ICJA's COVID protocols will be updated Monday, February 14, 2022) To view current school protocols - Click here

After watching Israeli Master Chef in Hebrew, students in Rabbi Kurtz's Senior Girls Honors Hebrew class and in his combined 11th and 12th grade boys Hebrew class held their own Master Chef competition on Wednesday, February 9.

Pictured above: Hannah Stein, Sarah Friedman and Tamira Halpert with the sesame noodles they prepared

Pictured above right: Hannah Stein cooking sauce

Pictured right: Shiri Kolom and Carly Sorscher with their 1st Place winning homemade pita and homemade humus

Pictured below: Abby Aberman

Pictured below right: Laura Bellows

Later on, it was the boys turn as the juniors and seniors in Rabbi Kurtz's combined Juniors and Seniors Boys Honors Hebrew class held their own Master Chef. While the girls' contest featured parve food, the boys prepared chicken dishes.

Pictured below left: Junior Hersch Linzer

Pictured below right: Seniors Gabe Burstyn and Gavriel Engel served as judges for the boys' Master Chef.

Pictured right: Juniors Charlie Singer and Hersch Linzer with the chicken they're cooking.

Pictured below: Junior Ben Boyarskiy putting his chicken entry into the oven

Pictured below right: Junior Ori Wasserman with the freshly squeezed orange juice he used for his chicken recipe

This week, ICJA added its 6th - and newest - morning minyan, a Sephardic minyan led by Rabbi Talmud and Tanach teacher Rabbi Netanel Isaacs.

The ICJA Sephardic minyan will meet once a week IY"H.

At this week's inaugural minyan, on Tuesday, February 8, visitors noticed that the atmosphere was very special and there was no talking.

Afterwards, students enjoyed a doughnut breakfast together.

What time is school out? What drinks are served in the cafeteria? Tell us about the dress code.

These were some of the many questions that ICJA teachers and students answered this week. when the 8th grade from Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School in Skokie took a field trip to spend time in ICJA on Thursday, February 10.

ICJA seniors led small groups of visitors on tours of our building. The 8th graders then assembled in the gym where they enjoyed a schnitzel lunch.

Mechanchim Rabbi Yoni Fox and Mrs. Alise Gold led a meaningful learning program: 8th graders learned various p'sukim related to new starts, then made posters describing how their p'sukim related to the idea of embarking on a new school in high school.

The visit concluded with two Q&A sessions, first with Rabbi Matanky and then with a panel of ICJA 9th grade students who attended Hillel Torah.

Yasher koach and thank you to the many people in our ICJA family who made this visit a success: Mrs. Suzy Nussbaum, Director of Admissions, Rabbi Fox, Mrs. Gold, and all our students who volunteered to lead tours and answer questions.

Pictured left: Senior Hannah Rothner leading a tour.

Pictured right: Senior Leora Lakser leading a tour.

Below left: Rabbi Matanky's Q&A

Below right: Rabbi Fox during the learning project

Last Shabbat, the ICJA wrestling team held their annual Shabbaton in a Schiller Park hotel. Fifteen years ago, the Illinois regional championships moved from Saturday morning to Motzei Shabbat so that the Aces could participate.

The Aces hold an annual Shabbaton - complete with a Sefer Torah - so that they can be present at the meet immediately after Havdalah.

The team conducted a spirited Carleback davening Friday evening, then enjoyed a dinner of salad and pasta. On Shabbat morning, the team divided up k'riah and leading davening.

After last year's tournament was cancelled dur to Covid, this year's saw some Aces victories. Senior Captain Aryeh Schwartz won three matches in his class and took the bronze medal.

Juniors Menachem Reed and Philip Maiman finished in fourth place in their categories. The Aces finished 9th overall in the team standings.

Pictured above: Senior Captain Aryeh Schwartz on the podium

Pictured below: Shabbat food heating on a blech in the hotel kitchenette; a well-stocked hotel refrigerator; Sophomore Ari Klein and Junior Adi Seruya returning the Sefer Torah to school after the Shabbaton

Each Wednesday morning, students in Rabbi Fox's (Honors) and Rabbi Broner's (Accelerated) Boys Talmud classes come together to learn Mashechet Rosh Hashana.

Pictured left: Ezra Jacobs, Matthew Schreiber and Ethan Comrov

Pictured below: Gabe Burstyn, Amitai Kakon, Aron Gottlieb and Jonathan Thomas.

Their group also meet every Thursday evening to continue learning Masechet Rosh Hashana together.

Above right: senior David Gaffen shared his idea for a coin counter: his invention would ask students to enter a specific amount in coins then light up when the correct coins were dropped in, helping students master addition skills and aid in learning to identify coins.

Pictured above left: senior Aron Gottlieb described a modified jar opener.

