Mikveh for LGBT Jews: Use, Adaptation, or Appropriation?

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Written 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 […]

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How to Punctuate a Transition

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Written By Aliza Kline, Founding Executive Director of Mayyim Hayyim About 10 days ago I had the opportunity to teach about Mayyim Hayyim to first-year students at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College.  I love teaching seminary students; they are eager to learn and find connections between their personal spiritual journey and Jewish practice.  […]

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What Isn't in the Water

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Written by Alissa Golbus, Cohort Seven Mikveh Guide In spite of myself, I started to become a mother the moment I said the shehecheyanu after  seeing the faint positive sign appear on the pregnancy test. I knew that not all planned first pregnancies end with you holding your baby in your arms, but they do […]

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A Women's Birth Circle at the Shmaya Mikveh in Galilee

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Written 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 […]

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An Atheist in the Mikveh

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By Janet R. Being an atheist has worked well for me.  I’ve explored religions, never found much meaning in them, and have happily existed as a culturally Jewish non-believer. I’ve never quite understood what ‘spiritual’ means, except maybe it’s what I felt at the end of a couple of yoga classes, or while listening to […]

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Behind the Sheet

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When a person immerses in a mikveh, s/he does so in as close a state to what s/he was like when he or she was born:  no make up, no prosthetics, no jewelry, no clothes.  When someone comes to Mayyim Hayyim, that person always has the option of having a guide with him or her.  […]

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Niddah Anonymous: Keeping a Sacred Act Private

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We were so excited about the new opening of Jerusalem Pita in Brookline.  We ventured out of our apartment in Cambridge with our 2.5 year old and 2 week old to taste what everyone was talking about.  While the dining experience was nothing to write home about, the real experience of the evening came from […]

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Entering the Covenant

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What a beautiful ceremony and rite of passage captured on video! You can feel the sense of community as baby Clara formally enters the covenant of the Jewish people. And what a moment when mom Jennifer lets go of her baby for the immersion. What could potentially be a hard thing for any parent is […]

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