by Cindy Kalish It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years. A decade since marriage between two people of the same gender became legal in Massachusetts. It is also a decade since I immersed in a mikveh for the first time. In December 2003, a friend of mine suggested that I consider […]
Continue Readingby Sherri Goldman, Administrative and Finance Director It was my joy a few weeks ago to attend my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah in Atlanta. After an impressive Torah reading, his father and my brother, Rabbi Eric Levy, gave a sermon about nonconforming conformity among the Jewish people. I hadn’t heard of nonconforming conformity before, and I […]
Continue Readingby Justin Womack, the first in a two part series of a couple’s mikveh experience It was June 18, 2013,–Tzadik Lev’s birthday. People always ask what does it feel to be an African-American man who converted to Judaism? I always wonder why that matters. A member of the tribe is a member of the tribe! […]
Continue ReadingThis post originally appeared on The Jewish Week’s “The New Normal: Blogging Disability“ by Carrie Bornstein Larry had a problem. It was the winter of 2004 and he’d spent years dreaming of becoming a Jew. Following many months of formal study he was ready to go before the beit din, the group of […]
Continue Readingby Anita Diamant, Mayyim Hayyim Founding President This post was originally featured on Anita’s personal blog Thinking Out Loud Today, I was given two great honors by Hebrew College in Newton, MA: awarded an honorary doctorate and asked to address the graduating class of educators, cantors and rabbis. Here’s what I said: Hebrew College Commencement […]
Continue Readingby Laura Seide, Intern I can’t believe that my year of interning at Mayyim Hayyim has come to a close. In many ways, the experience of working here has been a mikveh in and of itself, as it has helped me transition from one state to another: from college grad to rabbinical student. I have […]
Continue Readingby Benjamin Maron, Mikveh Guide In many ways, my work has been about the people at the fringes of our communities, those outside looking in. I’ve worked in social services, ran youth outreach groups, and started interfaith dialogue groups between Muslim and Jewish students on a too volatile campus. I spend my days at InterfaithFamily, […]
Continue Readingby Laura Seide, intern There is a very popular urban legend that an elderly male rabbi once stood up at synagogue and, addressing a female presenter, said “A woman belongs on the bima like an orange belongs on a seder plate.” From that day forward, women everywhere have been placing oranges on their seder plates […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Lev Baesh Twice now, I have had the pleasure of celebrating weddings at Mayyim Hayyim, immediately following conversion with a Beit Din and immersion. The first couple came from Canada with parents and a brother. I had worked with her toward conversion via Skype and they wanted to complete her conversion at the […]
Continue Readingby Allison Poirier Last week, on a very cold and wintry Friday morning I left my apartment in Morningside Heights to catch the subway to 74th street. I was on my way to the Upper West Side Mikveh. Along with six other women, I was on my way to a field trip planned as part […]
Continue Readingby Jody Comins, Development and Events Coordinator One of the things that I love about working at Mayyim Hayyim is attending meetings. I’ve been working in the Jewish community for 23 years and every agency runs meetings differently. It’s very common at Jewish Board Meetings to start with a D’var Torah (words of Torah) and […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Pamela Jay Gottfried I was delighted when Rabbi Joe Brodie, the Dean of Student Life and father figure to many of us at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), agreed to officiate at my wedding. I was also anxious. Like my future spouse, Joe was fairly traditional about ritual observance, and I was embarrassed […]
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