Pictured above right: Aytan Czako described his idea for a Keyboard Tapper, a keyboard that would illuminate the next letter in a given word, and which could also be connected to speakers for audio instructions.

Pictured right: Charles Moscovitch presented his idea for "The Duck Project," which would enable students to press a picture of an animal to hear that animal's sound, thereby soothing anxiety.

"Mrs. Miller explained the entire tahara process, told us about the changes that occurred during the early days of the pandemic, and answered all of the students' questions in great detail. At the end of the visit, students were left impressed by the beauty of Judaism's care for the deceased and reassured by the focus on dignity and respect." - Mrs. Friedman

On Sunday morning, February 6, 2022, some of the students in Rabbi Fliegelman's Freshman boys Talmud class, along with their relatives, gathered at Kehilat Chovevei Tzion in Skokie.

They davened Shacharit and share insights of Torah learning that they learned in their classroom.

Pictured: Aaron Hartman with his father Mark Harman, Ami Weiss with his father Jonathan Weiss (ICJA '94), and Ezra Comrov and his father Aaron Comrov (ICJA '94).

What would you put in a time capsule? Students in Mrs. Stopek's Freshman Girls' Honors Hebrew class this week explained what they would place in קפסולת זמן - time capsules.

All the presentations were entirely in Hebrew, and students took notes on their classmates' presentations - again, entirely in Hebrew.

Pictured left: Talia Linzer showing her time capsule container. Among the items she chose to place in her capsule were a face mask (to remind people in the future of Covid-19), a picture of beef (because meat in the future might be artificially produced), pencils (because people in the future might only write on keyboards) and a sticker that reads "Thank You Hashem".

Pictured right: Nava Dreytser holds up an item from her time capsule. Some of the items she discussed included a contemporary map of the world, a Tanach, bracelets from Camp Stone, and a Hebrew name necklace from her bat mitzvah.

Pictured below: Hadar Simkovich taking notes in Hebrew.

How would Avimelech apologize to Avraham Avinu today? Students in Rabbi Rosenbaum's Senior Boys Bible class created videos of Avimelech apologizing today.

"It's not supposed to be a real apology," Aytan Czako noted, observing that in the Torah, Avimelech's apology to Avraham is flawed. In the video that Aytan helped create along with Abi Rine, Jonah Matanky, and Elad Murasso, Avimelech delivers his apology to Avraham entirely on video, "not even face to face."

Tal Damelin explained that the video he and Hershel Thomas created also stressed Avimelech's flaws: "Avraham still forgave him, even though it was a really bad apology."

Pictured above: Tal Damelin and Hershel Thomas.

Pictured right: Aytan Czako, Elad Murasso and Jonah Matanky

Students in Mrs. Wasserstrom's Match 3AC class were in for a surprise this week: her annual telling of a fairy tale about lovely peasant girl named Wilma and the local monarch, King Fred. Wilma loved dancing and the sound of her music and footwork drew the king to her humble abode. After teaching the king to dance, Wilma and Fred married.

They used to dance together every week: the only problem was Fred used to step on Wilma's toe. Every week after dancing, Wilma would have to go a local pond and SohCahToa. The story's punchline got a lot of laughs.

(SohCahToa is an acronym for Sine, Cosine and Tangent, used in trigonometry.)

Students acted out key scene from Julius Caesar.

Students discussed and acted out scenes from Julius Caesar this week in Mrs. Arons's Junior English Class.

Above: Rina Yahav, Zach Goldberg, Charli Ernstein and Charlie Singer explain the motivations in Act 2, Scene 1, when Brutus, Cassius, Lucius and Caius discuss killing Caesar - and also debate whether or not to kill Mark Antony as well.

Charlie Singer (as Brutus) argued against killing Antony: "For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. - Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius."

Rabbi Zvi Engel of Congregation Or Torah in Skokie continued his weekly lunch and learn shiur on Tuesday, February 8.

Students enjoyed complimentary pizza and French fries, as well as a spirited discussion about the parsha, including talking about Moshe Rabbenu's role in Jewish theology.

Pictured left: Rabbi Engel with sophomores Yitzchak Mishkin and Ben-Tzion Rine.

Pictured above right: sophomore Yitzchak Mishkin making a point during the shiur.

Rabbi Engel's weekly lunch and learn takes place each Tuesday during 6th Period in Room 419. All students are welcome.

On Tuesday night, February 8, ICJA's girls JV basketball team finished their season with a conference championship victory over Hope Academy 35-31. Yaasher Kochachen to all the team on a great season!

Wednesday night, February 9, the Varsity Lady Aces played for 3^rd place in the conference tournament. The team got off to a great start and never look back and won the game 51-26 to take 3^rd place. Sophomore Ilana Schwartz and Senior Shiri Kolom were named to the All-Conference team.

