by Ilana Sumka I’m a political activist by training, so I was as surprised as anyone to find myself teaching Tanakh, (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and Jewish law to a group of conversion students. A few weeks ago I had the profound honor of witnessing my students immerse in the mikveh after successfully appearing before the European […]
Continue Readingby DeDe Jacobs-Komisar I’m going to be honest – before I found this place I was totally ambivalent about the mikveh. Growing up Orthodox, we teenage girls were taught to venerate the mikveh as a mysterious, holy, beautiful thing. We toured mikva’ot on school and camp field trips, where mikveh ladies would show us how […]
Continue Readingby Laura Rosenthal Whenever people ask about how I “became” Jewish, I tell them it was when I turned eight. In some sense, this is entirely ridiculous—I have always known that Judaism is a part of my life. What I mean when I say I “became” Jewish is that we joined Temple Shalom of Newton. […]
Continue Readingby Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education Last week I went to synagogue and witnessed a ceremony to welcome a woman who had just converted to Judaism. I met this woman earlier in the week, at Mayyim Hayyim, where she marked her new Jewish life with an immersion in our mikveh. At the synagogue, the […]
Continue Readingby Diane Black On May 29, 2014 at Mayyim Hayyim’s tenth year celebration event, we honored Diane Black with the Nachshon Award. Here are her remarks from the ceremony. If you know me at all, you know I’m not comfortable being singled out in public like this. I said yes to this honor mostly because […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein Today is Tu B’Av – the fifteenth day of the month of Av – a Jewish Valentine’s Day of sorts, when we mark a day of great joy on the Hebrew calendar. With our Jewish Cupid flying around (Jupid, anyone?), I’m sharing one of our sweetest stories with you, just to make […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director When we talk about Mayyim Hayyim, we often focus on the moments at our mikveh that are celebratory. Joyful gatherings of people who usher into our space an atmosphere of conviviality and festivity — conversions, brides and grooms, bar and bat mitzvah kids, birthday celebrants. Just last week […]
Continue Readingby Cindy Kalish Following up on A Kosher Lesbian Jew, this is a prayer that Cindy created and read to her guests before immersing for her birthday. As I prepare to immerse in these waters, I reflect on the past decade in an effort to open myself to the possibilities of the decade that lies before me. I […]
Continue Readingby Samantha Testa I was raised Jewish, I learned about the mikveh in Hebrew school. And like a lot of other things I learned in Hebrew school it didn’t stick with me. Then last summer, I interned at Mayyim Hayyim and I was reintroduced to the mikveh. It changed how I view and experience the […]
Continue Readingby Sherri Goldman, Administrative and Finance Director I wrote recently about my children at the mikveh. It was a story of hope that my children know Mayyim Hayyim is a place where they are welcome and immersion is an option in their lives. Coming from a non-traditional religious background, immersion was not part of my […]
Continue Readingby Sheila Handler It’s Thursday evening and I’m lying in my bathtub, preparing myself for the mikveh. In the background, the radio is playing, announcing the missile strikes, as they hit; down South, in Ashkelon, Yavne and Be’er Sheva; in the center of our country, in Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva and Kfar Saba; up North […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein The world feels like an ugly place right now. We can’t escape the reality – all throughout the internet, on the news, on the radio, in conversations with friends – that our world is a highly imperfect place. We are in the lowest time of our liturgical year too. These weeks between […]
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