Lag B'Omer was a special day at ICJA. On Thursday, May 19, 2022, the entire school came together under sunny skies to play sports, enjoy outdoor games, and enjoy a special barbeque lunch of hot dogs, chicken and veggie-burgers.

Thank you to Mrs. Alissa Zeffren and Rabbi Yoni Fox for organizing this amazing celebration, and to Rabbi Binyomin Segal for preparing a delicious lunch.

Pictured above: freshmen Yossi Burstyn and Aaron Hartman, junior Audrey Perlman and freshman Eliana Ebert

Pictured above: sophomore Dori Marshall and freshmen Aliza Shyovitz and Talia Weiss

Pictured above: freshman Lauren Fensterheim

Pictured above: sophomore Ari Klein, freshman Gabriel Aberman, and sophomores Yaakov Holman, and Sam Gorenstein

Pictured above: sophomores Noa Gavant, Ayelet Appel, Taly Benzaquen and Danielle Zaretsky

Pictured above: freshmen Ami Weiss and Ami Czako

On Wednesday evening, May 18, 2022, boys gathered at ICJA's South Plaza for a special Mishmar featuring barbeque, bonfire and a kumzitz together.

Thank you Rabbi Yoni Fox and Rabbi Mayer Simcha Stromer for putting together this wonderful evening celebration.

The weather was perfect for the Lag B'Omer celebrations.

Above: senior Avi Seruya grilling hotdogs for the Mishmar

On Wednesday evening, May 18, 2022, over 60 girls gathered at Lighthouse Beach for ICGC's Lag B'Omer celebration. Students enjoyed words of Torah, as well as food, fun, friendship - and a bonfire.

Thank you to Mrs. Lynn Kraft and Mrs. Alise Gold, as well as Mrs. Chavee Gottlieb, for making the evening so special.

Pictured above: sophomores Nava Cohen and Gabrielle Sander with Mrs. Chavee Gottlieb

The party featured a bonfire, s'mores, words of Torah and lots of fun.

Friday, 13, 2022 was Mrs. Sarah Wainkrantz's final day of teaching at Ida Crown Jewish Academy. Mrs. Wainkrantz has taught generations of ICJA students for over thirty years. Now, she and her husband are planning to move to the East Coast to be closer to their children and grandchildren there.

Mrs. Wainkrantz marked her final day at ICJA by bringing in her famous potato kugel. Students and staff feted her with flowers and pastries a sign that's hanging in the front lobby of ICJA asking the question that Mrs. Wainkrantz has asked in her classes for so many years: "A woman of valor who can find?" (Proverbs 31:10) As her sign notes, we found a woman of valor and her name is Rebbetzin Sarah Wainkrantz.

After finishing their season last week in 2nd place - the highest ever for Aces Baseball - the Aces traveled to Columbus for the Columbus Baseball Invitational. There, they not only played baseball, but organized minyanim and bonded together as a team.

Congratulations to the team's Co-Captains, seniors Gabe Burstyn and Matthew Schreiber, to Head Coach Steve Greenberg, and to the entire team.

Junior Ilan Blumenthal slides into base

Sophomore Josh Paskoff pitching

Students in Mrs. Gottlieb's sophomore chemistry class have been learning about stoichiometry, the relationship between quantities of reactants and products before, during and after chemical reactions.

This week, students used stoichiometry to predict the amount of ingredients - graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate - they would need in order to create and cook s'mores, with no ingredients left over.

Pictured above: Gabriella Zipperstein, Ilana Schwartz and Leah Zelden

Pictured above: s'mores cooking in the Chemistry Lab

On Wednesday evening, May 18, 2022, students and parents came together for the Oratory Fair, presenting spoken pieces reflecting their thoughts about their years at ICJA.

Pictured above: seniors Yonatan Arnet, Matthew Schreiber and Joey Cohen

Pictured above: seniors Maya Wasserman, Leora Lakser, Yolie Starck, Tamira Halpert and Carly Sorscher

Last week, students, parents, faculty and staff came together to celebrate ICJA's award-winning literary magazine, Charlotte's Web. On Thursday evening, May 12, the Math and Science Commons was filled with art and literature. Guests viewed original artwork that is displayed in this year's journal and heard students read their poetry and prose works.

This year, Charlotte's Web won 1st Place in its category from the American Scholastic Writing Awards and received the rank of Excellent in the 2021 NCTE Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines (REALM) program, placing it in the top 6% of all literary magazines. Junior Charlie Ernstein received the Golden Key award,.and junior Michal Bechhofer received an Honorable Mention, Midwest.

