Upcoming Events

• Tuesay, November 8 - Seminary Fair

• Thursday, November 10 - YU Maccabees Basketbal Team @ ICJA

• Friday, November 11 - End of First Quarter

• Friday, November 11 - Sophomore-Junior Fridayton (see flyer below for more information; click here to sign up)

• Thursday, November 16 - Prospective Students Open House (see flyer below for more information; click here to register)

• Sunday, November 13 - Parent Teacher Conferences

• Sunday, November 27 - ICJA Israel reunion, Jerusalem (see flyer below fore more information; click here to sign up)

• Monday, November 28 - Junior Family College Orientation Meeting



• Friday, December 2 - Saturday, December 3 - Senior Shabbaton

On a sunny Tuesday morning,

students played Bubbleball outside.

November got off to a great start: On Tuesday, November 1, students enjoyed a fun pop-up, playing Bubble Ball (also known as Bubble Soccer). Each grade spent a morning period competing against their friends in boys' and girls' games and enjoying the warm day.

Pictured above: sophomore Jacob Friedman

Pictured above: sophomore Zehava Piltz

After learning Yona, students discussed

personal ways of connecting with Hashem.

In Mrs. Ayala Zimmerman's freshman boys' Navi (Prophets) class, after learning Sefer Yonah, students wrote reflection papers about ways that they personally feel connected to Hashem. This week, they created props to illustrate their papers and explain to their classmates how they envision their relationship with the Divine.

Pictured above: Jesse Goldberg with a pen and ink drawing he created illustrating his work volunteering at food banks - "When I volunteer it's like Hashem is there in spirit," he described

Pictured above: Avi Rubin, Ezra Mauer and Jonah Strahlberg with a highly detailed model of a shul they built out of Legos, explaining that they feel close to Hashem when they daven

Pictured above: Hillel Wokenfeld with a picture of a person enjoying being outside, describing that one way he connects with Hashem is through appreciating the natural world which He created

Pictured above: Aaron Koenig with a montage of basketball pictures, explaining that basketball is an effective analogy  for our relationship with Hashem, as we work to adjust our trafjectory to be as straight and directed as we can make it

Juniors in Mr. Allen Sears' Physics class calculated the kinematics of accelerating objects; students in AP Physics performed a lab showing Newtown's 2nd Law.

In Physics this week, juniors in Mr. Sears' 11th grade class received graphs reflecting the acceleration of four different objects. After breaking into small groups to analyze the data, students used kinematics, a branch of mathematics that measures motion, to determine the objects' acceleration.

Students in Mr. Sears' AP Physics performed a classic lab this week that develops Newton’s second law, plotting data to find relationships between acceleration, mass, and force.

Pictured above: 11th grade Physics students Josh Mishie, Moshe Wiesenberg, Yehoshua Zagorin and Aviva Dallal

Pictured above: AP Physics students Caleb Gutstein and Menachem Reed

Last Friday, some freshman boys and some fathers davened Shacharit at a lakeside Vatikin minyan.

On Friday, October 28, over 40 freshman boys and their fathers gathered at Burnham Shores Park in Evanston at 7am to daven Shacharit (the morning service) at sunrise. Before gathering, the boys collected names of people in need of a mishaberach; the group included them in their davening.

Students in Mrs. Arons' English lasses honed their speaking skills this week.

Students in Mrs. Marsha Arons' sophomore honors English class have been reading Sophocles' Antigone. Last week, students divided into small groups to practice acting out portions of the play, and this week students performed for their classmates, acting out scenes together.

In Mrs. Arons' juniors honors English class, students have been reading and discussing The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This week, students divided into small groups to discuss themes in the book, then presented their thoughts to their classmates, sparking lively classroom discussions.

Pictured above: sophomores Ami Czako and Ami Weiss acting out a scene from Antigone

Pictured above: juniors Gabe Klein and Benjamin Baronofsky discussing sexism in The Bean Trees, a presentation that led to a wider discussion about sexism, prejudice and anti-Semitism in

The Mathletes Aces racked up victories

Wednesday night as they hosted a 5-schools meet.

ICJA hosted a Loyola Academy, Woodland Academy, Maine West High School and Warren Township High School on Wednesday night for a Mathletes tournament. Team members competed in grade-specific competitions. Sophomore Levi Polsky represented ICJA in the orals competition. The evening ended with a fun bonus "candy bar" round.

The Aces took 1st place in the seniors' and juniors' categories, and won 2nd pace overall in the tournament, edging out Maine West and Warren Township.

Pictured above: sophomore Avner Frazin, senior Gideon Miller, juniors Dory Marshall and Aidan Novick, and seniors Toibeh Sarah Gersten and Nechama Tarshish show off their 1st place ribbons

Pictured above: ICJA Math Department Chair Mrs. Stephanie Pederson announcing the results

Students analyzed the text of the Declaration of Independence through a unique musical lens.

This week, students in AP US History listened to a version of the song Too Late to Apologize that was adapted to reflect the relations between the United States and Britain in the 1770s. Students then broke into small groups to analyze the words of the song alongside the text of the US Declaration of Independence. "I want them to be thinking of the Declaration of Independence and the reasons behind" its creation, Mr. Cooper explained.

