Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, October 4 - Erev Yom Kippur - no classes

• Wednesday, October 5 - Yom Kippur - no classes

• 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 in some of Mrs. Tanner's Hebrew classes gave new interpretations to כַּחֹֽמֶר בְּיַד הַיּוֹצֵר.

This week, students in Mrs. Tanner's junior and senior boys' Hebrew class and in her sophomore girls' Hebrew class examined the classic Yom Kippur piyut כַּחֹֽמֶר בְּיַד הַיּוֹצֵר. Working in pairs, students translated different verses of the prayer into modern Hebrew and explained why it inspired them to their peers - all in Hebrew. Students also created visual or musical interpretations of the verses they analyzed.

Pictured above: juniors Yonah Rubin and Joey Levy, who wrote and recorded an original version of the piyut and played it for the class

Pictured above: juniors Joseph Amrami and Joseph Rothner with the picture they made reflecting the metaphor that we are like silver in the hands of a silversmith on Yom Kippur

Pictured above: seniors Daniel Carl and Noah Strahlberg discussing the metaphor of being clay in the hands of a potter, and the video they created to illustrate this, which can be viewed here

Pictured above: juniors Yehoshua Zagorin and Hayden Gradstein discussing the metaphor of being cloth in the hands of a tailor - and the original guitar composition they created for the piyut, which can be heard here

Pictured above: sophomores Rachel Sommer and Simcha Seruya holding their picture illustrating the metaphor of being silver in the hands of a silversmith

Pictured above: sophomores Yardena Schayer and Rachel Freed holding their picture illustrating the metaphor of being clay held in the hands of a potter

On Thursday, students learned about ICJA's many clubs and signed up to participate.

With over 30 student clubs, there's something for every student at ICJA.  This week, during Club Hub, students had the chance to speak with club leaders and sign up to participate in various ICJA activities.

Pictured above: junior Gabriella Zipperstein signing up for a club

Pictured above: seniors Noah Strahlberg and Josh Kupietzky talking about ICJA's new Sports Analytics Club

Pictured above: seniors Andrew Bersson and Zachary Miller telling students about Student Council

Pictured above: sophomore Talia Linzer learning about Israel Advocacy Club from juniors Ayelet Appel and Noa Gavant

Pictured above: senior Hadassah Bernstein, representing The Crown Prints and also representing Yearbook, along with senior Emma Felix

Pictured above: freshmen Macks Kroll and Yair Bell learning about Earth Awareness Club from senior Yonatan Nudman

Students competed to identify grammar mistakes in a spirited game of "Kahoot!".

This week, students in Mrs. Hobbie's freshman English class reviewed grammar usage, competing against each other in a game of "Kahoot!" to identitfy various grammar mistakes in passages and explain what was wrong.

Pictured above: Penina Benjamin answering a question

Pictured above: Avi Rubin celebrating a victory

Pictured above: Aiden Rich and Nate Spiegel thinking of an answer

Pictured above: Esther Fretzin after a correct answer

Seudat shlishit and havdalah at Rabbi Fliegelman's home, followed by father-son Hatarat Nedarim at Congregation KINS in Chicago on Sunday.

Last Shabbat, some students in Rabbi Fliegelman's freshman boys' Talmud class walked to their teacher's house for an inspirational seudah shlishit filled with singing and divrei Torah, followed by Havdalah, led by Jesse Goldberg. 

The following day, Sunday, September 25, erev Rosh Hashana, some students and some fathers came together to daven at Congregation KINS and eat together after Shacharit.  In addition, fathers who attended performed Hatarat Nedarim (release of vows) for their sons, and the students who attended performed Hatarat Nedarim for the fathers.

Pictured above: Daniel Allswang, Ezra Netzky, Ori Lehrfield, Jesse Goldberg, Rabbi Fliegelman and Natan Rine

Pictured above: fathers performing Hatarit Nedarim students fathers

Pictured above: Aaron Katz and Mr. Lev Katz; Rabbi Bresler, assistant rabbi of KINS; Eli Gelb and Dr. Michael Gelb,; and Judah Well

Pictured above: students performing Hatarit Nedarim for fathers

Students went on a night-time post-Rosh Hashana run.

