Every Thursday, Eli leaves Maimonides School at 5 p.m. for a mile-and-a-half trip to a different world. He is a volunteer at Greater Boston’s only kosher soup kitchen, continuing a seven-year-old Maimonides student-managed project.

For Eli, a junior and a Maimonides student since Kindergarten, the community service is just one part of the diverse academic and extracurricular menu offered to every Upper School student. Indeed, chesed, defined by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Maimonides School founder, as the “password” of the Jew, is an essential part of the curriculum.” Rabbi Mordechai Wecker, former Upper School Judaic Studies Principal, adds, “Our students are involved in various ongoing chesed projects, and thereby demonstrate their concern for their fellow human beings and Jews.”

Eli arrives at school a few minutes before 8 a.m., so he can greet friends and classmates before Shacharit. After the morning service, students have almost a half-hour to eat breakfast before their first-period class. Some use the time for an impromptu basketball game in the gym or touch football in the courtyard. Others catch up with the daily newspaper, or news from fellow students and teachers around the tables.

Thursday morning, like every school morning, is a four-part package of 46-minute classes, interspersing Judaic and general studies. “The whole point is that it’s one mindset,” Eli explains as he outlines his schedule: Hebrew language, then Talmud, followed by English and U.S. history. The English class is beginning work on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, after wrapping up a public speaking unit that included 10-minute business presentations.

Excellence in Judaic and secular studies has been a hallmark of Maimonides School since its establishment in 1937. “Secular scientific training does not have to undermine the child’s commitment to Torah values and commandments,” Rabbi Soloveitchik told a parents meeting in 1971. “Judaism has never distinguished between these allegedly two areas of being.”

“We really try to strike a balance between critical thinking skills and the body of general knowledge,” explains Ken Weinstein, Upper and Middle School Principal for General Studies. “Engaging with the modern world has been an important feature of the general studies curriculum since the Rav founded this school. By focusing on critical thinking skills, we are graduating kids who are going to be able to grow and change in a world that changes 100 times faster than the world did a generation ago.”

Eli says his 45-minute Thursday lunch break, beginning at 12:25, is followed by a free period, during which several extracurricular organizations meet. He connects with a group focusing on Israel advocacy, led by fellow students. The centrality of the State of Israel is a cornerstone of a Maimonides education. Most graduates defer college matriculation for at least one year so they can pursue learning opportunities in Israel.

Following the activities period and minchah, Eli navigates his afternoon class schedule: Talmud, algebra II, Spanish and physics. Now it is 5:45; Eli notes that at this point in the day, some students take an optional Talmud class. One attraction is this is learning for its own sake, with no tests or grades.

“Maimonides School sets ambitious goals for its students. The aim is to prepare our students for a life of positive contributions to American society while anchoring them in a sincere and sensitive commitment to traditional halakhic observance,” says Rabbi Wecker.

Thursday at 5, Eli joins other student volunteers at Congregation Bnai Moshe in Brighton. They prepare meals for up to 20 guests at Gittel’s Kitchen, the region’s only kosher soup kitchen, which has been run weekly entirely by Maimonides students since 1997.

“[Eli’s] day is just so typical for a Maimonides student because of the way he passionately pursues everything,” Mr. Weinstein remarks. “Chesed has been an integral part of the lives of our students since the school was founded. All of our kids are engaging with ways to make the world whole.”

The soup kitchen work is done by 7:15, and Eli, knowing he has no tests scheduled for Friday, meets with some younger students for tutoring sessions. If they're really perceptive, they'll pick up some tips on time management.