Upcoming Events

• Sunday, May 26 - Lag B'Omer

• Monday, May 27 - Memorial Day (No Classes)

• May 31, 2024 - Yearbook/Student Council Assembly

• Tuesday, June 4 - Thursday, June 6 - Senior Retreat

• Sunday, June 9 - Graduation 1pm



• Sunday, June 9 - Senior lock-in 11:45pm

• Monday, June 17 - Edward A. Crown Scholarship Dinner honoring Eric Rothner (Crown Leadership Award), Leslie Wortman (Crown Service Award), and Chavee Gottlieb (Educator of the Year Award) - Click here to reserve your ad and dinner reservation

Students spoke with Rabbi Leo Dee, then baked his daughter Maya Dee's, HY"D, favorite brownies for Shabbat and learned in her memory.

Last Friday, freshmen Mrs. Shelley Stopek’s Hebrew class met on zoom with Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife Lucy and daughters Rina and Maya were murdered last year during Chol Hamoed Pesach by a terrorist in Israel.

Students heard that the three women were well loved by all and that Maya was known for the delicious brownies that she baked, always taking them with her when she’d visit friends or host. Maya loved to host what became known as Parsh Nosh when friends would enjoy treats and learn together.

In their memory the girls decided to bake these delicious brownies and discuss this week’s parsha.

Thank you Talya Bielak, Dolly Cohen Emuna Arnold, Baila Laber, Masha Perkins, Shosh Bashes and Iyla Friedman for helping coordinate this meaningful and delicious project. 

Students used slinkies to observe the anatomy of different types of waves.

Juniors in Mr. Jonathan Keller's STEM class have been learning about types of waves and their properties. This week, they used long slinky toys to create different waves including transverse waves, longitudinal waves, and vibrations.

After observing these different waves in their slinkies, students recorded the frequency and wavelength of various types of waves.

Pictured above: Mr. Jonathan Keller watches as Zehava Piltz creates a wave

Pictured above: Ariela Bielak and Avi Chen discussing their wave's properties

ICJA Students placed among the very top in the country!

All members of ICJA's Chidon HaTanach team qualified for the Chidon HaTanach Nationals in New York last Sunday.

Four out of our five team members placed in the top 20 scorers in the country out of over 300 students, demonstrating an incredible knowledge of Tanach.

ICJA was one of only two schools who had four students place in the top 20 in the high school division. (The other school to achieve this distinction was The Frisch School, whose team is much larger and is led by a professional coach.)



Yasher koach to junior Aliza Shyovitz, who placed 8th in the US; sophomore Penina Benjamin (9th); freshman Ayelet Klein (13th); junior Levi Polsky (16th) and the entire team. We are so proud of your hard work and dedication!

Pictured above: sophomore Penina Benjamin, junior Aliza Shyovitz, freshmen Ayelet Klein and Ariella Titievsky, and junior Levi Polsky

Pictured above: students answering questions in the Finals

Pictured above: the team relaxing during the Finals

Sophomores gave presentations to their peers about the friendship between David and Jonathan.

Sophomores in Rabbi Shlomo Rosen's Navi class have been learning Sefer Shmuel. This week students took turns presenting about different aspects of the camaraderie between David and Jonathan, including the nature of the covenant between them, and why their story is read before Rosh Chodesh.

Pictured above: Benny Kalman

Pictured above: Noam Hellman and Jonah Strahlberg

Pictured above: Eli Fretzin and Macks Kroll

Juniors discussed the bracha of Kibbutz Galuyot.

Juniors in Mrs. Lynn Kraft's class are discussing the various brachot in the Shemonah Esrei. This week, they spent time reading and talking about the bracha of Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of exiles. Students discussed what the bracha means, whether or not the "shofar" that will herald the ingathering of exiles will be a literal shofar or whether this a metaphor, and what this bracha says about Jews' connection to the Land of Israel today.

Pictured above: Eliya Sander

Pictured above: Zehava Piltz and Kaela Nagel

Students are reviewing the Laws of Conservation.

Sophomores in Mrs. Chavee Gottlieb's Chemistry class are preparing for their final exam. This week, they reviewed the Laws of Conservation of Mass, Conservation of Charge, and Conservation of Energy.

Pictured above: Michael matveyev and Ezra Mauer

Pictured above: Mrs. Gottleib taking questions

Pictured above: Yehuda Goldstein

Students took a break from class to enjoy this week's beautiful weather.

Freshmen and sophomores in Rabbi Daniel Fox's Talmud class are learning Masechet Megillah. On Thursday this week they took a break to enjoy a rousing game of kickball in ICJA's sports field, enjoying the beautiful day.

Pictured above: sophomores Natan Miller and Macks Kroll

Pictured above: freshman Archer Gradstein, sophomore Ezra Mauer, and Rabbi Daniel Fox

Juniors Gathered Data at Great America.

On Wednesday, juniors headed to Great America for Physics Day at the amusement park. Students used cell phones and an app called phyphox to collect data on rides. The data collected includes barometric pressure readings, three axis acceleration, and three axis angular acceleration, and can produce up to 10,000 data points, instead of the handful of measurements that many physics experiments typically yield.

Next week, students will learn techniques for analysis and visualization of their Great America data.

Meir Zayan with his winnings from Great America's games

Pictured above: Zehava Piltz and Kaela Nagel

Pictured above: Avi Meyer and Elisha Shpayher

A Wisconsin high school travelled to Skokie to meet Ida Crown Students.

Student to Student has given several presntations over the past week, including to Intrinsic High School in Chicago.

One of the most notable presentations took place last Friday. Nekoosa High School in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, has received presentations via Zoom from our students for years. Last week, they travelled 240 miles to Skokie for an in-person presentation at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

ICJA board member and former ICJA mom Miki Schreiber showed the Nekoosa students around the museum. ICJA grandfather Izzy Starck spoke with them about his experiences during the Holocaust (pictured above). Students then received a presentation from ICJA students about Judaism, Jewish life, and what it is like to be a Jewish teen today.

Pictured above: Junior Ezra Comrov and seniors Leeya Starck, Leah Zelden, Ezra Comrov, and Jordana Zwelling presenting to Nekoosa HS students at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

This week's learning dedications include

13th of Iyar, 5784, Tuesday, May 21, 2024, as a merit for a full and speedy recovery for Meir Dov Hakohen ben Yenta

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.

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!

Watch this moving video documenting some of the volunteer activities our seniors participated in during their month-long 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.

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.

Support ICJA's Annual Scholarship Fund and enter for the chance to win two tickets to Israel! Drawing will be June 28, 2024.

ICJA's Keter Yearbook

The 2023-2024 Yearbook is out! Click here to purchase a copy.

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 '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.