Upcoming Events

• 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

Boys enjoyed a barbecue lunch on Thursday.

On Thursday, juniors Meir Zayan, Daniel Wolper, and Avi Chen (pictured above) barbecued a gala feast for the entire Ida Crown Boys' Club (ICBC). Freshmen, sophomore and junior boys enjoyed chicken wings and hot dogs during 5th and 6th periods.,

Thank you to Meir, Daniel, and Avi, and the Mechanchim, for making this boys' event so special.

Pictured above: junior Aidan Zukerman with Rabbi Menachem Rosenbaum

Pictured above: junior Gabe Aberman and sophomore Yoshi Bernstein

Pictured above: freshmen Jacob Ackerman, Hillel Lennon, and Aryeh Lowenthal

Students finished essays answering a challenging moral question.

Freshmen in Mrs. Hobbie's English class read The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal, which explores the question of whether or not Mr. Wiesenthal was correct in not telling a Nazi who was experiencing regret that he forgave him. This week, students finished their essays on this difficult moral question, offering their own opinions about how they believe they would have behaved in this situation.

Pictured above: Matar Chill and Levi Madoff

Pictured above: Mia Saltzman and Ilya Friedman

Pictured above: Gabriel Nudman

Sophomores enjoyed an end of the year breakfast with Rabbi Segal's famous barbeque.

Sophomores in Rabbi Binyomin Segal's Navi class enjoyed an end of the year barbeque breakfast this week. Students enjoyed steak, salami, hotdogs - and divrei Torah.

Pictured above: Ben Rosenburg with Rabbi Segal

Pictured above: students enjoying breakfast

Pictured above: Aiden Rich and Jack Marshall

Juniors analyzed data from Great America.

Juniors in Mr. Allen Sears's Physics class spent this week analyzing the data they collected at last week's Physics Day at Great America. Students used height and speed measurements to calculate force and acceleration on roller coasters and other rides.

Pictured above: Allie Stein and Shei Beiles

Pictured above: Meital Wittlin and Yardana Schayer

Students engaged in a "Socratic Seminar" at the end of their unit on Othello.

Sophomores in Mrs. Michelle Prince's English class recently finished reading Othello. This week they prepared for and engaged in a wide-ranging "Socratic Seminar" discussion.

Students used quotes from the play to buttress their opinions on topics including Othello's evolution, ways in which jealousy and trust drive the actions of the main characters, the role race and discrimination play in driving the plot, how themes of honesty and deception manifest in the play, and more.

Students enjoyed a delicious hands-on review of when to say Hamotzi and when to say Mizonot over pizza.

Freshmen in Rabbi Kobi Greenfield's Talmud class have been learning Masechet Brachot. Last week they learned a sugya concerning the definition of "pas haba bkisnin," different types of pastries that don't typically require a Hamotzi bracha.

This week, students put their learning into action, eating pizza and discussing (and making) the appropriate blessing on it.

Pictured above: Megill Hameiri, Yair Elbaz, and William Moscovitch

Pictured above: Noah Ehrlich and Matar Chill

Students showed and explained chemistry experiments to their Keshet peers.

This week, students in Mr. Jonathan Keller's AP Chemistry class illustrated a few different chemistry experiments to their Keshet peers, then helped Keshet students to recreate the experiments themselves.

Pictured above: juniors Ami Czako and Ami Weiss illustrate chemicals that change color from green to red when exposed to the air

Pictured above: juniors Ella Kakon and Simona Fridberg illustrate markers whose ink separates into different colors when exposed to water

Pictured above: junior Maytal Needle illustrating "invisible ink" that becomes visible when exposed to a base such as a baking powder solution

Students reviewed each perek of Sefer Shoftim by writing and creating memes.

Freshmen in Mrs. Beth Pogonitz's honors Nach class reviewed Sefer Shoftim before their final by creating a Memefest. Students wrote a paragraph about each perek in Sefer Shoftim, describing the major events in that perek, then created memes representing one of those events.

Pictured above: a paragraph and meme created by Levi Madoff and Jacob Thomas

Pictured above: paragraph and meme created by Hillel Lennon and Ayden Starck

Pictured above: the paragraph and meme created by Matar Chill and Caleb Novick

Students enjoyed the final Shabbos Shteig of the year.

Last Friday, ICGC Inspo, led by juniors Ella Kakon and Rachel Sommer, ran the last Shabbos Shteig of the year. Freshmen, sophomore, and junior girls joined together in the cafeteria to create edible bonfires (pictured here) in honor of Lag Ba'Omer the following Sunday, hear a dvar Torah from Rachel Sommer about Sefirat HaOmer, and eat chulent and potato kugel (the latter thanks to the Kugel Club). They then gathered outside in the warm weather for a beautiful kumsitz.

We can't wait for the Shabbos Shteig program to continue next year iy"H!

Freshmen girls baked cookies and made cards to show their appreciation.

On Thursday, freshmen girls had their final all-class social and emotional growth activity of the year, and invited their Keshet peers to join them.

Students created beautiful cards and baked different kinds of cookies, then made gift packages and delivered them to people they wish to thank. Students delivered some gifts to the Skokie Fire Department next door to our school and gave other gifts to staff inside ICJA to thank them for their hard work.

(Pictured above: Goldie Boyarskiy and Kinneret Finegold delivering cookies to Administrative Assistant Gabi Bledsoe)

Pictured above: Ilya Friedman and Evie Weiss

Pictured above: freshmen girls with Keshet peers

Pictured above: students preparing to start baking

Students enjoyed a "Great Gatsby" party as they discussed the book.

On Thursday, juniors in Mrs. Marsha Arons's English class continued their discussions about The Great Gatsby, and did so as the Gatsbys did, with 1920s music, costumes - plus nonalcoholic sparkling grape juice.

Pictured above: Rachel Freed with Mrs. Arons

Pictured above: Aidan Zukerman and Jacob Friedman

Pictured above: Yitzchak Bock with Mrs. Arons

This week's learning dedications include

Friday, the 23rd of Iyar, 5784, May 31, 2024, by Ashira (Rapoport) and Rabbi Joe Ozarowski, Gitelle Rapoport and Gershom Szydlowski, and Chaya (Rapoport) Schwartz, in loving memory of Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Rapoport, z"l, beloved ICJA Principal of 35 Years, in commemoration of his 21st yahrzeit

on the 2nd day of Sivan

Thursday, the 22nd of Iyar, 5784, May 30, 2024, by the Masliansky family in commemoration of the 23rd Yahrzeit of our dear father, grandfather, and great- grandfather, Joseph Masliansky, Yosef Ben Aharon יוסף בן אהרן

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.