[3] ICJA places emphasis on both Judaic and Secular studies and holds its students to high academic standards.

Leaders from the Associated Talmud Torahs (ATT) and Hebrew Theological College met in 1942 to address growing educational concerns.

The primary problem centered around the fact that many Jewish children began to drop their studies around bar mitzvah time, setting the scene for rampant assimilation and a loss of tradition.

The school began as Chicago Jewish Academy and was first located on the West side on the corner of Douglas Blvd.

The move helped catalyze the institution of a new branch, a yeshiva; a section of the high school for boys, which included intensified Talmudic studies.

Ida Crown Jewish Academy made another move, this time to Skokie, to satisfy a student body that is primarily from the North Shore area and to address overcrowding at the current building.