Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, March 11 - Junior ACT in school

• Tuesday, March 11 - National Honors Society Induction 7pm

• Friday, March 14 - Purim - no classes (Click here if you would like to order an Academy Associates Purim e-Card to send to family and friends)

• Wednesday, March 19 - ICJA Takes the Stage, Commemorating the Life of Batsheva Chaya Stadlan, z"l 7pm - Click here to reserve your spot today (women and girls only)

• Wednesday, March 26 - Freshmen pre-ACT in school

• Wednesday, April 9 - Monday, April 21 - Pesach Break



• Tuesday, April 22 - Classes resume

• Monday, May 5 - Grandparents Day 1-3:30pm (See brochure below - click here to register)

Click here to view the ICJA Cafeteria's March Menu.

Yasher Koach on the Aces for reaching Illinois Sectionals for the first time in ICJA history.

Yasher koach to the Aces on winning first ever IHSA State Regional Championship in ICJA boys' varsity basketball history!

This week, our team had a strong showing in the Illinois Sectionals, illustrating their incredible camaraderie and team playing.

The Lady Aces were guests of the Chicago Bulls.

On Tuesday evening, the Lady Aces traveled to the United Center as guests of the Chicago Bulls.

Before watching the Bulls play the Cavaliers, students got to meet some of the players and were interviewed for Women's History Month. A video that includes the Aces' visit will be shown during Bulls a game later this month.

Students used a fun online slide show to understand Rashi's thinking.

Freshmen in Rabbi Shlomo Rosen's Chumash class are learning Sefer Shemot. This week, they studied Rashi's famous explanation of why the Torah refers to the Jews first in the plural and then in the singular while they were receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19:2.

To help learning be interactive and fun, students engaged with a slide show that Rabbi Rosen created, then answered questions about what they learned. To view Rabbi Rosen's slideshop, click here.

Pictured above: Yair Dreytser

Pictured above: Akiva Mishkin and Aaron Gelb

Pictured above: Mijael Mora

Students competed in the annual Egg Drop Competition.

This week, juniors in Mr. Allen Sears's Physics class participated in the annual Egg Drop Competition. Students have been working for weeks, planning and building containers that can protect an egg dropped from a height of ten feet. Teams had rules limiting materials they could use and how much their materials could cost.

Although there were no formal winners, a special mention went to Boaz Stopek and Daniel Wolper, who created an ingenious egg holder which suspended the egg inside a box and prevented it from breaking after being dropped.

Pictured above: Daniel Wolper putting the finishing touches on his and Boaz's egg holder

Pictured above: Boaz Stopek preparing to drop his and Daniel's egg holder

Juniors Dassy Belsky and Mina Brandes led an inspirational Rosh Chodesh Chaburah about Jewish views of happiness.

On Monday, dozens of girls attended ICGC's Rosh Chodesh Chaburah and pizza lunch.

Yasher koach to juniors Dassy Belsky and Mina Brandes for leading a stirring shiur about Jewish views of happiness. Students contributed insights they've learned in their classes as they discussed how striving to connect with Hashem leads to ultimate happiness.

Pictured above: juniors Dassy Belsky and Mina Brandes after leading the Chaburah

Pictured above: seniors Lauren Fensterheim and Leah Rina Brochin

Pictured above: sophomore Zahava Volkov and freshman Michal Belsh

Students are practicing the rules of nomenclature.

Sophomores in Mrs. Chavee Gottlieb's class got some practice this week in writing the names and formulae for chemical reactions.

Students combined various salt solutions, then identified which combinations underwent chemical changes and which did not, creating mixtures instead. Students then were challenged to write the names and formulae for any precipitate that formed, indicating that a combination resulted in a chemical change.

Pictured above: Eliana Frankel and Maya Kutliroff

Pictured above: Ryan Angus and Gabriel Nudman

Pictured above: Ilya Friedman and Mia Saltzman

Students learned about happiness and Adar with Rabbanit Karen Hochhauser.

"Ida Crown students are exceptional! You have amazing teachers and an amazing education here. In Israel we all know that Ida Crown students are knowledgeable and enthusiastic!" - Rabbanit Karen Hochhauser, Co-Director of Nishmat's Miriam Glaubach Center.

