Upcoming Events

• Sunday, November 24 - Virtual Seminary Fair (see flyer at bottom of newsletter)

• Thursday, November 28 - Friday, November 29 - Thanksgiving Break - no classes

• Thursday, November 28 - ICBC father son Thanksgiving, breakfast, and shiur @Skokie Kollel 9am

Click here to view ICJA's November lunch menu schedule.

Click here to view ICJA's December lunch menu schedule.

Students spent Thursday morning performing chesed and participating in the Rabbi Sacks Global Day of Learning.

On Thursday, students devoted their mornings to learning and chesed.

Students began the morning, after davening and first period classes, by participating in the Rabbi Sacks Global Day of Learning, commemorating the fourth Yahrzheit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z"l, on the 20th of Cheshvan. Students watched two inspirational videos and spent time learning b'chavruta or in small groups about the theme "The People of the Book," reflecting a concept that Rabbi Sacks cherished: a commitment to learning, dialogue, and the power of ideas. (The program's opening video can be seen here and the closing video can be viewed here.)

Afterwards, students learned about and volunteered for different local chesed organizations, including Sharsheret, Yachad, Gratitude Generation, Cradles to Crayons, and The Chicago Center.

Thank you to Student Activities Coordinator Mrs. Alissa Zeffren for organizing this wonderful event, and to all our teachers who participated in the morning's learning and activities.

(Pictured above: freshmen Dana Stein, Shiri Litwack, Shira Kremer, Abigail Monteros, Chana Krupel, and Talia Bajtner packing socks for patients for Sharsheret)

Pictured above: freshmen Michal Belsh, Adi Gryka, Amalia Stosberg, Eliana Stolberg, and Mrs. Sharon Levine '88, ICJA parent and Illinois Program Coordinator, Sharsheret

Pictured above: sophomores Maya Kutliroff, Livia Baronofsky, Orli Appel, Talia Bielak, Dalia Cohen, and Orli Lubin making a blanket to be donated to homeless people

Pictured above: freshmen boys packing goods for the needy

Pictured above: juniors Ben Rosenburg, Aaron Katz, Zachary Fogel, and Macks Kroll learning

Pictured above: sophomores Yair Elbaz, Dov Kaiserman, Ayelet Klein, Eliana Frankel, Gratitude Generation Program Committee member Marnie Cohen, Levi Madoff, Nathan Rothner, Caleb Novick, Aryeh Lowenthal, and Ami Appel packing goods for the homeless

Pictured above: senior girls volunteering at Cradles to Crayons

Students heard incredible words of Emuna and encouragement from Rabbi Leo Dee.

On Monday, students started the week with a powerful presentation by Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife Lucy, Hy"d, and daughters Maia, Hy"d, and Rina Hy"d were murdered in a terrorist attack in April 2023.

Rabbi Dee spoke about his wife and daughters and explained how he has channeled his grief into educating others and helping bring about Jewish unity. He tied his own personal tragedy into the national tragedy of October 7, explaining that he's learned his own life has two parts, and he's now in his own post-tragedy "part two" of his life. Similarly, Rabbi Dee explained, after the terror attack of October 7 and the huge rise in antisemitism globally that followed it, the entire Jewish people are living in a new "part two," and urged us all to be connected to Israel and to live lives of meaning.

Pictured above: juniors Yaffa Hoberman and Devorah Kaplowitz with Rabbi Dee

Pictured above: juniors Michael Matveyev and Yoshi Bernstein, Rabbi Dee, sophomore Caleb Novick, and junior Daniel Allswang

Juniors took turns teaching their peers about forces acting on a given object.

Students in Mr. Allen Sears's Physics class have been working on creating Force Diagrams, illustrating and measuring the forces acting on a given object in different scenarios.

This week, students took turns discussing their Force Diagrams and explaining their work to their peers. Students got experience teaching and leading discussions about aspects of Physics in which they'd become expert.

Pictured above: juniors Caley Gordon and Leah Jacobs with their Force Diagrams illustrating an object being pulled by a force parallel to the surface which doesn't move, and an object being pulled up at a constant speed

Pictured above: juniors Mina Brandes, Adin Jones, and Michael Matveyev with their Force Diagrams illustrating forces on an object slowing due to friction and on an object that is suspended from the ceiling

Pictured above: junior Avi Rubin and senior Ami Czako with their Force Diagrams illustrating an object lying motionless and an object sliding at a constant speed

Can you use electric Shabbat candles? Students learned the science behind electric lights to find out.

Sophomores in Mrs. Kochava Yitzchak's Advanced Jewish Studies Program (AJSP) class are learning the halachot of lighting Shabbat candles and examined whether electric light can be used as a substitute for candlelight. To answer that, students studied the science behind how four different types of light bulbs work: halogen, incandescent, fluorescent, and LED.

