My Big Move

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by Molly Bajgot I knew I wanted to go to the mikveh for the first time when I made the decision to move out of Boston to Arizona. It was an amorphous transition with not much time to acknowledge it; I knew I needed a physical marker to help ground this enormous change, but I wasn’t expecting the […]

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De-fogging

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by David Berman I’ve immersed at Mayyim Hayyim three times: once before my Bar Mitzvah, once before I left for a semester in Israel when I was a sophomore in high school, and once last September before a gap year program in Israel. Going to Mayyim Hayyim when I was 13 was my mother’s idea. […]

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The Mikveh is a Gift of its Own

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by Laura Conrad Mandel Life isn’t about stuff, it’s about experiences. Between baby showers and wedding showers, adoptions and graduations, I find myself constantly in need of gifts for friends and family who tend to have just about all the stuff they need, and for whom I know that something off a registry doesn’t typically […]

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Where Working is a Delight

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by Leah Robbins, Administrative and Marketing Assistant Almost two months have passed since I began working at Mayyim Hayyim. I have settled into my desk, built a challenging, but civil relationship with our computer systems and their quirks, and am actively growing as a member of this extraordinary team of women who keep Mayyim Hayyim […]

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Miracles as Usual

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by Leeza Negelev, Associate Director of Education I’ve been engaged to be married since November, 2015. That’s a long time to ruminate, dread, panic, romanticize, and (sometimes) plan a wedding. I’ve done a lot of wondering “what it will be like to…” well, you name it. I’ve done some thinking on the oppressive past and […]

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My Journey to Recovery

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by Ronna Benjamin A little over a year ago, just after a “clean” mammogram, my primary care physician found a lump in my breast during a routine physical, and insisted on the ultrasound that saved my life. Countless women who have been through this sort of thing know what happened next: the biopsy, the agony […]

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Preparing for High School

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by Eytan Weiner Due to the fact that I am a 14 year old boy going into high school, every decision affects my social status. Regardless of how big or small a choice I make, “life changing” things can happen, based on what table I sit at, what food I eat, and who I choose to […]

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My Red Sea

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by Esther Sadie Brandon In so many ways, water is our medium for transition and change. Immersing in the mikveh at Mayyim Hayyim was my medium to mark the transition from being in treatment to healing. I am now a breast cancer survivor. In early spring of 2015, I was diagnosed with an early stage carcinoma […]

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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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A Bridal Bath

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by Cantor Lori Salzman About ten years ago I was approached by a friend who was soon to be married. She told me she really didn’t want a traditional bridal shower and asked if there was some sort of simple Jewish celebration she could do. I was a little surprised, since she is one of […]

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Entering the Covenant of her Mothers, Revisted

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As the Jewish world evolves, we will continue to create meaningful ways to welcome and honor women and girls within our tradition. Almost one hundred years ago, a Bat Mitzvah was unheard of. Today, a Simchat Bat (a baby naming ritual for a Jewish girl) is becoming more and more commonplace. When we share our stories about the way our […]

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A Day of Rebirth

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by Daniel Goldberg December 8th, 2015: my first mikveh experience. I’ve been Jewish all my life, but up until a few months ago I didn’t even know this ancient ritual could be practiced by men, other than for the purpose of conversion. I met Rachel Eisen, then an intern at Mayyim Hayyim, at a Jewish event […]

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