Translating Scholarship into Story and Song
From one song to a wider world—we craft stories and tools that spark curiosity, deepen understanding, and nurture community.
Loving Learning
Steve Singer is the founder of the Jewish Song Project and creator of The Jewish Song Show (launching Hanukkah 2025). A lifelong “ethnomusicology fan boy” with deep ahavat Yisrael (love for the Jewish people), Steve turns scholarship into story and sound—inviting curious listeners to discover Jewish language, ideas, practice, places, and people one song at a time. He’s spent three decades leading Listen Up! Jewish Vocal Band as founder/arranger/music director, and by day has built a career translating complex subjects into engaging learning for educators and healthcare teams. Dr. Steve is also the conductor of the Chicago chapter of HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir.
Chicago-based and relentlessly curious, Steve is supported by UpStart Lab as a Upstarter Network member and grant recipient and collaborates with scholars, creators, and institutions to build joyful, substantive pathways to Jewish literacy and belonging.
Steve lives in Skokie, Illinois with his musical wife, Rebecca (Klein) Singer. They have three adult children – Molly, Jack, and Charlie.
SCHOLARSHIP, EDUCATION, AND JEWISH ENGAGEMENT
Meet Our Leadership
Marsha Bryan Edelman, EdD
Dr. Marsha Bryan Edelman is professor emerita of music and education at Gratz College. A graduate of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, she holds degrees in music, music education, Jewish music and Jewish studies. Her book “Discovering Jewish Music” was published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2003. She is an active choral singer and conductor, and director of education and administrator for the Zamir Choral Foundation, an organization with which she has worked in various musical and administrative capacities for more than thirty-five years. Since 2021 she is the editor of the Journal of Synagogue Music.
Michael Lorge, JD
Mr. Lorge was born in Chicago and has practiced law since 1978. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Illinois and was designated as a James Scholar. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati in 1973. He is past president of Temple Beth Israel in Skokie and serves on the national board of the Union for Reform Judaism and Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute. He is the founder and chair of the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival, the largest cultural event in the Chicago Jewish community.Lorge resides in Skokie with his wife Susie, a kindergarten teacher, and their four children Alyssa and Howard Dryver, Ilana, Ariel and Sari Ruth.
Yvette Alt Miller, PhD
Dr. Yvette Alt Miller holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and has taught at Northwestern University, London Business School, and lectured around the world. Her most recent book, Portraits of Valor: Heroic Jewish Women You Should Know describes the lives of 40 remarkable women who inhabited different eras and lands, giving readers a sense of the vast diversity of Jewish history and experience. She is a contributing author to the popular Jewish websites www.aish.com, www.chabad.org, and the Jerusalem Post.