Mr. Eric Roethner
Over 300 graduates of ICJA joined a 75th anniversary reunion on Saturday night, November 11. Founded in 1942, ICJA was the first Jewish high school outside of New York to combine Jewish and general studies in a full day academic program. The school was founded by eight men of vision, leaders from the Associated Talmud Torahs and Hebrew Theological College, gathered to discuss what could be done to intensify the educational program of the Jewish schools and thus ensure the continuity of traditional Jewish life in the city. Present at this historic meeting were Max Cohen, Alex Eisenstein, Rabbi Ephraim Epstein, Rabbi Jacob Greenberg, Rabbi Menachem B. Sacks, Rabbi Samuel Siegel, Rabbi Saul Silber, and Rabbi Leonard C. Mishkin.They expressed fear that the superficiality of the Hebrew school system of education would not guarantee the continuation of Jewish scholarship. Many boys were dropping their Jewish studies after reaching age of Bar Mitzvah, just as they were beginning to reach intellectual maturity, when they could first comprehend and appreciate the teachings of our sages. The plan proposed by this joint committee was to establish a high school which would combine the secular subjects taught in the public schools of Chicago along with Jewish studies and observances from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students would no longer need to attend a Yeshiva or Hebrew High School late in the afternoon or evening, when they were tired and unreceptive. It was unanimously agreed to establish the new secondary school of Jewish learning under the joint auspices of the ATT, the central agency for Torah education in Chicago, and the Hebrew Theological College, the yeshiva for higher Jewish learning in the Midwest–the two institutions which the founding fathers represented. The group decided to develop the school by gradual stages, by starting off as a co-educational junior high school with grades 7, 8, and 9 and then add another grade each year. Today, ICJA has educated nearly 5,000 alumni around the world who are leaders in their fields and in Jewish communal life. Students today receive an outstanding Jewish education combined with a top college prep education on a state-of-the-art campus.
