By Rabbi Gail Diamond A recent visit from Aliza Kline of Mayyim Hayyim to the Conservative Yeshiva in Israel brought up a kind of intense and weird nostalgia and homesickness in me. When Aliza arrived at my work, she called to ask about parking. I said I’d meet her outside and when I got there, […]
Continue ReadingBy Rabbi Avi Poupko Sacraments are hard to come by in the Jewish tradition. By sacraments, I mean a ritual that is believed to actually be doing something. Our rituals are almost always understood, at least according to mainstream Jewish thought throughout the ages, to be reminding us of something or teaching us an important […]
Continue ReadingBy Gabriella Spitzer You may have seen my earlier post asking for mikveh stories from queer/LGBT-identified people. Thank you for those of you who responded to my survey! I was doing research for my final project in my Thinking Sexuality class this past semester, and I am excited to share with you some of what […]
Continue Readingby Aliza Kline, Mayyim Hayyim Founding Executive Director In my few remaining weeks in Israel (just under four at my last count), I am busier than ever supporting burgeoning community mikvaot in Israel. Last week I spent a day at Mikveh Sh’maya, the “spiritual, educational and ritual” mikveh directed by Rabbi Dr. Haviva Ner David […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Madeline Mayer, Mayyim Hayyim Intern As my time at Mayyim Hayyim comes to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I love this organization. Here are the top 5 reasons (in no particular order) why this is such a great environment to be a part of. 1. Sounds of Joy– It […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Gabriella Spitzer, Barnard College Student At Barnard College, where I am currently a junior, I am taking a class called Thinking Sexuality. Among other things, it deals with the intersections of queer/LGBT life and other aspects of identity. I’d love your help with research for my final project, researching how queer/LGBT Jews and […]
Continue ReadingBy Judi and Maya Goldberg My five-year old daughter, Maya, and I met “Mikveh Lisa” (Lisa Berman, Mayyim Hayyim Education Center Director) at Temple Shalom. We participated in our first immersion at Mayyim Hayyim about six months ago. Maya and I both love going to the mikveh, but for very different reasons. I love going […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Rabbi Haviva Ner-David At the newly-revived religiously and socially progressive Kibbutz Hannaton in Lower Galilee, a tradition has evolved to hold a women’s circle at our mikveh for each woman a few weeks before she is due to give birth. Thankfully, we have located on our kibbutz a unique mikveh in the Israeli […]
Continue Readingby Nina Stewart, Administrative Assistant In the month and a half that I have been working at Mayyim Hayyim, I […]
Continue ReadingThe following is a letter written by Rabbi Peter W. Stein, Temple Sinai, Cranston RI, to Carrie Bornstein, Assistant Director at Mayyim Hayyim, about his experience bringing a terminally ill congregant to the mikveh during the final days of his life. Dear Carrie, Thank you so much for enabling me to bring my congregant, Jonah,* […]
Continue ReadingAndrea Jacobs, Director of Education for Keshet, shares her thoughts on inclusive mikveh usage in her guest post. Andrea will be co-facilitating a panel on inclusion at our Gathering the Waters International Mikveh Conference. By traditional standards, I’m an unusual mikveh user. As a single woman and a liberal Jew, there are no halakhic imperatives […]
Continue ReadingTake a deep breath, exhale, and immerse fully under the water for one instant with nothing else getting in the way, right? Wrong. Well, not completely wrong. Most of the time that is indeed the idea. But what about someone who can’t? What if a person is not physically able to immerse independently? Does that mean he can’t […]
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