On Tuesday night, after Rosh Hashana concluded, members of ICJA's Running Aces went on a nighttime 4 mile run, burning off their Rosh Hashana mreals and preparing for Tzom Gedalia the following day.

Pictured above: sophomores Tali Weiss, Nina Ripstein and Dana Kalutsky

Joey Greenberg '20 is named a Cargill Global Scholar.

Yasher koach to ICJA alumnus Joey Greenberg ’20 on earning one of just 10 US spots in the Cargill Global Scholars Program (CGSP).

At ICJA, Joey served as Editor in Chief of the Yearbook, was a member of the Student Activities Board, Student Council and Israel Advocacy Club, played on ICJA’s baseball team, and was a member of the National Honor Society. He spent his gap year learning at Yeshiva Aish Gesher in Jerusalem, then enrolled at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying chemical and biomolecular engineering. As a CGSP scholar, Joey will have the opportunities to network with fellow global scholars worldwide, receive mentorship from Cargill employees, and attend Global Leadership Seminars around the world. 

“My long-term aspiration is to own a start-up working to make healthier genetically modified foods by pairing my chemical engineering background with my business acumen to offer meaningful solutions and impact the world,” he explains. 

This week we caught up with ICJA's art teacher,

Ms. Kathleen Kelly, and asked her a

few questions about herself.

ICJA students know Ms. Kathleen Kelly from her friendly presence in the art room and her enthusiastic encouragement of creativity. This week we asked Ms. Kelly a few questions about herself.

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

I grew up in Niles in an Irish Catholic family. My two brothers and I attended Catholic school K-12. In school, I was involved in set design and theater makeup: that was the beginning of my fostering my artistic creativity. Today, I live in Jefferson Park in Chicago with my two cats.

How did you decide to go into art education?

I became an artist through trial and error! I did my bachelor's and my master's degrees in Education at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. I was teaching at a high school in southern Illinois 31 years ago when I decided to make a change. I took a leave of absence, moved to Chicago, and started teaching part time at Ida Crown while I launched my own gift company, Kats by Kelly, which started as a series of vignettes of a black cat getting into mischief. I've been working at both ever since.

What do you love most about working at Ida Crown?

The kids! They give me energy and keep me young. I enjoy sharing in the creative process, and I love watching the "aha" moment when the light bulb goes off for students: that light bulb moment. 

Can you tell us about a favorite ICJA memory?

Years ago, in the old building, I asked students to take a one foot square and duplicate a 1 inch square piece from a photo. The photo was a picture of (violinist) Yitzhak Stern. We put it all together as a mural in the gym as an art installation. It was 8 feet by 6 feet and it looked like it just exploded off the wall - it was fantastic. 

Do you have any hobbies?

I have golfed all over the world. I'm also a landscape artist, and I teach adult watercolor classes at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago.  

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

Yes. One interesting fact is that my mom, Annette Rogers Kelly, won gold medals in 4x100 meter track field in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics.  

• 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)

• Binghamton University: Friday, September 30 at 12:30pm
• University of Michigan: Monday, October 3, at 12:30
• 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

Wednesday, the 3rd of Tishrei, 5783, September 28, 2022, by the Robinson, Nadav and Stein-Granek Families in loving memory of Rabbi Barry Robinson, z''l ('61) on his 4th yahrzeit on ב׳ Tishrei (2nd day of Rosh Hashanah)

Thursday, the 4th of Tishrei, 5783, September 29, 2022, by the Shpayher Family in loving memory of Rabbi Leib Shmuel Yager, z"l

ליב שמואל בן דוד on the occasion of his 3rd yahrzeit

Friday, the 5th of Tishrei, 5783, September 30, 2022, by the ICJA Class of 2003in loving memory of Howard Stein, 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.