Everything Always Comes Back Around

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by Rachel Eisen, Director of Annual Giving Some people think that life is linear, always moving forward in one direction. But I’d like to disagree. In this past year, life hasn’t felt linear at all. Almost a full year ago, I wrote my first blog post as an intern for Mayyim Hayyim. I wrote about […]

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Shaking at Sinai: Then and Now

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by Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education Receiving the Torah was terrifying. Mount Sinai trembled and the ram’s horn blared. Thunder and lightning erupted again and again, while smoke billowed out of the mountain like a kiln. I can’t help but wonder if all of the special effects leading up to Matan Torah (the giving […]

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The Former Soviet Union Off of I-287

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by Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education As a first-time presenter and participant at a recent Limmud FSU (Former Soviet Union) I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I arrived with a friend to the enormous castle-style Sheraton in New Jersey, excited by the buzz of young Russian Jews setting up the hotel at a frenzied […]

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Mayyim Hayyim’s Jewish Feminist Ambassador

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by Sabrina Zionts A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting Mayyim Hayyim for the first time with Wellesley College Hillel. At the beginning of the education program, Leeza asked what we hoped to learn from the session. I shared that I was most interested in learning whether the ritual of mikveh immersion is, or […]

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“Because nothing should come between you and the experience.”

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by Lisa Berman, Mikveh & Education Director Picture a small, sunlit-filled atrium filled with 22 wiggly eleven-year-old boys and girls. They’ve just been darting in and out of mikveh preparation rooms, opening closets, peeking in cabinets and behind shower curtains, flinging themselves on the tiled floor to dip their fingers in the warm mikveh water. […]

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Waterworks and Bright Flights

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by Anita Diamant I’m not sure where my passion for quilts came from, but it probably had something to do with the fact that it was a uniquely American art form created by women who did not consider themselves “artists.” They would have told you that they were just using scraps and bits that might […]

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Intimidated No More

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by Allison Schnipper I recently had the opportunity to visit Mayyim Hayyim for the first time. My son’s 6th grade Hebrew School class from Temple Sinai of Sharon visited as part of their life cycle curriculum. Kids, parents, and teachers piled onto a school bus and traveled together to learn about the mikveh and see […]

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Ode to My Teachers

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by Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education Do you remember loving a certain subject or class in school? Maybe it was your art class (that was me), geometry, creative writing, or maybe recess was your thing. Whatever it was, when you think of that subject now, can you identify what exactly made you to love […]

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Open Waters, Open Community

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by Ilana Snapstailer When I brought my 7th grade Rosh Hodesh group to Mayyim Hayyim, we learned about the aquatic lift meant to help someone with a disability use the mikveh. When our educator, Lisa Berman, asked the girls “Why might someone with a disability use the mikveh?” one girl promptly answered, “The same reason […]

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A Holy and Inclusive Place

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by Kythryne Aisling Before coming to Mayyim Hayyim, many people at Temple Beth Jacob had told me what an amazing place it was. As someone who lives with severe chronic pain, and who has a daughter with sensory processing issues, I wasn’t so sure how it would go. While the main reason for our visit was for my daughter and I to formally […]

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The Waters of My Youth

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by Amos Lassen Recently I visited Mayyim Hayyim as part of a group from Temple Sinai, Brookline. When I arrived I found myself filled with memories from my childhood. Having been raised Orthodox, I was very familiar with the mikveh and as a youngster I would go regularly with my father. As I grew up, I […]

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McGinity is Not A Jewish Name

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by Dr. Keren McGinity If I had eighteen cents for every time someone told me, “McGinity? That’s not a Jewish name!” I’d be a wealthy woman. The statement is based on two assumptions: Jews have distinctive Jewish names and someone with an ethnically “other” name couldn’t possibly be Jewish. OK, so how does a nice […]

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