Mrs. Olivia Friedman, ICJA's Tanach and Oral Law teacher and Ed Tech expert, won 2nd place in the Hartman Family Foundation Educator of the Year Awards.

"Awards are selected by a committee of educational consultants and community members. Selection criteria for the Educator Award include exceptional instructional skills in a nurturing environment, commitment to one’s students’ success, superior communication skills with parents, students, and peers, commitment to continued professional development, and contributions to one’s school’s learning community." - Hartman Foundation

Yasher koach senior Amitai Kakon on placing within the Top Ten of the Jerusalem Science Contest with his research project CRISPR-Cas9 and Sickle Cell Disease. Amitai won a trip to Israel to tour science research programs there.

(For more information about the Jerusalem Science Contest, including how to compete in future years, see here.)

Students learned sources about and discussed Hiddur Mitzvah, beautifying a mitzvah.

Pictured above left: juniors Nechama Tarshish and Dena Simon-Hakalir.

Pictured above right: juniors Daniella Cohen and Audrey Perlman

Pictured right: Freshman girls discussed their personal experience with Hiddur Mitzvah. Hadar Simkovich used the example of making sure you have a beautiful lulav. Aliza Shyovitz mentioned using beautiful candlesticks and table settings on Shabbat. Tali Weiss explained that saying a bracha beautifully can be Hiddur Mitzvah. Simcha Seruya discussed her family's special Pesach tradition: they put a blue tablecloth down on their Seder table, place a brown path through it, and place figures on the "path" to illustrate the Exodus.

After the learning part of the morning, ICJA girls created expressive self portraits with Nikki Sausen of Paint With Me. Students learned how to create an abstract portrait and expres themselves through ar.

The colorful portraits will form the backdrop for the ICJA Takes the Stage Commemorating the life of Batsheva Chaya Stadlan, z"l, sponsored by the Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts, on April. 5.

Pictured in the 6 photos above (left to right, top to bottom): freshman Simcha Seruya with sophomore Maayan Dallal; freshman Aliza Shyovitz; freshman Lauren Fensterheim; senior Sarah Friedman; senior Laura Bellows; junior Adina Margolin; freshman Eliana Ebert; and senior Attar Benmelech

Students are continuing their "Respecting Others, Respecting Ourselves" unit. This week, they heard from Skokie 8th grader Leah Loewenstern and her mother Amanda. They discussed the physical challenges that Leah experiences stemming from cerebral palsy, and answered students' questions.

Leah explained that she is an avid horseback rider and has competed in the Special Olympics. Her mother described the many years of physical therapy and surgery that Leah has undergone, and discussed ways she processes learning differently.

Students discussed why pomegranates are used in Jewish art. Students described using them as simanim at their families' Rosh Hashana meals, silver pomegranates that adorned the robes of the Cohanim in the Temple, and the symbolism of pomegranates' seeds being compared to mitzvot.

Pictured above: Jakob Wortman planned a pomegranate-themed piece using pen and ink.

Pictured above right: Hailey Goltz carved images to create a reusable plate to print abstract pomegranate forms and designs.

Pictured right: Yitzchak Mishkin sketched out a photography project he's planning involving real pomegranates.

All year long, boys in Rabbi Rosenbaum's Honors Talmud class have had the option of participating in Night Seder twice a week. They've been learning Masechet Taanit, and last Friday, March 4, they made a siyum in class.

On Wednesday, March 9, over 30 students and teachers joined a siyum on Seder Moed, as part of the Daf Yomi cycle of Talmud learning. They enjoyed a chicken lunch and listened to Rabbi Menachem Rosenberg make the siyum.

(Pictured below left: Rabbi Rosenberg and students; pictured below right: freshmen Tali Weiss, Hadar Simkovich and Meital Witlin)

On some Sunday mornings, students in Rabbi Fliegelman's freshman boys' Talmud class have the option of gathering to daven and learn together along with their relatives at local synagogues.

Last Sunday, March 6, students met at Congregation Or Torah in Skokie.

They davened Shacharit, ate breakfast, and shared insights of Torah learning that they learned in their classroom.

Students in the picture: Ezra Comrov, Ami Weiss, Jacob Friedman and Elisha Shpayher

"Have you ever been to an orchestra?" Mrs. Friedman asked her 10th grade girls' Prophets class this week. Students were discussing Tehillim, analyzing the structure of Tehillim, the meaning, and the way that Tehillim were used in the Temple.

Nava Cohen (Pictured below right) gave a presentation on the way Tehillim were sung in the Temple. The Cohanim used a shofar, psaltery (guitar-like instrument), lyre, tambourines, stringed instuments, a flute and cymbals, Nava explained.

Mrs. Friedman asked students to imagine hearing Tehillim sung this way.

Students in Rabbi Segal's STEM-Coding class are writing programs to direct a ball-shaped robot to roll, stop, and change direction.

Pictured left: senior Will Blumberg with the robot he's programming.

