Upcoming Events

• Friday, February 16 - Monday, February 19, 2024 - Presidents' Day Weekend Break (no classes Friday or Monday)

• Friday, February 16 and Sunday, February 18, 2024 - Wittenberg Tournament - watch live on YWA's channel here.

• Motzaei Shabbat, February 17, 2024 - Aces vs. Fasman Yeshiva High School @ICJA - JV Game starts 7:30pm

• Sunday, February 25, 2024 - 9th Grade conferences 12:30-5pm

• Sunday, February 25, 2024 - Lady Aces' Basketball Clinic for 6th - 8th grade girls 9:30am-12pm

• Tuesday, March 12, 2024 - NHS Induction Ceremony

• Wednesday, March 13, 2024 - ICJA Takes the Stage Artist in Residence Program for girls with Nikki Sausen of Paint with Me 

• Friday, March 15, 2024 - Freshman Fridayton

• Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - ICJA Takes the Stage girls' outing to see Peter Pan

• Sunday, April 7, 2024 - 18 Under 18 Awards Event

• Thursday, April 11, 2024 - ICJA Takes the Stage, Commemorating the Life of Batsheva Chaya Stadlan, z"l, generously sponsored by The Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts

Watch our new video documenting some of the highlights of the Senior Mission to Israel.

ICJA Dean Rabbi Leonard Matanky has released an e-book containing his letters to parents during the ICJA Senior Mission, plus additional reflections and divrei Torah.

Click HERE to download Missions: The First 100 Days of the Gaza War by Rabbi L. Matanky.

Yasher koach to the entire team and to senior Jed Marcus for winning an Honorable Mention award.

This week, ICJA's Model UN team travelled to New York for the Yeshiva University National Model United Nations (YUNMUN).

Yasher koach to the entire team and to coach Mr. Joshua Cooper. Yasher koach to senior Jed Marcus (pictured) for winning an Honorable Mention for his work on Oman and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)!

After Reading Julius Caesar, juniors are discussing characters' attributes and qualities.

Juniors in Mrs. Marsha Arons's honors English class recently finished reading Julius Caesar. This week, they discussed the characters and created pictures of each character using symbols to represent their various traits and qualities.

Pictured above: Avner Frazin and Aidan Zuckerman

Pictured above: Sarah Levitt, Mrs. Arons, and Sarah Lipson

Pictured above: Simcha Seruya and Rachel Freed

Seniors are learning how to draw architectural floor plans.

Seniors in Dr. Gavriel Brown's Architecture class are mastering the steps that go into designing a professional architectural floor plan, from brainstorming what should be in their plan to arranging the plans logically, and then using standard notation to create a working floor plan that builders could use.

Pictured above: Uriel Kolom and Yaakov Holman

Pictured above: Jordana Zwelling and Noa Gavant

Pictured above: Adam Katz and Sam Gorenstein

How do units of time here on Earth echo what takes place in Shamayim?

Freshmen in Rabbi Louis Fliegelman's Talmud class are learning Masechet Brarchot 3a. This week, as part of a discussion about the ending time for saying Shema in the evening according to Rabbi Eliezer, students discussed something more esoteric: the synchronization between Heavens and Earth and how units of time on Earth echo activities in the Heavens.

Pictured above: Orli Lubin and Maya Kutliroff

Pictured above: Baila Laber and Zahava Volkov

Students modeled how mRNA is translated into a protein.

This week, freshmen in Ms. Ruth Gleicher's Biology class built models in order to understand the process of translation, the process of turning DNA into proteins, using the instructions in mRNA.

Previously, students took a DNA model and used it to transcribe the DNA into mRNA using models and diagrams. This week, they built on that knowledge, creating models of an amino acid chain and charting this complex process of translation using their models.

(Pictured here: Ms. Gleicher demonstrating the process before students created models themselves)

Pictured above: Yakira Wittlin, Goldie Boyarskiy, and Eliana Levitt

Pictured above: Aryeh Lowenthal, Hillel Lennon, Archer Gradstein, and Caleb Novick

Pictured above: Raya Volkov, Ariella Titievsky, Masha Perkins, and Ms. Gleicher

Juniors enjoyed a student-designed Kahoot while practicing בִּנְיָן פִּעֵל.

Juniors in Mrs. Dana Rubin's Hebrew class are reviewing בִּנְיָן פִּעֵל and found a fun way to practice their grammar this week: by playing a grammar-themed Kahoot made by Yossi Burstyn and Avi Meyer.

Students were enthusiastic about the game, with Mrs. Rubin stepping in regularly to make additional points about grammar usage.

