Upcoming Events

• Friday, November 7 - Sophomore/Junior Friday-ton

• Sunday, November 9 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Online) - sign up here.

• Sunday, November 9 - Society of Patrons (SOP) event featuring comedian Dovie Neuburger 7pm @ICJA - (A minimum gift of $3,600 required to attend; email dzwelling@icja.org for more information or to join the SOP.)

• Tuesday, November 11 - All-School field trip to Nova Festival Exhibit

• Wednesday, November 19 - Open House for prospective students and their families - Click here to register

• Friday, November 21 - All-School Chesed Day

• Thursday, November 27 - Friday, November 28 - Thanksgiving Break

• Sunday evening, December 14 - Monday, December 22 - Chanukah

• Wednesday, December 24 - Sunay, January 4 - Winter Break

• Monday, January 5 - School Resumes

Click here to view the November lunch menu.

Follow ICJA on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with school happenings.

How can one heat up food on Shabbat?

Freshmen in Rabbi Meir Sears's Talmud class are learning Masechet Shabbat and exploring the rules of cooking on Shabbat. This week they discussed placing food on a hot plate on Shabbat.

Pictured above: Ayla Wittlin



Pictured above:

Adela Schwartz and Daniella Sommer

Pictured above: Arielle Martin and Eden Salvadori

Why do we have different numbers of aliyot for different types of Torah reading?

Sophomores in Rabbi Daniel Fox's Talmud class are learning Masechet Megilla. This week they discussed reasons that we have three aliyot for Torah reading during the week and seven aliyot on Shabbat.

Pictured above: Amalia Strosberg and Elisheva Sudin 

Pictured above: Emily Itzhaki and Talia Bajtner

Pictured above: Dahlia Osgood

What is a miggu and why is it persuasive?

Juniors in Rabbi Menachem Rosenbaum's Talmud class are learning Masechet Baba Metzia and discussed adjudicating competing claims of ownership in a Beit Din. This week students learned about the rabbinic argument of miggu, in which a witness establishes their credibility by forgoeing the most advantageous argument available to them: since they explain their behavior with a weaker argument, one assumes they are telling the truth.

Pictured above: Dov Kaiserman

Pictured above: Gabriel Nudman and Levi Madoff

Pictured above: Ayden Mishkin and Archer Gradstein

When does one make an adamah bracha over wheat?

Normally, foods made with wheat require a mezonot or hamotzi bracha - but not always. Seniors in Rabbi Shmuel Oren's Talmud class are learning Masechet Brachot, and this week discussed instances when wheat requires an adama blessing instead.

Pictured above: Yoshi Bernstein and Natan Rine

Pictured above: Yair Bell

Pictured above: students and Rabbi Oren discussing the masechet

Students are creating micrographic art.

Students in Mrs. Julie Thomas's Graphic Design Class are learning about the artistic possibilities in micrographic, the practice of using words to create images. Students selected images that are meaningful to them, then chose words - either an existing work or an original creation - to compliment and create their visual designs.

Pictured above: Esti Mora and Alyssa Blumberg

Pictured above: Aaron Koenig and Natan Rine

Pictured above: Raeli Lopin

What's the best way to act out Antigone?

Sophomores in Mrs. Marsha Arons's English class are reading Sophocles's play Antigone. This week, they took turns acting out key scenes for their classmates. It was a fun way to make the play come to life and spark discussion.

Pictured above: Emily Adler and Menachem Friedman

Pictured above: Ari Shyovitz and Avi Friedman

Pictured above: Binyomin Friedman

Can one ever have a personal relationship with AI?

Sophomores in Mrs. Michelle Prince's English class are reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, a work which poses questions about the limits of human empathy and personhood in an age of artificial intelligence.

This week, students read the seminal essay There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy by MIT professor Sherry Turkle, which predates Klara and the Sun and explores similar questions. Using a round-table forum, and in a lively and meaningful discussion, students debated Dr. Turkle's assurances that AI can never achieve true empathy.

Students are using AI for individualized learning.

Students in Rabbi Binyomin Segal's AP Computer Science class are practicing creating different types of "IF Statements", instructions which allow a program to make decisions, run a block of code if a condition is true, and enable different actions based on a given situation.

This week, students each used an individualized AI Chatbox to coach them, helping them perfect the different syntaxes required for different kinds of IF Statement.

Pictured above: senior Michael Matveyev

Pictured above: senior Boaz Stopek

ICJA's newest club held its inaugural meeting.

This week, Hersh's Fridge Club co-presidents junior Hillel Lennon and senior Avi Rubin chaired the first meeting of the group. Over 100 students have signed up to be part of this club and dozens attended this week's meeting.

Avi and Hillel, joined by Avi's mother Leah Rubin and Rabbi Hody Nemes, who are Hersh's Fridge organizers, explained that Hersh's Fridge is a group of refrigerators and pantries providing kosher food in Skokie to help address food insecurity in the local community. ICJA students will be helping with shopping, delivering, restocking, cleaning, and maintaining the spaces.

Hersh's Fridge is named after Hersh Goldberg-Polin, z:"l, the son of ICJA alumni Rachel Goldberg-Polin '87 and Jon Polin '88. To read more about Hersh's Fridge and the role ICJA students are playing in running this vital resource, click here.

Freshmen boys and their relatives davened at Darchei Noam of Glenbrook, in Northbook, IL, last Sunday.

Last Sunday freshmen boys and their relatives gathered together in Northbrook at Darchei Noam of Glenbook for davening followed by breakfast and learning together.

This weekly program is run by award-winning Tanach teacher and freshman boys' rebbe Rabbi Louis Fliegelman.

Contact Rabbi Louis Fliegelman to learn more or to join these weekly visits.

This week we caught up with ICJA's in-house Math Tutor and asked heim a few questions about himself.

ICJA Math Tutor Mr. Jeff Sirkin can be found in the Math and Science Commons every Monday from 11:45aapm to 2pm and Tuesdays from 11am to 2pm. This week we caught up with Mr. Sirkin and asked him a few questions about himself.

Where did you grow up? And where do you live now?

I grew up St. Louis, then moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where I attended college and graduate school. I earned both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Actuarial Science. Later I earned two more Master's degrees at Northwestern: one in Industrial Engineering and one in Education.

Today, I live in Chicago with my wife Sandra '72 and our daughter Miriam.

How did you decide to become a math tutorr?

I worked as an actuary for 25 years. Now I work as a tutor, both at ICJA and independently. I like math a lot and I enjoy explaining it.

What do you enjoy about working at ICJA?

I like seeing kids' faces when they understand a math concept; I feel great satisfaction when I can help kids with their work The kids here are very friendly - I enjoy the energy of the school.

Do you have any hobbies?

Yes – I enjoy playing Bridge!

What advice do you have for ICJA students?

Enjoy your high school years - it's a very special time!

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 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 '25 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.