Now the team is getting ready for the state tournament which begins next Tuesday night. The team is the top seed in our region. Come cheer on the Aces and they look to win a regional championship!

Sophomore Dina Osgood (on right)

Freshman Rivka Weinstein (on right)

On Tuesday, February 8, ICJA fencers competed in their second meet of the year, squaring off against Deerfield / Highland Park. ICJA won in two categories out of three.

Senior Eliyahu Malkin (on left)

Sophomore Ben-Tzion Rine (on right)

This past Winter beak, the vocabulary building website Membean issued a challenge to students: take a photo that illustrates a vocabulary word from Membean, a vocabulary-building website, and enter it into Membean's annual photography contest. (To see the winning photos, click here.)

Junior Adina Margolin's photo - illustrating "apex" - was a winner, garnering a prize for her entire English class. Yasher Koach!

When ICJA's Mathletes team met on Tuesday night, February 8, they made history: Sophomore Aiden Novick scored the first ever perfect paper in ICJA Mathletes history.

Even though he's only a sophomore, Aiden competed in the junior-level competition - and scored a perfect "5". "We've had some papers that were close to 5s before, but we never got a 5 before" - Mathletes faculty sponsor Mrs. Stephanie Pederson

ICJA's Mathletes currently are ranked 3rd in our division overall and 3rd in the Orals competition. The next Mathletes meet is scheduled for March 10.

Pictured: Sophomores Aiden Novick and Dori Marshall consulting with Mrs. Pederson after the meet

(Student to Student is always looking for more presenters, including from other high schools. If you know of anyone who might like to take part, please forward them the Student to Application, available here.)

Monday, February 14, 2022 - Boys' JV Basketball Conference Tournament at Rochelle Zell (time TBD)

Monday, February 14, 2022 - Boys' Varsity Basketball Conference Tournament at Hope Academy (time TBD)

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - Boys' JV Basketball Conference Tournament at Rochelle Zell (time TBD)

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - Boys' Varsity Basketball Conference Tournament at Hope Academy (time TBD)

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - Girls' Varsity Basketball IHSA Regional Semifinals at Wolcott Prep 6pm

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - Boys' JV Basketball Conference Tournament at Rochelle Zell (time TBD)

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - Boys' Varsity Basketball Conference Tournament at Hope Academy (time TBD)

Thursday, February 17, 2022 - Girls' Varsity Basketball IHSA Regional Semifinals at Wolcott Prep 7:30pm

This will be my 18^th year at ICJA. - Chai! I most love empowering students to be able to find and evaluate information on whatever they are learning or curious about.

Yes! Students can read many popular magazines such as The Week, Wired, The Atlantic, Discover and more through the Flipster interface on our website. They can also use it to access reference works such as Encyclopedia Britannica and Encyclopedia Judaica online and to read academic articles.

Flipster can be accessed through the ICJA website (access is under "Learning Commons") or directly at Home - Learning Commons - LibGuides at Ida Crown Jewish Academy (http://icja.libguides.com/home)

Students will need passwords to access the many secular and Judaic resources they find there, including databases, journals and encyclopedia. Please stop by the resource desk in the Library Commons to pick up a sheet of paper with all the IDs and passwords.

If any student has questions about using this resource, please stop by my desk and I will help explain how. I can also be reached via email at librarian@icja.org.

Purim is less than five weeks away! ICJA is running a school-wide contest to create new school Purim card. The winning design will be featured in postcards that will be available for purchase to send to friends for Purim this year.

Please send your submissions to Dr. Yvette Miller, Director of Communications or drop off a hard copy in Dr. Miller's office. The deadline is February 16, 2022.

Wednesday, the 8th of Adar 1, February 9, 2022, by the Rosenblum, Kirshenbaum, Bokor, and Garfinkel families, in memory of Rabbi Dov Ber Rosenblum, z"l, to commemorate his 28th yahrzeit.

Friday, the 10th of Adar 1, February 11, 2022, by Dan and Debbie Eisenstein and family, in honor of the birth of a new baby girl, Nava Bracha, to David (ICJA '08) and Kayleigh Eisenstein.

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.

Over Chanukah, ICJA gave its Class of '21 alumni a Chanukah gift: a brand-new directory that lists ICJA alumni who live in Israel and have graciously offered to open their homes to recent ICJA '21 grads who are currently spending a gap year in Israel this year.

The directory was sent out to the emails of '21 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.

There’s still time to express yourself!

Enter the Pogrund Family Essay and Judaic Artwork Contests!

Thank you to the Ralla Klepak Foundation for Education in the Performing Arts for making this production possible. For more information visit: https://yachadnewsies.brownpapertickets.com/ or contact Lori Cooper at Cooperl@ou.org.

Win-win! You can support Ida Crown Jewish Academy, while shopping via Smile.Amazon.com