted in the Jewish virtue of gratitude and the spirit of thanksgiving.  

An Adelson Education is proudly Zionist

At the Adelson School, we believe that the birth of the modern State of Israel is the most miraculous and heroic event of the 20th century, perhaps even the most important event in world history over the past several centuries. And whether you understand the creation of Israel as an act of divine Providence or the result of the Jewish people’s human courage and perseverance, the rebirth of the Jewish People as a sovereign nation in our homeland commands our loyalty, dedication, and active support.  

Our love for Israel permeates the Adelson culture in countless ways, large and small. From the daily, public singing of HaTikvah, to the regular announcements of news and history from our Shinshinim (Israeli interns on the campus and in the community), to the community-wide pro-Israel gatherings and events, Israel is a constant presence in our lives and a source of meaning and motivation.

In that spirit, the Hebrew language has a central place in our curriculum, and our renewed focus on building mastery of Hebrew is something that expresses our vision in a tangible way. At Adelson, we believe that Hebrew fluency is a Jewish birthright.

An Adelson Education is proudly Classical

At Adelson, we believe the heights of academic achievement and human excellence are only possible by building the foundations.

• In language arts, this means a rigorous focus on phonics, the arts of grammar, the mastery of the written word, and the craft of careful reading.
• In mathematics, it means focusing on the mastery of mathematical thinking, moving from the foundations of numeracy to the proof-based understanding of how mathematics helps us understand the working of the world.
• In the natural sciences, we focus on the mastery of the classical fields of biology, chemistry, and physics, understood as both the keys to unlocking the wonderful mysteries of the natural world and the foundations of modern medicine and technological ingenuity.
• In history, this means the careful study of Western civilization from the ancient Near East to the age of Greece and Rome to the creation of Western and American civilization.
• In literature, this means reading the classical works of the Western canon—from Homer to Dante, from Shakespeare to Jane Austen. from Tolstoy to Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Wherever each student begins when they arrive at Adelson, our expectation for every student is the pursuit of academic excellence.

This ethos of excellence is what defines our school. Whatever we do at Adelson—from humanities and STEM, to sports and theater, to robotics and debate—we seek to embody the values of excellence and ambition, hard-work and a sense of purpose, that are the gifts and legacy of Sheldon, of blessed memory, and Dr. Miriam Adelson. Our age desperately needs role models who embody real virtue and who can help point the way as leaders in this age of renewal. This is the true aim of an Adelson Education—proudly Jewish, American, and Zionist and committed to preparing the rising generation for lives of purpose and achievement.