Miriam Bat-Ami was born on June 26, 1950 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She grew up in a Jewish home—her father, Simon, was a rabbi—and she attended college at Hebrew University in Jerusalem where she received her bachelor of arts degree in 1974. She married Ronald Rubens in 1976, and continued her education in America. She obtained a master of arts from California State University in 1980 and a doctorate degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989.

Bat-Ami has always been interested in teaching young adults and increasing their awareness of multicultural issues. She worked as a tutor and a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL), and as an executive assistant at the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. Since 1994, she has been an English professor at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Today, Bat-Ami lives in Mattawan, Michigan, with her husband Ronald and two sons, Aaron...