Upcoming Events

• Friday, September 29 - Monday, October 9 - Sukkot break

• Tuesday, October 10 - Classes resume

• Wednesday, October 18 - Junior PSAT in school (morning)

• Friday, October 18 - Assembly with Hollywood comedy writer Ari Blau

• Tuesday, October 24 - Yearbook picture day



• Friday, October 27 - Sophomore and Junior Shabbaton

• Wednesday, November 15 - ICJA Open House - 6:45pm - 9:15pm

Wishing all students, parents, faculty, and every member of our ICJA family a Gmar Chatima Tovah.

Students bonded at this year's fabulous All-School Retreat at Camp Chi in Wisconsin.

This year's All-School Retreat at Camp Chi was our most successful retreat yet! Students enjoyed sports, games, learning and davening together, as well as ziplining, boating and swimming field trips.

Thank you to Leslie and Tom Silverstein for sponsoring this annual ruach-filled event!

Thank you to the ICJA teachers and staff members who chaperoned this event. Yasher koach to Mrs. Alissa Zeffren for organizing the retreat.

Retreat began Wednesday morning after davening when students boarded busses. Once arriving at Camp Chi, students enjoyed lunch, learning, sports, and other activities. Activities both days included kayaking, zip lining, and playing sports back at camp.

Wednesday evening, each grade enjoyed their own bonfire. Students roasted marshmallows (and in the case of the seniors, Romanian salami), sang, and shared divrei Torah. Afterwards, the entire school came together for a ruach-filled late night Mishmar with cholent and dessert.

Before leaving retreat, students enjoyed lunch, final shiurim, sports, and Mincha. We managed to take some class pictures before departing.

Students created oil paintings inspired by p'sukim about Shabbat.

Sophomores in Mrs. Kochava Yitzhak's AJSP class have learned all the p'sukim (verses) in the Chumash that relate to Shabbat. This week, they each selected a pasuk that speaks to them, and created detailed oil paintings illustrating their chosen pasuk. 

Pictured above: Jessica Michaeli working on her picture, using aish (fire) as a metaphor for the power of Shabbat

Pictured above: Temima Marshak with her painting, illustrating that Jewish mesorah (heritage) is like a tree, with our ancestors partaking like the roots and we today represented by the fruit

Pictured above: Libby Bleichman with her painting which uses an image of a fetus being connected to its mother, as we are connected to Hashem

Students observed Isopoda insects before conducting experiments on them.

Freshmen in Ms. Ruth Gleicher's Biology class sharpened their observing skills this week, examining Isopoda insects with magnifying glasses ahead of conducting experiments on them later this month.

Pictured above: Ariana Needle, Bela Burstyn, and Orli Appel

Pictured above: Ami Appel and Ryan Angus

Pictured above: Sarah Cherney and Ayelet Klein

Students are learning about the halachot of reading Megillat Esther.

Can you read the Megillah of Esther out of order? How about in a foreign language? If you hear the Megillah in Hebrew on Purim but you don't understand Hebrew, are you still yotzei the mitzvah?

Sophomores in Rabbi Joel Gutstein's Talmud class are learning Masechet Megillah, and discussed what the Talmud says about these questions and other issues in class this week.

Pictured above: Josh Miller

Pictured above: Eli Gelb and Aaron Katz

Pictured above: Natan Rine

Students presented to over 75 students at Nekoosa High School in Central Wisconsin on Monday.

On Monday this week, ICJA students, along with Jewish students from other Chicago-area schools, gave Zoom presentations about Judaism and what it's like to be a Jewish teen today over 75 students at Nekoosa High School in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. For some Nekoosa teens, these presentations were the first time they spoke with Jews.

(Pictured here: a screenshot from one of the presentations.)

• Nishmat - Oct. 23, during 6th
• Baer Miriam - Oct. 31, during 6th
• Midreshet Harova - Nov. 2, during 6th
• Midreshet Lev HaTorah - Nov. 6 during 6th
• Aish Gesher - Tuesday, Nov. 7 during 6th
• Midreshet Lindenbaum - Nov. 7 during 6th
• Machon Maayan - Nov. 8 during 6th
• Midreshet Moriah - Nov. 8 during 6th
• Midreshet Torat Chesed - Nov. 9 during 6th
• Sha'alvim for Women - Nov. 9 during 6th
• Midreshet Torah Va'avodah - Nov. 14 during breakfast
• MMY - Nov. 14 during 6th
• Midreshet Amit - Nov. 14 during 6th
• Migdal Oz - Nov. 15 during 6th
• Tiferet - Nov. 15 during 6th
• Amudim - Nov. 20 during 6th

For more information about upcoming seminary visits, please contact Mrs. Lynn Kraft, lkraft@icja.org.

• Yeshivat Har Etzion - Nov. 8 during breakfast
• Orayta - Nov. 15 during breakfast
• Yeshivat Aish Gesher - Nov. 15 during 6th
• Netiv Aryeh - Nov. 16 during breakfast
• Torat Shraga - Nov. 16 during 6th
• Migdal HaTorah - Nov. 20 during breakfast
• Lev HaTorah - Nov. 20 during 5th
• Amudim - Nov. 20 during 6th
• Mevaseret - Nov. 21 during breakfast
• Reishit - Nov. 30 during 5th

For more information about upcoming seminary visits, please contact Rabbi Shmuel Oren, soren@icja.org.

• Lamdeini High School Summer Program - Nov. 7 during breakfast
• Bar Ilan - Nov. 8 during breakfast

• Drexel University - Sept. 28
• Reichman University - Oct. 10
• University of Maryland - Oct. 11
• SUNY Binghamton - Oct. 12
• Indiana University Oct. 25
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Nov. 2
• Bar Ilan University - Virtual visit - Nov. 9

For more information about upcoming college visits, contact Ms. Susan Weiss, Director of College Guidance sweiss@icja.org (773) 973-1450 x121.

This week's sponsors include:

Monday, the 3rd of Tishrei, 5784, September 18, 2023, by the Robinson, Nadav, and Stein-Granek Families in loving memory of Rabbi Barry Robinson, z''l, '61, on his 5th yahrzeit on ב׳ Tishrei (2nd day of Rosh Hashanah)

Monday, the 3rd of Tishrei, 5784, September 18, 2023, by the Shpayher family in memory of Rabbi Leib Shmuel Yager, z"l, ליב שמואל בן דוד, on the occasion of his 4th yahrzeit

Tuesday, the 4th of Tishrei, 5784, September 19, 2023, by Michal and Shmuel Somer in memory of their grandfather Barry Greenstone, z''l,

דב שבתי בן יהושע לייב, ז"ל

Friday, the 7th of Tishrei, 5784, September 22, 2023, by Howie and Jeff Perlstein in memory of Harold Perlstein, חיים אלעזר בן ר׳ יהודה בנימין ז״ל, in commemoration of his 4th yahrzeit, which is observed on ט׳ תשרי

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.

Watch our Open House video

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

Founded in 1942, ICJA is 80 years old this year. Please enjoy this 80th Anniversary Video which looks back on eight decades of excellence, close bonds, and memories.

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.

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.

LESS THAN 2 WEEKS LEFT TO SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATION for the HARTMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARDS! 

Help Our Community Recognize an Exceptional Educator! Visit www.att.org to complete a User Friendly, Online Nomination Form, download a paper nomination form, and see rules. Call 773-973-2828 for more information. Nomination submission deadline: Wednesday, September 20, 2023, by 5pm.

Last summer, ICJA gave its Class of '22 alumni the second 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.

The directory was sent out to the emails of '22 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. Please contact Dr. Miller to be included.