Pictured above: Avi Chen and Ezra Comrov

Pictured above: Koby Engel and Avi Meyer

Pictured above: Ami Weiss

Tanach Seminar Participants are enriching classes and programming at ICJA.

With the end of first semester, the first ever Tanach Seminar senior elective at Ida Crown concluded, but its impact is still reverberating throughout the school. After completing their group project, which they presented to the seniors back in December, each of the three students chose a personal topic in Tanach that they were interested in learning more about. After completing their learning, they thought of creative ways to share what they learned with others. 

Last Friday, in an engaging session, Taly Benzaquen presented her research on the friendship of Dovid and Yonatan to students in Mrs. Gold's honors Mishlei class after their unit on friendship.  This week, Noa Gavant (pictured) presented her research on Sefer Chavakuk, which discusses the idea of questioning Hashem, to her freshean girls' davening group as they learn about their relationship with Hashem through davening. Next week IY"H, Jordana Zwelling will present her research on clothing in Tanach to Mrs. Lynn Kraft's Junior AJSP class, who just began their unit on tzinua.

Additionally, on the recent ICGC Shabbaton, all three Tanach Seminar students presented their group research project on Sefer Ovadiah to the freshmen, sophomore, and junior girls through a creative and engaging Choose Your Own Adventure discussion game about anti-Semitism and its impact upon all of us today.



We look forward to the return of the Tanach Seminar elective next year for all interested seniors. This program is open to both boys and girls. For more information, contact Tanach Department Chair Mrs. Lynn Kraft.

Seniors are presenting independent learning projects about themes in Mishlei to their peers.

Seniors in Rabbi Mayer Simcha Stromer's Navi class are learning Mishlei. For the past few weeks, students have been researching different themes in Mishlei and assembling pasukim and peirushim on them.

Each pair of researchers is now presenting their research to their classmates over several days. This week, Josh Mishie and Ezra Comrov (pictured here) presented their research on the theme "Wise Men and Fools".

In addition to the many pasukim in Mishlei which elucidate this concept, Josh and Ezra delved into commentaries by Malbim, Ibn Ezra, Metzudat David, Rashi, Ralbag, and others, parsing what how Mishlei precisely defines both wisdom and foolishness.

Seniors are programming motion detectors.

Seniors in Mr. Jonathan Keller's STEM class continued learning new ways to write code, using Arduino software this week to create motion-sensitive lights and motors. Students attached lights and motors to motion detectors, and programmed them to turn on and off whenever they detected movement.

Pictured above: Jed Marcus with his motion sensor

Pictured above: Yitzchak Mishkin with Mr. Jonathan Keller

Pictured above:Joey Levy

Freshmen girls continued their team-building activities this week.

On Thursday, freshman girls continued their ongoing team building program with Mrs. Etty Gugenheim and Mrs. Noa Nussbaum.

Students divided into two groups. In the group led by Mrs. Nussbaum, students brainstormed different traits they've observed in people, and discussed them, gaining insights into their own interactions.

In Mrs. Gugenheim's group, students discussed the difference between values that are explicitly promoted and those which are implicitly promoted, and then examined how their own families convey their family values.

Pictured above: students discussing character traits with Mrs. Nussbaum

Pictured above: Livia Baronofsky writing down character traits for the group as students brainstormed

Pictured above: students discussing implicit vs. explicit values with Mrs. Gugenheim

This week we asked some students: what were some of your favorite moments in the recent ICGC and ICBC Shabbatonim?

"Being with all my friends and hanging out with my teachers and their families." - senior Sofia Douek

"The Newlywed Game was really fun!" - freshman Sophie Rine

"I appreciated the way everybody felt like a family; I felt like I got closer with everyone." - freshman Sheindy Worch

"I liked having time with my friends." - freshman Talia Bielak

"I liked getting closer with my friends, and I enjoyed the party bus!" - freshman Dalia Cohen

"I enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with friends I don't have classes with, and to bond with friends and rabbeim." - sophomore Yehuda Goldstein

"I enjoyed gaslighting Yehuda!" - sophomore Eli Fretzin

"The Q&A with the Rabbis was fun." - sophomore Natan Miller

"I liked being with all my friends." - sophomore Zachary Fogel

Pictured above: sophomores Yehuda Goldstein and Eli Fretzin

Pictured above: freshmen Talia Bielak, Dalia Cohen, and Sheindy Worch

Pictured above: sophomores Zachary Fogel and Natan Miller

Watch "Connect with ICJA," our newest video

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

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.

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 '23 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 '23 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.