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Yona Pianko

Headshot of Yona Pianko

Yona Pianko is a junior at Lakeside High School in Seattle, WA. At her school, she founded and now leads the Jewish Student Union, runs the Outdoor Club, and serves on the Student Library Board. Yona enjoys performing with her youth circus troupe, baking chocolate chip cookies, and participating in outdoor activities, especially backpacking, mountain biking, and scuba diving. She also loves attending her camp (Ramah in the Rockies), leading Shabbat services at shul, and learning in the Hartman Teen Fellowship.  

Blog Posts

Repeated images of the Statue of Liberty on the top row. Repeated images of Emma Lazarus on the bottom row.

Lifting Our Lamp to Welcome the Stranger

Yona Pianko

Learning about Emma Lazarus' important work aiding Eastern European refugees fleeing from discrimination, violence, and pogroms inspired me to think more deeply about immigration: both its connection to my own life and to today’s world.

Topics: Activism
Collage of tallit, a kippah, and other Jewish ritual objects.

The Question that Sparked My Jewish Journey

Yona Pianko

I hadn’t thought much at all about why I engaged with Judaism—or even why I was Jewish beyond having been born that way.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Yona Pianko." (Viewed on December 24, 2024) <https://jwa.org/blog/author/pianko-yona>.