On Wednesday, ICGC's Leadership Boards gathered for a lunchtime Chaburah with Rabbanit Karen Hochhauser, who discussed the Purim story, Queen Esther's heroism, and the obligation to be happier than usual during the month of Adar with students.

Mrs. Hochhauser complimented the girls' high level of knowledge and noted that ICJA students are exceptionally well educated and prepared for their post-high school growth years studying in Israel.

Pictured above: freshmen Ronit Kinar, Adi Gryka, and Eliana Stolberg with Rabbanit Hochhauser

Pictured above: senior Rachel Freed with Mrs. Alissa Zeffren

Pictured above: seniors Ella Kakon, Daria Lennon, and Dana Kalutsky

Students compared the warnings given for different Makkot in Sefer Shemot?

(Pictured here: Sam Bajtner and Bennett Kroll)

Freshmen in Rabbi Menachem Rosenbaum's Chumash class are learning Sefer Shemot.

This week, they consulted different payrushim and analyzed the different ways Moshe warned about each of the ten Makkot (plagues) discussed what the warnings reveal about the nature of each makkah (plague).

Pictured above: Coby Gordon and Yis Burgher

Pictured above: Elijah Comrov and Jonathan Hellman

Pictured above: Elior Ginsberg and Jonah Krule

Students discussed Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's z"l Letter on the Pursuit of Happiness.

Seniors in Rabbi Shmuel Kurtz's AJSP class discussed happiness this week, just in time for Adar.

Students read Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's z"l Letter on The Pursuit of Happiness and discussed what they think leads to happiness. Students felt that having a community, pursuing a life of meaning, and having religious values are all conducive to happiness. Students also discussed the difficulty of finding true joy in modern society, when we are pressured to pursue goals that students felt don't ultimately lead to happpiness.

Pictured above: Meital Wittlin and Sarah Lipson

Pictured above: Ella Perlman

Pictured above: Rachel Sommer and Dana Kalutsky

What influences our perceptions of photographs?

Juniors in Mrs. Tirza Kahan's AP Language classes this week read the essay "The Capricious Camera" by Layla Ayad, who uses a Nazi-era photograph to consider the ambiguity inherent in photography.

Students experimented with their own and classmates' reactions to photographs too: each student chose an evocative photograph, showed it to their peers, and elicited their reactions. Afterwards, students explained the contexts of the photos they chose and discussed how their classmates' assumptions differed from reality and why.

Pictured above: juniors Jack Marshall and Ben Rosenburg

Pictured above: Ariela Pulin

Pictured above: Yoshi Bernstein

STEM-Engineering students presented electronic games they created in class.

(Pictured here: seniors Daria Lennon and Nina Ripstein, junior Eli Gelb, and senior Koby Engel)

Students in Mr. Jonathan Keller's STEM-Engineering class have been planning and creating gaming projects in class. Each game had to include an LCD television screen, a distance sensor, a motor, lights, and buttons. The goal was to create an interactive game that challenges the user in some way.

Seniors Ami Weiss and Eliya Sanders created a classic "Simon Says" game that challenged users to memorize light patterns.

Junior Eli Gelb and senior Nina Ripstein created a fun timing reaction game.

Seniors Toby Burstyn and Zev Margolin created a robot that blocks goals from going into the hockey net.

Seniors Meital Wittlin and Sarah Levitt created an entertaining game in which a player push a penguin into water.

Physics students interacted with different forms of energy.

Juniors in Mr. Jonathan Keller's Physics class are learning about the nine different forms of energy. This week, they experimented with many of them, observing how they were able to transform one form of energy into another through simple actions.

Students pulled elastic bands and shot them into cups to observe elastic potential energy transform into kinetic energy, used light to run a light-powered fan, and performed other experiments to observe how energy changes as objects move and react to one another.

Pictured above: Esti Mora and Natan Rine

Pictured above: Benny Kalman

Pictured above: Jayden Perlman and Caley Gordon

AP Chemistry students experimented to create shifting equilibriums.

(Pictured here: juniors Macks Kroll, Eli Fretzin, and Natan Miller)

Students in Mr. Jonathan Keller's AP Chemistry class this week learned Le Chatelier's Principle of Equilibrium.

