Upcoming Events

• Friday, February 28 - Motzaei Shabbat, March 1 - ICBC Shabbaton

• Wednesday, March 5 - Sophomore pre-ACT in school

• 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

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

Last Shabbat, ICJA girls enjoyed a Shabbaton; this Shabbat, it's ICBS's turn.

Last Friday, ICJA girls, faculty, alumnae, and other chaperones headed to the Crown Plaza hotel in Northbrook for ICGC's Shabbaton.

Throughout this magical Shabbat, students deepened their connections with each other and their teachers. Students sang, hung out together, learned, ate delicious Shabbat meals, davened – and even enjoyed a massive, ruach-filled Torah trivia game that went into overtime Friday night.

Motzaei Shabbat, girls enjoyed ice cream and doughnuts and continued the fun. Thank you so much to all our wonderful students, student leaders, Mechanchot, teachers, and other chaperones who taught, learned, participated, and made this Shabbaton so special.

This Shabbat, it's boys' turn as they head to the ICBC Shabbaton.

Pictured above: senior girls before Shabbat last week

Students learned in ICJA's Beit Midrash this week.

On Wednesday morning, two boys' Talmud classes took advantage of ICJA's Beit Midrash and extensive sefarim library as they moved their learning into the Beit Midrash.

Seniors in Rabbi Yishai Broner's Accelerated Talmud class are learning Masechet Chagiga and spent this week learning about the Shalosh Regalim.

Freshmen and sophomores in Rabbi Daniel Fox's Accelerated Talmud class are learning Masechet Sanhedrin. This week they discussed the question of under what circumstances one may kill a robber who is threatening one's household.

Pictured above: freshmen Ari Shyovitz, Akiva Joseph, and Menachem Steinberg

Pictured above: freshman Zachary Kupietzky and sophomore Ayden Starck

Pictured above: freshman Asher Segal with Rabbi Fox

Pictured above: seniors Koby Engel and Toby Burstyn

Pictured above: seniors Aidan Zukerman and Levi Polsky

Pictured above: Yossi Burstyn and Zev Margolin

Students rewrote skits using the הִפְעִיל verb tense.

Seniors in Mrs. Eliora Lavi's Hebrew class read a fun skit this week - then rewrote it using passive verbs from the hephil verb tense - בִּנְיָן הִפְעִיל - instead.

Students then practiced acting out the skits.

Pictured above: Zev Margolin and Avi Okner

Pictured above: Meir Zayan and Aidan Zukerman

Students are designing their own board games.

Seniors in Rabbi Menachem Rosenbaum's Game Design elective are busy designing original board games. This week they had fun playing a range of different games while taking notes about the experience and considering which elements they'd like to include in their own projects.

Pictured above: Meir Zayan, Menachem Friedman, and Zehava Piltz

Pictured above: Rachel Freed and Sarah Lipson

Students acted out Othello.

(Pictured Here: Caleb Novick and Levi Madoff)

Sophomores in Mrs. Marsha Arons's English classes are reading Othello. This week they acted out scenes from the play, gaining new understandings of the characters' motivations, the plot, and the narrative arc in this important work.

Pictured above: Gabriel Nudman and Aryeh Lowenthal

Pictured above: Bela Burstyn, Ariella Titievsky, and Evie Weiss

Pictured above: Gabriel Nudman and Eliana Frankel

Why is beauty likened to "הבל"?

Juniors in Mrs. Lynn Kraft's honors Oral Law class have been discussing the concept of physical beauty in the Torah.

This week, students discussed the statement in Sefer Kohelet that physical beauty is הבל, emptiness, and learned the views of the GRA and others that physical beauty is valuable when it reflects one's inner beauty and is not seen as an end in itself. Students read contemporary articles about Jewish views of beauty and shared their own thoughts and opinions.

Pictured above: Raeli Lopin

Pictured above: Jordyn Perlman

Pictured above: Lily Douek and Mina Brandes

Students educated hundreds of non-Jewish teens about Jewish life.

On Monday and Tuesday this week, members of ICJA's Student to Student club traveled to St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights to educate their fellow teens about Judaism and Jewish life.

Addressing the school's World Religions classes, ICJA and other Jewish students explained the Jewish life cycle, Shabbat, kashrut, and discussed Israel, antisemitism, and the Holocaust. Students answered questions including Jewish views of suffering, how they celebrate Shabbat, whether they find it difficult to keep kosher, and how shomer Shabbat students manage to compete in sports.

Pictured above: junior Miriam Falk showing students a copy of Harry Potter in Hebrew

Pictured above: junior Ami Gavant explaining how a tallit is used

Pictured above: junior Devorah Kaplowitz writing students' names in Hebrew

ICJA shone in Yeshiva University's National Model United Nations this week.

Last Sunday, twelve ICJA students from our Model UN Team, plus faculty advisor Mr. Joshua Cooper, flew to New York for the annual Yeshiva University National Model United Nations (YUNMUN), featuring 200 students from Jewish day schools across the country. ICJA students represented Iran and Morocco and sat on the Antiterrorism Committee.

The entire team put forward a strong showing. Yasher kochacha to senior Aliza Shyovitz on receiving an Honorable Mention.

