Marsha Bryan Edelman, PhD

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, Jewish 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 whom 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.

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.

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.