Students read teshuvot (responsa) by Rabbi Hankin, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef about what types of electric lights qualify as a halachic candle. Students then discussed the possibility of using permisable types of candles in situations where open flames are prohibited, such as a hospital.

Pictured above: Rose Matatya with an LED light

Pictured above: Sophie Rine holding two incandescent light bulbs

Sophomores unscrambled sentences in Hebrew.

אני מאוד כ גדולה רוצה לאכול פיצה רעב. That scrambled sentence was the first of many Hebrew language puzzles that sophomores in Mrs. Shelley Stopek's Hebrew class worked on this week, decoding the meanings and unscrambling the sentences to make sense. It was a fun way to review vocabulary and practice speaking in Hebrew with one another.

Pictured above: Ryan Angus

Pictured above: Ayden Starck

Pictured above: Aryeh Lowenthal

ICJA Boys discussed personal growth.

Last Friday morning, ICJA welcomed Rabbi Meir Goldwicht, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University’s Mazer School of Talmudic Studies and Head of YU’s Stone Beit Medrash program. Following Shacharit, Rabbi Goldwicht gave an impromptu and very meaningful talk to ICJA boys about reaching one's potential and knowing that Hashem is always with us.

Sophomores and Juniors enjoyed a fabulous Fridayton last week!

Last Friday morning, 10th and 11th grade students left school after first period for a fun day of activities at Scene 75 Entertainment Center and at Activate.

Afterwards, students went home to get ready for Shabbat, then returned to school in time for Mincha, Kabbalat Shabbat, and Maariv. Students enjoyed a delicious Shabbat dinner, followed by learning and a spirited Oneg Shabbat.

Thank you to Student Activities Director Mrs. Alissa Zeffren for organizing the Fridayton, to our Mechanchim, and all our chaperones for making this one of ICJA's best Fridaytons yet.

Pictured above: students at Scene 75

Pictured above: sophomores Orli Lubin, Dalia Cohen, Maya Kutliroff, Sophie Rine, Ariana Needle

Pictured above: juniors Daniel Allswang, Josh Miller, Judah Well, and Aiden Rich

Students are practicing operations with complex numbers.

Students in Mr. Jason Paraskevopoulos's accelerated Pre-Calculus class are learning about the imaginary unit "i" and its properties and how to work with the "i" cycle.

This week, students practiced defining and operating with pure imaginary numbers and the complex numbers in standard form and solved Quadratic Equations that have complex solutions.

Pictured above: juniors Ami Gavant and Noam Hellman with Mr. Paraskevopoulos

Pictured above: juniors Avi Zayan and Jonah Strahlberg

Pictured above: senor Yakira Wittlin and sophomore Ayelet Klein

Freshmen and Sophomores in Rabbi Daniel Fox's Talmud class heard from an Israeli reservist.

Sophomores and Juniors in Rabbi Daniel Fox's Talmud class heard from a guest speaker this week: Sgt. Yigal Grayeff, the managing director of the Lenagen Bekef music school in Jerusalem, and a reservist who has served twice in Gaza during Operations Swords of Iron.

Mr. Grayeff described how his father fought with the British Army in Egypt during World War II, his brother fought in the Israeli Army during the Yom Kippur War, and described what it was like to fight in Gaza over the past year.

Freshmen and their relatives davened together last Sunday at the Heritage Russian Jewish Congregation.

Many Sunday mornings, ICJA's freshmen boys' rebbe, Rabbi Louis Fliegelman, arranges for students and their fathers (or grandfathers or other relatives) to meet at a different Chicago-area shul to daven Shacharit together and enjoy breakfast and learning.

Last Sunday, students davened together at the Heritage Russian Jewish Congregation. Afterwards they learned with Rabbi Eliezar Dimarsky, who shared an insightful history of Soviet Jewry, then enjoyed a sumptuous lox and bagels breakfast together. 



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

Over 110 families learned about ICJA Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday evening, over 110 prospective students and their families came to ICJA's Open House. Visitors met teachers, current students, parents, ICJA board members and other members of the ICJA community.

Prospective students engaged in meaningful shiurim with our Mechanchim, participated in short classes with ICJA teachers, then visited a Club Hub to learn about ICJA’s clubs, sports teams, and electives.

Thank you to Mrs. Suzy Nussbaum, Director of Admissions, our Student Ambassadors, Board members, our teachers and administrators, and the entire ICJA community for making the Open House a success.

We premiered our new ICJA Prospective Student video, "Oh the Places You'll Go," which can be viewed here and also at the end of this newsletter. Please share it with your family and friends.

