Upcoming Events

• Monday, October 10 - Wednesday, October 19 - Sukkot break

• Thursday, October 20 - Classes resume

• Wednesday, October 26 - New Parent Orientation; Senior Parent Meeting; Simulated School Night - 4:30pm dismissal

• Thursday, November 16 - Prospective Students Open House

• Sunday, November 27 - ICJA Israel reunion, Jerusalem (click here for more information and to sign up)



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

This week, students finished a unit learning about the deeper meanings of Hilchot Shabbat.

This week, students in Mrs. Yitzhak's Advanced Jewish Studies Program (AJSP) concluded a months-long unit examining the deeper significance of the laws of Shabbat.  Each student chose a discussion about Shabbat in the Torah, and created a piece of art illustrating the aspects of Shabbat their their passage describes.

Pictured above in back row: Eliana Ebert, Simona Fridberg, Rachel Freed, Yardana Schayer, Kaela Nagel, Ariela Belak, Zehava Piltz, Rivka Weinstein, and Mrs. Yitzhak; in front row is Dana Kalutsky and Rachel Sommer

Pictured above: Zehava Piltz with her picture illustrating the fact that while Shabbat precludes some forms of connection (for instance, a cell phone), it leads to other, deeper forms of connection too

Pictured above: Simona Fridberg with her picture illustrating the similarities between the way Shabbat is described in the Torah and the way that marriage is described

On Monday, Rabbi Reuven Brand led a pre-Yom Kippur kumzitz in each grade in a special pop-up to help students prepare for the Day of Judgement.

Rabbi Brand, Rosh Kollel of the YU Torah MiTzion Kollel of Chicago, led a special pre-Yom Kippur kumzitz for each ICJA grade. Students sang and discussed the meaning of teshuva and shared their hopes for Yom Kippur.

Pictured above: Rabbi Brand leading a kumzitz with the senior class

Students planned the floorplans of houses.

This week, students in Dr. Brown's Architecture class discussed the way designers and renovators create scaled floor plans, then created their own house floor plans with both a one block to 6" scale and a one block to 6 foot scale.

Pictured above: senior Toibeh Sarah Gersten answering a question

Pictured above: seniors Adina Margolin and Yael Kolsky

Students and fathers davened at Yehuda Moshe and toured the shul's mikvah with our very Rabbi Gutstein.

Last Sunday, some students from Rabbi Fliegelman's 9th Grade boys' Talmud class and some of their fathers came together to daven Shacharit at Yehuda Moshe in Lincolnwood, where our very own Talmud teacher, Rabbi Joel Gutstein, is rabbi. After davening and breakfast, students toured Yehuda Moshe's mikva with Rabbi Gutstein.

Pictured above: Rabbi Fliegelman, Max Gorenstein, Mr. Joel Gorenstein, Josh Miller, Mr. David Miller, Avi Rubin, Dr. Robert Rubin, Aaron Katz, Mr. Lev Katz, Eli Gelb, Dr. Mike Gelb and Rabbi Gutstein

Pictured above: Rabbi Gutstein giving students a tour of Yahuda Moshe's mikva

After learning קֹהֶ֣לֶת with chavrutot, students then shared their learning with their classmates.

In Mrs. Gold's senior girls' Honors Navi class, students learned קֹהֶ֣לֶת (Ecclesiastes) with chavrutot, referencing Rashi, Ibn Ezra and the Metzudat David.  This week, they presented their learning - as well as beautiful sukkah decorations they made that were inspired by the perakim they studied.

Pictured above: Charli Ernstein, presenting perekim that she learned with Tehila Weiner, noting that "A lesson to learn from this perek is that happiness only comes from doing Avodat Hashem, not even just by having הוכמא because acquiring the true הוכמאthat teaches one how to possibly be happy in a world that is 'futile' and a 'pursuit of wind' can only be achieved through Avodat Hashem"

Pictured above: Kayla Kupietzky and Emma Felix, holding the sukkah decoration they made, which features a clock, reminding us not to waste time

Pictured above: Michal Bechhofer and Toibeh Sarah Gersten presenting the perekim they learned, noting in part that a life lesson is "We can't run away Hashem.  Hashem knows everything that we do and say, even everything that we think...  Therefore, we must be very careful about what we say and do."