Pictured below left: senior Amitai Kakon with his robot.

Pictured below: senior Eliyahu Malkin writing code.

Students in Mrs. Gottlieb's 10th grade Chemistry class combined ionic compounds this week, observing whether they experience chemical or physical reactions. "We are learning to write names and formulas of iconic solutions," Mrs. Gottlieb explained. Students also practiced writing the formulas of ionic compounds.

Pictured above left: Yonah Rubin, Josh Mishie, and Millo Benmelech

Pictured above right: Gabriella Zipperstein and Evan Comrov

Pictured left: Leah Zelden and Ilana Schwartz

The JUMP team's Teen Mentoring Project met with their 7th grade chaburot at Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School this week for an engaging activity of Megillah Cake Wars! Each chaburah of ICJA mentors and Hillel Torah 7th graders was assigned a perek of the Megillah to study.

Then each chaburah had to design and decorate a cake based on their perrek and present their cake to the whole room and a panel of judges. The cakes were scored on design, creativity, cake presentation of theme/content, teamwork and cleanliness.

This week, a number of ICJA teachers incorporated discussion about the war in Ukraine in their classes.

 “We took out a map and talked about Ukraine,” explains English teacher Mrs. Tirzah Kahan. In her AP English, class, Mrs. Kahan had students analyze the rhetorical devices of Ukraine’s embattled President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Rabbi Yoni Fox - like many ICJA teachers - has included discussions about achdut, the Jewish concept of unity and supporting one another, in his classes.

Students in ICJA’s Media and Communications class are analyzing Russian propaganda news sites. “This isn’t just a ground war, it’s also an information war, and students need to be able to know what propaganda means,” explains Rabbi Dr. Gavriel Brown, ICJA’s Assistant Dean, who teaches the class.

On Wednesday, March 9, the Rabbinical Council of America and Tradition Journal hosted an online event to educate the community about Ukraine and the refugee situation in Poland and on the Ukrainian-Polish border. ICJA staff and students who were free during the lunchtime event were able to hear firsthand accounts of the crisis.

Tradition editor Rabbi Jeffrey Saks spoke with Rabbi Mordechai Bald, Chief Rabbi of Lviv, Ukraine; Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland; and Dr. Karina Sokolowska, Director of JDC Poland. RCE President Rabbi Binyamin Blau delivered opening remarks.

"We have to save every single life: Jewish, not Jewish, and we have to fight evil everywhere we see it." - Rabbi Mordechai Bald, Chief Rabbi of Lviv

On Wednesday, March 9, students found a sweet treat waiting for them in the Learning Commons: Dunkin Donuts, courtesy of Alyssa Lerer (ICJA '13), the Director of Chesed for NCSY Midwest.

Ms. Lerer invited students to sign up to help package and distribute food at the Chicago Chesed Fund, as part of joint chesed program with NCSY.

Volunteer hours on are March 13, 9:30am - 12pm and 12:30pm - 2:30pm.

Volunteer hours on March 27 are 9:30am - 12pm and 12:30pm - 3:30pm.

Reservations are required to volunteer. Please email Ms. Lerer to sign up.

Pictured below: Freshmen Ami Weiss and Aaron Hartman with Ms. Lerer.

In lieu of mishloach manot - or in addition to other Purim gifts - consider sending a personalized ICJA Purim e-card this year.

How it works:

If you have any questions about the e-cards, please contact Academy Associates e-card coordinator Chaya Gordon-Burstyn.

Thursday, the 7th of Adar Bet, March 10, 2022, by Sharon and Seymour Gertz, in memory of Gwen Gertz, Margalit bat Shilam a"h.

For more information or to sponsor a day of learning, please contact our Director of Development, Deva Zwelling, at (773) 973-1450 ext. 115, or dzwelling@icja.org.

Doc Phil wrote an article in the current issue of Contact, and Illinois Counseling Association Publication.

"Is Space Indeed the Final Frontier?" That intriguing question is the title of an article that ICJA's Director of Student Social Services Mr. Phil Zbaraz LCPC, CCATP, had published this week in the journal Contact.

"My topic here is how space affects us, that is, how space is going to be processed, perceived, interpreted, and put in a context that relates specifically to our own unique sense of how we see ourselves in relationship to our world (our paradigm/ world view)" - Doc Phil. Click here to access the article.

Students can submit poetry, prose, essays, photography and more. Click here to submit your work.

(Charlotte's Web is supported by the Susan and Joseph Ament Fund.)

To register, click here.

Over Chanukah, ICJA gave its Class of '21 alumni a Chanukah gift: a brand-new directory that lists ICJA alumni who live in Israel and have graciously offered to open their homes to recent ICJA '21 grads who are currently spending a gap year in Israel this year.

The directory was sent out to the emails of '21 grads that we have on file. 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.

Win-win! You can support Ida Crown Jewish Academy, while shopping via Smile.Amazon.com