Pictured above: our student panel answering questions about life at ICJA

Pictured above: sophomore Kinneret Finegold tells students about ICJA's Model UN club

Pictured above: Mrs. Chavee Gottlieb and Mr. Jonathan Keller demonstrating a model lesson

Pictured above: Art teacher Mrs. Julie Thomas answers questions about ICJA's Art program

Pictured above: Rabbi Menachem Rosenbaum delivering a shiur to students and parents

Pictured above: students and parents hearing about ICJA

ICJA is looking for a girls' assistant soccer coach.

ICJA is looking for a girls' varsity soccer assistant coach for the Spring season. This is a 3 day per week commitment. The season runs from the beginning of March thru mid-May. Anyone interested can also reach out to athletic director Brittany Peters at bpeters@icja.org.

Give-Get is available.

This week's learning dedications include:

Thursday, the 20 of Cheshvan, 5785, November 21, 2024, by Eric Rothner and family in loving memory of Gale Rothner, a”h, אביגיל גיטל בת פסח וחוה רבקה, in commemoration of her 3rd Yahrzeit

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 caught up with ICJA's popular English teacher and asked her a few questions about herself.

Students enjoy Mrs. Marsha Arons's high-octane English classes. This week we asked the popular ICJA teacher a few questions about herself.

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

I grew up in Washington DC. Now I live in Skokie with my husband Rick. Three of our children live here in Skokie with their families: Anna '97, Rachael '00, and Elliana '09. Our daughter Kayla ' '05 (and her husband David '06) live with their family in Jerusalem.

One of my grandsons is a freshman here now: Emmett Gelman '28!

How did you decide to go into teaching?

I didn't know I wanted to be a teacher at first. I was a writer. I wrote for magazines, for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, and wrote a book called Teen Miracles: Extraordinary Life-Changing Stories from Today's Teens.

One day in 2000 I was in Ida Crown making a video for ATT. I'd written the script and was producing the video. The late ICJA English teacher Charlotte Rosenwald, z"l, was my children's teacher at the time. She asked me to go into a classroom and teach the students grammar. You couldn't say no to Mrs. Rosenwald, so I did! Later that year, an English teacher left. Ms. Goldstein hired me to be an English teacher here.

What is something you love about ICJA?

I love ICJA for lots of reasons. I love the students. I love being a part of this community. I love it when I see light bulbs go off and when students love something that we're doing in class.

I learn a lot from my students. They're fun, joyful, and interested in good things. This is a good place, and in today's world, surrounding yourself with joyful people in a good place is really important.

Can you describe a favorite ICJA memory?

There are a lot! I love it when students come back after students graduated and tell me about something they learned in my class. I remember one year in one of my classes we'd got talking about comfort and the definition of home and we started talking about chicken soup and how it reminded us of home. Later that week, I made chicken soup in school and serving it to my class, then to lots of other people in the school. 

I also enjoyed throwing a Great Gatsby party in class: we filled champaign glasses with sparkling apple cider and dressed up. Another time, when we read Julius Caesar, we had a party with a Roman table filled with grapes and cheeses.

Do you have any hobbies? 

I’m trying to learn Hebrew. I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren. They range in age from 17 to two years old; it's fun to think of activities I can do with all of them. I also enjoy reading and playing piano (badly!).

Do you have any advice for students? 

Yes! Come to Ida Crown and be prepared to love Israel, to love learning, and to be prepared for any choices you want to make in the future.

I have four very different children and what they came away with from Ida Crown was different in each of their cases. ICJA prepared them each to be who they are now in lots of different ways: spiritually, emotionally, and educationally. They got a lot out of here.

Watch "Oh the Places You'll Go," 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!

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.

Dear NILI Community,

I am excited to announce the launch of the NILI Teens Leadership Fellows Program, a unique opportunity for high school girls to grow as leaders within the Jewish community. This program is designed to inspire and empower young women to discover their individual strengths, passions, and goals while building leadership skills to make a meaningful impact.

Program Highlights

• Fellows Application Now Open: All high school age girls are welcome to apply. 
• Selection Process: The inaugural cohort of Leadership Fellows will be selected by a NILI committee.
• Monthly Leadership Sessions: Fellows will meet once a month to learn together, develop leadership skills, hear from guest speakers, and create impact projects in the community.
• Certificate of Completion: In June, we will honor the cohort’s achievements with a special certificate celebration.

First Meeting: Sunday, December 1st

Application Deadline: November 20th

To apply, please click the button below.

I encourage all high school girls who are interested in this leadership opportunity to apply! 

Sincerely,

Alissa Zeffren

NILI Director 

Calling all 3^rd – 12^th grade students attending an ATT school! It’s time for the Pogrund Family Essay and Judaic Artwork Contests! Demonstrate your writing and/or art skills as you explore a Judaic topic. Winners receive a $50.00 check. Deadline for art/essay submission is Wednesday, January 15, 2025. FOR ESSAY/ARTWORK RULES AND GUIDELINES, visit www.att.org → For Students or call ATT at 773-973-2828 

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.