Afterwards, they performed experiments to predict how dynamic equilibriums shift when they are stressed. Students added acid to Milk of Magnesia. This caused the solid-liquid equilibrium to shift, causing more solid magnesium hydroxide to dissolve. Students observed this reaction, then wrote up their observations in lab reports.

Students met with Israel's Minister of Aliyah and Integration, MK Ofir Sofer.

On Wednesday, ICJA welcomed Israeli MK and Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer; Consul General of Israel to the Midwest Yinam Cohen; Executive VP of Nefesh B’Nefesh Zev Gershinsky; Director of Pre-Aliyah at Nefesh B’Nefesh Marc Rosenberg; and other Israeli officials.

MK Sofer was visiting Chicago for the first time and wanted to get a feel for the city. ICJA is the only school he visited.

Israeli Advocacy Club members Ronit Kinar, Zachary Kupietzky, Amalia Strosberg, Michal Belsh, Ayden Starck, Yakira Wittlin, Rivka Belsh, Devorah Kaplowitz, Ami Gavant, Hadar Simkovich, Aliza Shyovitz, Tali Weiss, Eliana Levine and Dani Allswang met with the group, learned about Israel, and shared their experiences of Jewish life, brushes with antisemitism, and their plans for the future with the politicians.

Pictured above: freshman Zachary Kupietzy and Ayden Starck speaking with Nefesh B'Nefesh Executive VP Zev Gershinsky

Pictured above: politicians asking about students' views and experiences

Pictured above: junior Rivky Belsh speaking with MK Ofir Sofer

Freshmen and their relatives davened together last Sunday at Park Plaza.

Many Sunday mornings, ICJA's freshmen boys' rebbe, Rabbi Louis Fliegelman, arranges for students and their fathers (and grandfathers and other relatives) to meet at a different Chicago-area shul to daven Shacharit together and enjoy breakfast and learning.

Last Sunday, students and their relatives davened and learned together at Park Plaza. This is a letter that Rabbi Fliegelman sent to students and parents afterwards:

Dear Talmidim and Parents:

Today’s davening at Park Plaza was truly special, elevating our appreciation for tefillah to a whole new level.

Our boys had the unique opportunity to join the residents and witness firsthand the dedication and perseverance it takes for each senior to attend minyan. With walking canes and wheel walkers, they made the effort to be there, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to tefillah.

In a similar display of dedication, our Talmidim—despite returning home late last night from an inspiring school Shabbaton—set aside their exhaustion and showed up for minyan today.

Adding to this uplifting experience was the privilege of davening with Rabbi Myers, a meaningful bonus to an already powerful morning.



Have a great week!

For more information about the Veshinantam Levanecha program, email Rabbi Louis Fliegelman at lfliegelman@icja.org.

This week's learning dedications include:

Friday, 7 of Adar, 5785, March 7, 2025, by Howie Perlstein '86, in memory of Helen Perlstein שרה הינדא בת מאיר יוסף in commemoration of her Yahrtzeit

which is observed on ז אדר - May all our students' learning merit an aliya for her neshama

If you would like to sponsor a Day of Learning, please contact our Director of Development, Deva Zwelling, at (773) 973-1450 ext. 115, or dzwelling@icja.org.

This week we caught up with ICJA's beloved Talmud and Tanach teacher - and former Dean, Rabbi Michael Myers.

Rabbi Michael Myers is a beloved fixture here at ICJA, having taught generations of students. This week we caught up with Rabbi Myers and asked him a few questions about himself.

Where did you grow up? And where do you live now?

I grew up in Canton, Ohio. When I was thirteen I went to New York to attend Heichal HaTorah for 9th grade. I then went to the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland for 10th-12th grade. After that, I moved to Chicago. I did my BA at Loyola, my Master's degree in Education Administration at University of Illinois in Chicago, and received semicha from HTC.

Today I live in Park Plaza with my wife Bonnie. (Before Bonnie retired, she spent many years working at Cheder Lubavitch.)

When did you begin teaching at ICJA? What roles have you held here and at other schools?

