Hundreds of ICJA Alumni Make Aliyah

At the time of the establishment of the State of Israel, Chicago Jewish Academy (now ICJA) was still a fledgling school in its fifth year. In the 70 years since Israel was born, Religious Zionist Jews in Chicago–many of whom attended ICJA–have been among the country’s most ardent supporters.

For 70 years, ICJA has seen some of its best and brightest alumni make aliyah. And we couldn’t be prouder.

We asked our alumni in Israel to submit their aliyah stories in honor of this year’s 70th celebration of Yom HaAtzmaut. We are grateful to those who took the time to respond. Each alum shares his or her most rewarding and most challenging aspects of staking their claim in the Jewish State. What’s overwhelmingly clear for all of them, though, is that their decisions to make their home in Israel has repercussions for generations. Generations of children and grandchildren have been born to those alumni who made aliyah in the ’50s and 60s. כן ירבו

Following are links to alumni stories. To add your own, fill out the Google form here and send a photo to icjanews@icja.org.

• Chashie Knobloch ’68
• Steve Braun ’73
• Susan Kirshner Sheldon ’92
• Raichel Cohen Harazi ’02
• Judy Grossman ’68
• Gidon Shoshan ’93
• Tal Kohn ’05
• Heather Andron ’97
• Sarah Weiss Maudi ’93
• Ruby Ray Karzen ’56
• Adina Dorembus ’72
• Chashia (Schachter) Gwertzman ’74
• Gil Hoffman ’95
• Janice Waldman ’71
• Laura Chuven ’15
• Jonathan (Yoni) Ben-Ari (Katzoff) ’60
• Judy (Dorevitch) Simon ’83
• Ettie Kushner Litke ’68
• Bruce (Chanoch) Goldberg ’68
• Lisi Dredze ’03
• Barbara ( Lehrer) Freedman ’68
• Tzvi (Howard) Zusman ’60
• Deborah Goldman Golan ’69
• Sima (Cohen) Tamir (’63)
• Chana (Weiss) Leiter (’78)
• Don Kates (’65)
• Kinereth Kates Meyer (’63)