by Rachel Eisen, Mayyim Hayyim Intern I remember a story my mother once told me. At the beginning of her career, my mother, who holds two doctoral degrees from an elite university, was accepted into a prestigious research fellowship in her field. But she turned this incredible opportunity down, because her would-be boss told her […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein, Executive Director Originally posted on the Times of Israel Blog It’s been one year since Rabbi Barry Freundel was discovered to be spying on women as they prepared to immerse in the mikveh in Washington, DC. Since that time news reporters, rabbis, and individuals all over the world have placed significant attention […]
Continue Readingby Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education In July, Mayyim Hayyim sent me to attend the COJECO Symposium for Russian-speaking Jews. COJECO (Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations) is the coordinating body of the Russian-speaking Jewish community of New York. This symposium gathered 50 professionals from Jewish organizations throughout North America to ask: what works in engaging Russian-speaking Jews […]
Continue Readingby Iris Adams I’ve always been curious about the tradition of mikveh, so I was pleased to accept an invitation to visit Mayyim Hayyim in June with a group of women from the Merrimack Valley. When I walked through the gate by a pretty white and blue tiled bench set among greenery and gardens, I […]
Continue Readingby Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education Religious pluralism is a fairly new idea. Even in the most well-intentioned pluralistic spaces we are still learning how to honor seemingly contradictory religious needs. Part of cultivating that respect means having an honest conversation that welcomes differing points of view. That is just the first step. For example, […]
Continue Readingby Cara Rock-Singer In Memory of Bonna Devorah Haberman z’’l, passed away June 16, 2015 On July 16, 2013, around thirty people gathered at Mayyim Hayyim for a Tisha b’Av program with Bonna Devorah Haberman z’’l to reflect on the relevance of the historical Temple commemorations today. Tisha b’Av has come to hold layers of Jewish sadness and […]
Continue Readingby Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director Q: How do you know if you are succeeding at running a warm, welcoming, open-minded mikveh? A: You get a lot of really interesting phone calls and you love answering them. In my role as Mikveh (& Education) Director at Mayyim Hayyim, I love fielding calls because inevitably it […]
Continue Readingby Pamela Cole My first visit to Mayyim Hayyim was a beautiful May evening in 2014. I was on a ‘field trip’ with my Pathways to Judaism class and we were being introduced to what would mark the final step of our conversion process. It wasn’t the first time I had heard of Mayyim Hayyim, though. […]
Continue Readingby Andie Insoft, Mikveh Guide Just a “few” years ago, when I was a teenager, if someone had told me that I would someday be a mikveh guide, I would have said they were absolutely crazy. I grew up in a fairly traditional, Conservative, Jewish home. We kept kosher, attended services (at least 3 times […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Jenny Solomon Where is your “happy place?” Some people picture themselves on a sunlit beach. Others have a favorite niche in their homes. Still others conjure up a vacation destination that holds warm memories and sacred traditions. But what if your “happy place” was also your “sad place,” your “worried place,” your “gratitude […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen I first breathed the words “mikveh,” “maybe,” and “going to” my third year of rabbinical school at HUC-JIR, the Reform Movement’s seminary. Well-intentioned classmates and friends – whom I admire and adore – were surprised. Some were skeptical. Their reactions were likely born from the same source as my own misgivings about mikveh: […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Matthew Soffer When Romeo “oos and ahhs” over Juliet in the most famous scene of any of Shakespeare’s plays, he utters a line that is often misappropriated today: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Translation: His beloved’s name is irrespective of her identity, her beauty, and her “sweet smell.” […]
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