Yasher Koach to this year's Co-Editors in Chief, seniors Hannah Stein and Sarah Friedman, Faculty Advisor Mrs. Marsha Arons, and all the students who put in so much hard work to make this year's Charlotte's Web one of the best editions ever.

ICJA English teacher Mrs. Sheri Goldstein demonstrating speaking techniques with students

Co-Editor in Chief senior Hannah Stein

Sophomore Gabriel Klein showing his picture "Sunflowers," which is included in the journal, to guests at the event

Co-Editor in Chief senior Sarah Friedman

This week, students in Mrs. Yitzhak's freshman girls' Chumash class discussed mannah.

Drawing on peirushim that they have discussed in class, Mrs. Yitzhak set out bowls of coriander seeds in class and bowls of pearls: mannah is said to have looked like coriander seeds and have been white like pearls.

Students assembled bowls of seeds and pearls and then each came up with a question that they wanted to ask about their concoction. Students then talked about commentaries that explain the word mannah can mean "what is this" - much like the questions the girls asked. They discussed how asking questions about the mannah can lead to asking questions about other areas of life.

Pictured here: Rachel Sommer, Maytal Needle and Sarah Levitt, with their bowls.

From Sunday May 15 through Tuesday, may 18, students and teachers participated in a Virtual Mental Health Summit run by Prizmah, the Center for Jewish Day Schools.

Mrs. Olivia Friedman, working together with Marc Fein, created the Prizmah Teen Mental Health Club Playbook, sharing her wisdom and experience gained as the faculty advisor of ICJA's Erica's Lighthouse mental heath advocacy and awareness club. Mrs. Friedman and Mr. Fein created resources for Prizmah to benefit Jewish day schools as a whole. Mrs. Friedman drew on her experiences in the Orthodox Leadership Project in creating this book. The project is dedicated to the memory of ICJA alumna Batsheva Stadlan z"l.

Pictured above, ICJA junior and Erica's Lighthouse Board Member Audrey Perlman presenting at the Summit.

On Friday, May 13, 2022, students in Mrs. Stopek's freshman boys' Hebrew class learned all the Hebrew vocabulary words they needed in order to read a Hebrew language recipe and understand instructions about how to bake chocolate chip cookies.

After the baking, students had a quiz on their new baking-themed vocabulary.

Pictured above: Chaim Scharman, Jacob Friedman, Avner Frazin and Aidan Zukerman

Pictured above: Jacob Friedman (reading the recipe on his phone), Meir Zayan and Eyal Gutstein

65% of the Intrinsic students said they had never met a Jew before these presentations. Intrinsic's World Studies Teacher Mike Walsh said "Student to Student is such a great program, especially for schools with little to no Jewish students. My students really appreciate learning from other students rather than a text, lecture, or video. We kick off our Holocaust unit with a Student to Student presentation, and it makes it real and personal for my students because they meet people who have personal connections to this history."

After this week's presentations, an Intrinsic student noted: "Jewish people are really nice people who should be recognized and cherished more as a group in the world's society." 

This week's presentations were the final presentations given by ICJA's veteran Student to Student seniors Yonatan Chavel and Ethan Comrov (pictured above).

Follow Student to Student Chicago on Facebook here. To sign up to be a presenter next year, click here.

Her smiling face greets us every morning; this week, we caught up with ICJA's Office Manager Mrs. Eve Partouch and asked her to tell us a little about herself.

I grew Miami Beach, Florida and attended RASG Hebrew Academy then Stern College where I majored in Biology.

I currently live in Chicago with my husband Elliot ("Eli") and our two kids. Jacques Bernat is four years old and is named after my late father and Eli's paternal zaidy. Susan Nellie (we call her Nellie) is named after my late mother and Eli's paternal Bubbie.

I love the overwhelming sense of community support and appreciation from our families, faculty and staff.

There are so many: a visiting alumnus during their year in Israel expressing their respect appreciation for what the front office does. That was very touching. Mrs. Wainkrantz’ farewell banner/cake last Friday is another great memory: her giving brachot to her students was so heartfelt and pure.

Running, long walks and getting into a good book... Really any downtime when I'm not watching or taking care of the kids!

In college, I was simultaneously the captain of my D3 soccer and Stern's cross country team. I'm very proud of that!

Wednesday, the 17th of Iyar, May 18, 2022, by the grandchildren of

to commemorate his Shloshim.

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.

Spread the Word - THIS SHABBAT!

8th Grade Girls are invited to a special ICJA Seudah Shlishit

THIS SHABBAT, May 21, 2022

at Mrs. Alise Gold's home

2736 W. Sherwin Ave.

If you are interested, please contact programs@walderlab.org or call 773-649-5360.

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.

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