Thank you to Mr. Cooper and all the team members who competed in YUNMUN: seniors Ranon Ginsberg, Levi Polsky, Hadar Simkovich, Maytal Needle, Elisha Shpayher, Allie Stein, and, and Aliza Shyovitz; juniors Yehuda Goldstein, Natan Miller, Ariella Pullin, and Eli Fretzin; and sophomore Kinneret Finegold.

Pictured above: senior Aliza Shyovitz with her Honorable Men

Pictured above: junior Natan Miller with other participants

Pictured above: senior Allie Stein

Students are preparing for next week's egg drop competition.

Juniors in one of Mr. Allen Sears's 11th grade Physics class spent much of this week preparing for next week's egg drop competition, an annual highlight of the class.

Students are constructing egg holders that will allow an egg to withstand a drop during a 10-foot fall. They have to abide by a long list of rules, including a price cap on the materials used, rules against applying tape or other adhesives to the egg itself, and limits on the number of baloons that can be used (two).

Pictured above: Daniel Wolper and Boaz Stopek with their egg container

Pictured above: Aaron Koenig and Mr. Sears, holding Aaron's egg container

Students taught one another how to measure impulse in moving objects.

Students in Mr. Allen Sears's Physics classes learn by doing: students broke into small groups to solve problems, then te their classmates how they tackled their problem.

This week, in an other 11th grade Physics class, students practiced measuring impulse, the measure of how much force modifies an item's momentum. Once each group had solved their problem, they took turns sharing their work with their peers.

Pictured above: Miriam Falk and Ezra Mauer

Pictured above: Aaron Katz and Libby Bleichman

Pictured above: Avi Rubin and Lily Douek

Freshmen and their relatives davened together last Sunday at the Sephardic Congregation on Howard Street.

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 the Sephardic Congregation on Howard Street.

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

This week's learning dedications include:

Week of Learning, Monday, 26 of Shevat - Friday, 30 of Shevat, 5785, February 24 - February 28, 2025, by Barbara and George Hanusin memory of John Hanus, z"l, Moshe Yehuda ben Dovid Ha Lavi, in commemoration of his 57th Yahrtzeit, which is observed on Rosh Chodesh Adar

Thursday, 29 of Shevat, 5785, February 27, 2025, by Sharon & Seymour Gertz, in memory of Doris Rosenberg, z"l, דבורה אסתר בת דוד, ז"ל. May her neshama have an aliyah.

Thursday, 29 of Shevat, 5785, February 27, 2025, by Irwin and Deedie Gold, Tamar, Ariel, Chavi, Mia, Amalya, and Eli Campbell, and Leah Gold, in memory of Rabbi William B. Gold A"H, HaRav Zev ben Chaim Yitzchak, father, grandfather and great grandfather, on the occasion of his 50th Yahrtzeit

on the 29th of Shevat. May the learning merit an Aliyah for his neshama.

Wednesday, 28 of Shevat, 5785, February 26, 2025, by Nechemia & Margalit Segal and Segal Family (Asher ‘28, Avital & Gideon), in loving memory of Rabbi and Professor Lester A. Segal, הרב אברהם אליעזר בן הרב מרדכי יונה הלוי, loving husband, father, father-in-law and grandfather, on the occasion of his first yahrtzeit

Monday, 26 of Shevat, 5785, February 24, 2025, by Mitchell and Helene Blivaiss, in loving memory of Helen Blivaiss, חנה בת אברם אריה, to commemorate her Yahrzeit on 25 Shevat

Friday, 16 of Shevat, 5785, February 14, 2025, by by Irwin and Deedie Gold, Tamar, Ariel, Chavi, Mia, Amalya, and Eli Campbell, and Leah Gold, in memory of Kievie Hirsch, A"H, Akiva Ben Yehoshua, in memory of beloved father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, on his 21st Yahrtzeit on the 19th of Shevat. 

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 share some scenes from the first graduating class.

Ida Crown was founded in 1942; back then it was called the Chicago Jewish Academy and was housed inside the Hebrew Theological College at Douglas Blvd. and St. Louis Ave. (pictured here: the Academy's home 1942-1946)

Nine students made up the first graduating class in 1946: Herbert Fredman, Norman Greenberg, Milton Kanter, Meyer Miller, Harry Perl, Leah Stampfer, Abraham Bernard Stein, Jacob Stein, and Isaiah Tversky.

School began at 8:30 with Shacharit. Students only ate breakfast together in school on Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah, and Chol Hamoed (yes, school was in session then).

From 9am to 12:45pm, students had two limudei kodesh periods with a short break in between.

All students ate lunch together. Boys benshed together in groups of three so they could have a mezumen (pictured here).

There were six secular studies' periods each afternoon. Many of the classes would be familiar to today's students: Biology, English, American Government, Economics, Math, and more.

Other classes might seem old-fashioned to today's students: the Academy taught Shorthand and Typing, Industrial Arts, and Calisthenics.

Students had a break for Mincha, and then each student had a glass of milk. (The 1946 Yearbook notes that Student Council arranged for students' daily glass of milk, which seemingly was a special treat at the time.)

The Academy had lots of clubs from its very first years. A Music Appreciation club featured a working phonograph, a luxury in the 1940s. Other clubs included a boys' Basketball Team, a girls' Volleyball Team, a Public Speaking Club, a Hobby and Game Club, a Science Club, Girls' Chorus, School newspaper, and more.

The school day concluded at 5pm.

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.