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Miriam Niestat

2022-23 Rising Voices Fellow Miriam Niestat

Miriam Niestat is a junior at Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago, Illinois, where she is a member of the girls’ lacrosse team and plays trumpet in the jazz band. Miriam serves as president of Kenwood’s Best Buddies Chapter and is an officer of Youth and Government. As a 2020-21 Or Tzedek intern with the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA), she learned about the intersection of Judaism and social justice and has continued her activism with the JCUA’s Youth Organizing Caucus. Miriam is always up for a meaningful conversation and loves hanging out with her dogs, Pointer and Mordechai.

Blog Posts

Collage of three women with their arms around each other on blue and white background

A Conversation on the Future of Jewish Feminism

Miriam Niestat

I realized that in our seventeen years of knowing each other, I could count on one hand the number of times the three of us had talked about our places as women in Judaism.

Collage of characters from TV show Bumper in Berlin on pink gradient background

The Pitch Perfect TV Spin-Off Offers Lots of Bumper And Little Feminism

Miriam Niestat

The first episode’s failure to pass the Bechdel Test was my first hint that Bumper in Berlin would not be the continuation of the Pitch Perfect movies I expected. 

Collage of trees, cattle, and fish on blue patterned background

Honoring the Shmita Year

Miriam Niestat

Taking inspiration from Rabbi Bernstein’s efforts with Tu B’Shvat, I wonder what a Shmita haggadah might look like.

Photographs of Miriam Niestat, her family, and a loom collaged on woven green background

Weaving My Asymmetrical Jewish Identity

Miriam Niestat

My uncle had the idea that maybe I could weave a tallis of my own. But I didn’t want it to somehow invalidate my bat mitzvah.

Topics: Crafts, Family, Ritual

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Miriam Niestat." (Viewed on March 29, 2024) <http://jwa.org/blog/author/niestat-miriam>.