I first joined ICJA in 1980 as a Tanach teacher. From 1989 to 1997 I served as Dean here too.

I've also taught in other places; for most of my life, I've held more than one job at once. In 1972 I worked with the ATT to help create a Hebrew school in Schaumberg, Illinois. I lived and worked in Schaumberg from 1972 to 1986 as the rabbi of an Orthodox shul there called Or Chadash, which does not exist any more. I also served as the Dean of HTC between 2002 and 2020. I also was the Principal of Telshe High School from 1997 to 2002 and from 2013 to 2020.

What do you enjoy about teaching at ICJA?

I like everything about Ida Crown. There's so much energy here. The students are outstanding. They take both secular studies and limudei Kodesh seriously and treat their teachers with respect.

I appreciate the fact that students always say good morning to me. They hold the door for me. Not just now that I'm older, but always. I can't remember the last time I had to raise my voice when I was teaching. The students here have incredible derech eretz.

Can you describe a favorite ICJA memory?

Yes - I'd have to say when George H. W. Bush was Vice President and he visited our school!

Do you have any hobbies?

I enjoy watching sports. I also like many forms of music: classical music, especially Beethoven; soft rock; and Jewish music.

Is there anything that most people don't know about you that you'd like to share here?

I travelled all over the country with Mr. Harris visiting baseball fields. I root for both the White Sox and the Cubs. If they ever played each other in the World Series, I don't know what I'd do!

Do you have any advice for students?

Yes. You were not created to go to Harvard. You were created to use your unique skills to make the world a better place. It might be that Harvard or Yale - or Oakton - is the right place for you to be to develop your abilities, but going to a particular college is not the goal in itself. That is making the world better.

Watch "Oh the Places You'll Go," our video

for prospective students - and share it with people you know who'd like to learn more about ICJA!

Watch this moving video documenting some of the volunteer activities last year's seniors participated in during their month-long Mission to Israel 2023-4!

In addition to many thousands of physical books and journals, ICJA's Learning Commons contains tens of thousands of online books, journal articles and other resources, including subscriptions to newspapers such as The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and more. Students are able to access these resources through our portal.

Please stop by our librarian Mrs. Steinberg's desk in the Learning Commons or email her at  librarian@icja.org her to pick up your updated passwords to access our online material. ICJA's subscriptions are available at icja.libguides.com/home.

Review ICJA on Niche.com and enter a sweepstakes.

Help let people know how fabulous ICJA is! Whether you're a parent, student, teacher, or alumnus/alumna, the popular school ranking website Niche.com wants to hear from you. Plus, every person who reviews ICJA (or any other school) is automatically entered into a monthly $1,000 sweepstakes by Niche.com. For more information and to leave a review, click here.

Do you have school-related news you'd like to see in this newsletter? Let us know!

If you have exciting ICJA-related news to share about classes, sports, clubs, or other projects, please tell us! Send news items and/or photos to Dr. Yvette Miller, Director of Communications at ymiller@icja.org. Your items can enhance our newsletter and ICJA's social media presence.

Join our New Alumni Facebook Group

We are excited to announce that we have a new private Facebook group called “ICJA Official Alumni Page.” It is a space for alumni from all graduating years to join. We will periodically post alumni reunions, events, fundraising opportunities, information about ICJA today, and news.

We are proud to have some families with us for four generations. If you are an alum, please join the group HERE and be sure to share the link with your family, friends, and fellow graduates. You can also share this link: https://www.facebook.com/share/UeTsqg16DDx4JHGK/?mibextid=hubsqH. Thanks for staying connected to ICJA!

Please reach out to Ilana Levy at ilevy@icja.org if you have any questions about this new effort.

Last summer, ICJA gave its Class of '24 alumni the third edition of our directory listing ICJA alumni who live in Israel and have graciously offered to open their homes to recent ICJA grads who are currently spending a gap year in Israel.

Thank you to the many alumni who have reached out to us, offering to host.

If you have any questions or would like to update our contact information to help recent ICJA grads obtain a copy, please contact Dr. Yvette Miller, ICJA Director of Communications, at ymiller@icja.org.

We are still taking submissions from alumni who are willing to host, to include in future copies of this directory. Please contact Dr. Miller to be included.