Pictured above: some of the קֹהֶ֣לֶת-inspired sukkah decorations students made

Students learned what to look for in choosing Arba Minim with Rabbi Moshe Katz of CTN.

This week, students in Rabbi Yishai Broner's boys' Accelerated Talmud class met with Rabbi Moshe Katz, co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Torah Network, and learned what makes the various Arba Minim kosher.

What are the most popular car makes and colors in ICJA's parking lot?  Students graphed the answers.

Students in Dr. Catherine D'Anna's Math 4 class are studying statistics, and this week they made the most of the glorious fall weather to go out into the ICJA parking lot and practice summarizing and displaying categorical data by measuring the various car makes and colors there.  

(Interestingly, the most popular car makes were Honda and Toyota, each accounting for 22% of cars in ICJA's lot.  The most popular color was black, representing approximately 30% of all cars.)

Pictured above: seniors Zach Miller, Yitzi Schlesinger and Audrey Perlman in the parking lot about to record data

Pictured above: seniors Yitzi Schlesinger and Zach Miller with the graphs they are creating with their data

This week students debated arguments to

prosecute and defend Julius Caesar for treason

- and conducted trials in class.

In Ms. Sennett's Western Civilization History Class, freshmen have learned about the Roman Empire, and about Julius Caesar's efforts to consolidate power in the First Century CE.

Students debated arguments for the prosecution and defense, then put Julis Caesar on trial for treason against the Roman Republic in class.

Pictured above: Macks Kroll and Aaron Katz

Pictured above: Jack Marshall and Jonah Strahlberg

This week we caught up with ICJA's Navi and Chumash teacher and Mechanechet Mrs. Alise Gold and asked her a few questions about herself.

ICJA students know Mrs. Alise Gold as a popular Navi and Chumash teacher, a faculty advisor for the Ida Crown Girls' Club, and Mechanechet.  This week we asked Mrs. Gold a few questions about herself.  

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Northbrook. Now I live in West Rogers Park with my husband and five kids. My husband Rabbi Yoni Gold, works for the ATT in the professional development and data department. My kids’ names are Ayelet (11), Nachi (9), Moshe (7), Noam (5) and Tzipora (2 ½).

How did you decide to go into teaching?

My teachers at Ida Crown inspired me to become a teacher. I saw the passion they had for teaching and had never seen that kind of passion before and I wanted to be able to give the gifts they gave to me to other students. After attending Stern College for Women I taught at the Moriah School in Englewood NJ and then at Akiba Schechter in Hyde Park for eight years after we moved back to Chicago. 

What do you love best about teaching at ICJA?

I love that I still get to learn every day both from preparing and also from the students.

What’s a favorite ICJA memory?

I have really positive memories of all the Shabbatonim and Retreats from when I was a student here. As an adult I really love the ICGC programming.

Do you have any hobbies?

I like running and spending time with my family.

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

For the past six years, I’ve also worked for NCSY as the educational director for Jewish Family Experience, which is a Sunday School for families who live in the North Shore. In addition to this role, I get to go to Israel as a leader of Momentum trips, which take Chicagoland Jewish moms on a one-week trip to Israel. It’s been called “TJJ for Moms.” 

• Migdal Hatorah: Friday, November 1 at 12:00pm (Skip 5/6)
• Reisheit: Thursday, November 3 at 12:30pm
• Bar Ilan: Monday, November 7 during 5th period (11:45am)
• Netziv Aryeh: Thursday, November 10 during Breakfast (8:45am)
• Atzmona Otzem: Tuesday, November 15 during Breakfast (8:30am)
• Lev Hatorah: Tuesday, November 15 during 5th period (11:11am)
• TVA: Friday, November 18 at Breakfast (8:35am)

• Rutgers University: Thursday, October 20
• Mr. Robert Friedman, Director of Student Finance at Yeshiva University, will present "Financing Post-Secondary Education" Thursday, October 20, 7:30pm at ICJA in room 401.
• Princeton University: Friday, October 21 at 11:50am

Thursday, the 11th of Tishrei, 5783, October 6, 2022, by The ICJA Classes of 1983, 1984 and 1985, in memory of Dodi Fishman Tobin , 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.

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.