As the bell marking the end of fourth period rings, crowds of girls pour out into the narrow hallways of YULA Girls’ Gindi Family Campus on 1619 S. Robertson Blvd. Scrambling for spots to eat lunch with their friends, they fill every available corner—clustering under the tree in the Horowitz Family Plaza, racing to snag a table in the Levkowitz Family Courtyard, or even sitting underneath the tables. At 242 girls (and counting!), the campus—which was built to fit 250—has begun to feel quite small.
On November 7th, 2025, YULA Girls purchased 1601 S. Robertson Blvd (the property adjacent to the existing campus) with the support of the Gindi Family Foundation, an expansion that has been over 20 years in the making. The “carpet store” property will add 10,000 square feet to YULA’s current 26,000 square feet campus on 1619 S. Robertson, making room for a growing student body and expanding the school’s role in the community.
“We’ve created the opportunity for the next generation of leaders at YULA to realize the vision of this becoming a torah center for women that is at the center of the community, like YULA Boys has been for men and the community as a whole ever since that campus expansion finished,” said Mr. Berkowitz, head of the school board. “We can already see the future of how significant this campus is gonna be.”
The rapid growth of YULA Girls has made this expansion an urgent necessity. Within three years of the merger between the Boys and Girls Division in 2021, enrollment at YULA Girls skyrocketed from 159 to over 240 students.
“It can get cramped during passing periods in the hallways,” said Rachel Kirschenbaum, a sophomore at YULA Girls. “Kest gets very crowded, outside gets very crowded,” she added, referring to Kest Dining Hall, an area for students to socialize, do work, and eat lunch. Rachel hopes that the new campus will have more spaces for students to hang out with friends.
Other students at YULA Girls mentioned expanded parking, more classrooms, a larger gym, and space for clubs and other student groups as additions they would like to see in the expanded campus.
“A full-sized gym would be very beneficial for the students,” said sophomore Avigail More. Currently, YULA Girls’ sports teams play their home games at YULA Boys, which has a full-sized gym. YULA Girls has a half-court.
The school board is currently meeting with architects to discuss plans and layout, and all of those improvements are under consideration.
“The campus expansion will enrich YULA Girls by giving us upgraded classrooms, better science labs and art labs, and spaces for student clubs and co-curriculars to meet,” said Rabbi Sufrin, head of school. “We’ll have more collaborative spaces. It will include a new state-of-the-art student success center… it will have facilities that will allow us to create better student projects, groupwork that wasn’t possible before that will help build a sense of camaraderie and unity amongst the school.” Rabbi Sufrin also wants the expansion to create better spaces for tefilah, contributing to the school’s “religious and spiritual growth.”
A primary goal of the project is to expand YULA Girls’ Student Success Center.
“A clear priority is to have a student support center,” said Mr. Berkowitz. “A discrete, marked space that’s architecturally significant that gives kids the resources they need, which right now is spread through little nooks and crannies around campus.”
According to Mr. Alan Gindi, one of three lay leaders on the Board of Directors, the school board has wanted to purchase the “carpet store” property since 2004, when the current Girls Division Gindi Family Campus on 1619 S. Robertson Blvd was built. It is the only property adjacent to YULA Girls, making it “irreplaceable,” in Mr. Berkowitz’s words.
“For 25 years I’ve been calling him, every year, every six months,” said Mr. Gindi about the former owner of the 1601 S. Robertson property. Rabbi Sufrin, head of school, and members of the board have also called and checked in regularly, even taking him on a tour of the school.
“About a year ago, we just kind of gave up,” said Mr. Gindi. “You guys were really growing… we had to do something.”
The school purchased 1529 S. Robertson, which is across the street from the current campus. Over the course of the past year, the school had begun meeting with architects, starting the process of expanding YULA Girls without the property they wanted.
“All of a sudden, a year into that process, 1601 became available,” said Mr. Berkowitz.
Mr. Berkowitz, Mr. Gindi, and Rabbi Sufrin said that they felt Hashem’s hand in that moment.
“By nothing more than divine providence,” Rabbi Sufrin said, “I received a phone call on a Tuesday that the next door property would be put on the market on Friday… on Wednesday YULA put in an offer, and the rest is history.”
Mr. Berkowitz said that the school made sure to put in an offer large enough that they would run no risk of being outbid.
“We basically offered him whatever he was asking,” said Mr. Gindi about the purchase, “which was more than it was worth, but it doesn’t matter because to us it was everything.”
The school board is working on finding a buyer for the 1529 property, which is no longer needed. They have also begun the process of developing the “carpet store” property; the school board has met with architects and begun discussing plans.
According to Mr. Gindi, the first stage of the expansion will include some minor remodeling that will enable the property to be used in a limited way over the next one to two years. After the school acquires the requisite permits and fundraises enough money to start work, they plan to tear down the existing building and rebuild the property so that it connects seamlessly with the current campus.
For the school’s administration and board, the expansion is about more than just the practical need for space.
“The heart of YULA is our community. The expansion strengthens that sense of community because it gives us more opportunities to come together,” said Rabbi Sufrin. “It’s important that when a school expands, that it’s not just expanding for real estate. That expansion is part of investing in the growth of our students and our community.”
Mr. Berkowitz sees the expansion as monumental not just for YULA Girls as a school, but for the LA Jewish community as a whole.
“Obviously the number one constituency is the girls and the high school,” Mr. Berkowitz continued, “but just like that building [YULA Boys] has kind of a broader purpose, this one has the opportunity to be that as well.”
The YULA Boys Nagel Family Campus also houses the YU Kollel, minyanim on Shabbat, and important community and sports events.
The education of Jewish women has long been a priority for the Gindi Family Foundation. Mr. Gindi said that he feels that this expansion sends an important message to the LA Jewish community in this regard.
“We have to fight against anything or anybody who has even subconsciously the idea that women can’t do everything that men can do, professionally, Jewish learning-wise, everything,” he said.
Rabbi Sufrin said that he hopes that the expanded campus will become the “premier campus in the country” for Jewish women’s education, demonstrating how highly women’s education is valued in this community.
This article originally appeared in the Panther Post on Dec. 29, 2025.
