From Girl Scout to changemaker: Michele Steinberg’s path of purpose

By Megan Rubenstein, Special to the Jewish Light

Published November 10, 2025

Michele Steinberg’s roots run deep in the St. Louis Jewish community. The mother of two is a fifth-generation Temple Israel member, a longtime board member and a recipient of its Pillar of the Temple award.

Steinberg calls TI and St. Louis home. And it’s her upbringing here that’s led to her years of service.

As a child, the Girl Scouts taught her the value of understanding that giving back “is not just about myself, but about others.” That experience led her to volunteer with the National Honor Society and Key Club in high school, which she calls her “first introduction to how volunteering can really feed the soul.”

The Jewish value of tikkun olam also played a role in Steinberg’s passion for volunteering, always reminding her that “if you have the time and the space, making the world better for other people is such an important part of humanity.”

Plus, like many, it was her family that helped instilled such values in her.

“I always saw my father volunteering, both inside our school with the PTA but also in the community — at the temple and also with other volunteer organizations,” Steinberg said.

Citing St. Louis Public Radio (KWMU 90.7 FM) as “a big passion of his,” she recalled that her involvement in the early days of the station was one of her first forays into philanthropy.

“My father was part of St. Louis Public Radio’s volunteer corps, so my sister and I spent a lot of weekends with him stuffing fundraiser envelopes and mailing letters,” she said.

That led to Steinberg’s involvement on the station’s young adult board now called Generation Listen.

All of these experiences taught her from an early age “that an important part of being part of a community is giving back.”

That’s exactly what led her to share her passion with so many facets of the St. Louis community, from helping those in the city to cast their votes to capturing special moments for families affected by childhood cancer.

And of course, Steinberg’s widespread impact ties back to her Judaism. Her involvement in the voting rights and election protection space was even aided by a conversation while on the treadmill one day at the Jewish Community Center.

“I got involved in Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice,” she said, “because I was at the J with former president Lise Bernstein and I was complaining that the Secretary of State at the time was trying to pass a photo ID law, which would require photo ID necessary to vote in Missouri. And she was like, ‘Well, do you want to keep complaining or do you want to do something about it?’ ”

An invitation to a meeting led Steinberg to become the Voting Rights Specialist for the organization. She said that the job was to bring to Women’s Voices any issue that pertained to voting through education and advocacy programming.

Her voting rights work with the organization of about 300 members ultimately connected her to the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, of which she is a regional co-lead.

Steinberg spent years volunteering in the field before taking on the leadership role, driving from polling place to polling place in north St. Louis County and St. Louis to hep voters experiencing problems on election day.

“I used to say, put me anywhere you need help,” she said. “I’ll be there from sunup to sundown. I’ll be anywhere you want.”

Her fellow regional co-lead of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition is Holly Bernstein, another 2025 Unsung Hero, who said Steinberg is someone she “strives to emulate.” She emphasized Steinberg’s ability to make positive change.

“I deeply admire her ability to translate her strong beliefs in social action and social justice into meaningful action across a wide spectrum of issues,” Bernstein said.

Meaningful action sums up Steinberg’s work. She said that at her core, her goal is to “advocate for everyone, especially those who can’t advocate for themselves.”

“The disenfranchised and the marginalized are those who are often overlooked in every single space,” she said. “Women’s Voices Raised and election protection both help uplift people who need it most.”

Lifting up others also fuels her work as chapter director for Flashes of Hope, an organization that provides free professional photos in the hospital for families with children facing cancer.

“We are there to capture the dignity and the life and the unique spirit of each child,” Steinberg said. “We photograph anyone who is willing.”

Bringing in a makeup artist and taking the photos in black and white to hide any mismatched clothing allow for the photos to be a true keepsake for families even if they were not expecting to have a photo taken that day.

“It is a beautiful, beautiful thing to be able to give these families the gift of a portrait of their child and their family,” Steinberg said.

Now, she is passing on her desire to make the world a better place to her two college-age children, bringing it full circle back to Temple Israel.

“One of our favorite projects is the toiletry sorting drive on Yom Kippur,” she said. “Between the morning and the afternoon service, they need people to help sort the items to be donated to the food pantry. Before my kids went to college, we’d do it as a family each year from the time my kids were very young. It’s a very cherished memory of mine, the four of us working at the toiletry drive together.”

While the organizations she has served over the years are not bound to just one topic or theme, her passion for service comes down to one thing: helping others in any capacity she can.

“They’re all near and dear to my heart in different ways,” Steinberg said. “All of them have the uniting factor of being of service to others.”