Pictured above: juniors Adam Katz, Gabriella Zipperstin, Yaakov Holman and Ayelet Appel

Pictured above: juniors Joey Levy, Jed Marcus and Hayden Gradstein

Pictured above: juniors Noa Gavant, Ilana Schwartz, Jacob Friedman, Dory Marshall and Uri Kolom

Pictured above: Rotem Lavi, Jordana Zwelling, Sam Gorenstein, Taly Benzaquen and Yonah Rubin

Last Sunday, ICJA students analyzed data

with a mentor from Fermilab.

Each year, with the guidance of ICJA Physics teacher Mr. Allen Sears, some ICJA students participate in advanced physics research in collaboration with other schools and Quarknet, which is a collaboration between the National Science Foundation, Fermilab and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Last year, ICJA students built sensors in ICJA Physics classroom to detect muons (a type of charged subatomic particle). This year, students will use the sensors to measure differentials in muon strength during lunar eclipses. It's known as the Moonshadow experiment.

Last Sunday, October 29, ICJA students went to Rochelle Zell High School in Deerfield and liaised with students from there and from New Trier, talking about preliminary data analysis. They were joined by a mentor from Fermilab.

Israel Advocacy Club had its kick-off meeting this week.

On Thursday morning, November 3, the Israel Advocacy Club held its first meeting of the year. Over 40 students from all four grades attended, receiving an update about Israel's recent election from juniors Milo Benmelech and Benjamin Baronofsky.

After the briefing, seniors Hadassah Bernstein and Kayla Kupietzky and juniors Noa Gavant, Jordana Zwelling and Ayelet Appel announced the club's upcoming lobbying program in which will students will write to their elected officials about Israel-related issues.

After 14 years coaching ICJA's winning Cross Country team, Coach Ezra Jaffe is retiring this year.

We asked him a few questions about himself.

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

I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland. I attended Jewish days school for k-8 and then switched to a prep school, University School. My wife and I have three children who all attended ICJA and all ran cross country, too. We live in Skokie. I’m a Senior Vice President at Wintrust. 

How did you become interested in running?

I started running for fitness around 2000; I started slow then moved to racing. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2002, the Racine Half Ironman in 2008, and ran up the stairs of the Willis Tower in 2013. 

How did you become ICJA’s cross country coach?

Four ICJA students, including my daughter Aliza, had the idea to start the team in 2008. Elissa Weisberg and I agreed to coach. 

What do you love best about ICJA?

ICJA sports of course! They round you out, teach you teamwork, and test your commitment. I’m good friends with many of the current and past coaches including Ray Asher, Howard Braun, Steven Greenberg and Doug Klein who has been my running partner for the last 19 years. 

Can you tell us about a favorite ICJA memory?

Sweeping the Conference Championship in 2018 was great, taking first place in the Boys and Girls Varsity and Open races. But every season, a runner who may not have had an athletic background discovers that they can become a runner. That’s great to see. 

Is there anything most people don’t know about you that you’d like to share?

My 2 grandsons don’t call me Grandpa or Zeyde. They call me Coach. 

Click here to watch Coach Jaffe's end-of-season video about the 2022-3 Cross Country season.

• Bar Ilan - November 7, 5th period
• Eretz Hatzvi - November 9, breakfast
• Netziv Aryeh - November 10, breakfast
• Lev Hatorah - November 15, 5th period
• Atzmona Otzem - November 15, breakfast
• Orayta - November 16, 5th/6th periods
• Derech Eitz Chaim - November 16, breakfast
• TVA - November 18, breakfast
• Mevaseret - November 28, 5th/6th periods
• Shaalvim - December 7, 5th/6th periods
• Hakotel - December 12th, 5th/6th periods
• Mechina Keshet Yehuda - December 14, breakfast

Thursday, the 9th of Cheshvan, 5783, November 3, 2022, by the Yellin family in memory of Judy Yellin, z''l, יהודית מאשה בת אליעזר וחוה ילין, on her 28th yahrzeit

Wednesday, the 8th of Cheshvan, 5783, November 2, 2022, by the Rothner family in memory of Joseph Kirschner z”l on his 18th yahrzeit

Tuesday, the 7th of Cheshvan, 5783, November 1, 2022, by the Rothner family in memory of Sidney Kirschner z”l



For more information or to sponsor a day of learning, please contact our Director of Development, Deva Zwelling, at (773) 973-1450 ext. 115, or dzwelling@icja.org.

Be sure to pick up your updated ICJA Learning Commons passwords to access books and journals online!

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.

Charlotte's Web is funded by a grant from The Susan and Joseph Ament Fund.

Student Internship Opportunities

The YU Torah Mitzion Kollel is looking to hire 2 interns: one to help with program logistics and general office work and one for technology.

Program Logistics Intern

Responsibilities include: grocery shopping for events, ordering food for events, and stuffing envelopes for mailings. The work will be on an as needed basis, generally requiring no more than 2 hours on any given week.

Intern will report directly to the Director of Operations, who will meet with the intern periodically to explain assignments.  

Intern must have access to a vehicle.

Technology intern

Responsibilities include: Editing Audio and video clips, uploading media to Youtube and Podcasts, possibly some data entry. This position will include approximately 1 hour of tasks per week.

Intern will report directly to the Director of Operations, who will meet with the intern periodically to explain assignments.  

Familiarity with any form of editing software a plus but not required.

For more information or to apply, please contact Tracy Schultz, Director of Operations, admin@torahchicago.org

Last summer, ICJA gave its Class of '22 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.