Liberal mikvahs spring up all across U.S.
By Sue Fishkoff
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NEWTON, Mass (JTA)—Anita Diamant, a Jewish educator and best-selling author of "The Red Tent," remembers going to Boston's Orthodox mikvah, or ritual bath, years ago for her husband's conversion.
"We sat in a tiny foyer, with the sound of the washer and dryer going next door," she recalls. "After we signed the check, we were out in the parking lot, surrounded by broken glass. We took the rabbi out to lunch and that was it. I thought, it should be better than this."
Today, Diamant is founder and president of Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center, a two-year-old facility near Boston.
Built next to a Conservative synagogue, Mayyim Hayyim is a transdenominational mikvah available to men, women and children.
In its short life, it has become wildly popular. More than 500 conversions and 2,000 other immersions have taken place in its two ritual pools.
The guest books are filled with descriptions such as "beautiful," and "wonderful," not words that liberal Jews have often associated with a ritual they so long rejected.
But along with other Jewish traditions that are being re-examined and reshaped by liberal Jews today, mikvah is experiencing a nationwide resurgence.
Mikvahs have traditionally been used by observant Jews who follow the laws of family purity, or niddah, which obligate women to immerse themselves monthly. Many Orthodox facilities boast an aesthetically pleasing environment and are designed to handle a steady stream of users.
Since the first non-Orthodox mikvah opened at the Conservative movement's University of Judaism in Los Angeles 26 years ago, nearly two dozen others have popped up, almost all in the past five years.
Most liberal mikvahs were built because Conservative and Reform rabbis needed a place to perform conversions. An increasing number of Orthodox mikvahs, while open to all Jews, have in recent years barred non-Orthodox conversions.
The list of liberal mikvahs is growing rapidly. Most are associated with a Reform or Conservative synagogue.
Some communities, such as Portland, Ore., have non-denominational community mikvahs.
"All over, more and more people are talking about mikvah," says Norman Cohen, provost of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.
The week of June 5, 200 clergy and educators gathered at Mayyim Hayyim for "Reclaiming Mikveh," a three-day conference to share ideas, experiences and technical know-how.
Sponsored by the Union for Reform Judaism's Outreach Institute, and funded largely by the Combined Jewish
Philanthropies of Greater Boston, this was believed to be the first national
conference on a religious issue in which the Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal movements all partnered.
"It's physical, it's emotional, it talks to all the senses," Cohen says. Referring to the back-in-the-womb feeling of safety many first-time mikvah-goers experience, he suggests, "it brings us back to the very beginning."
Diamant hopes Mayyim Hayyim will be a model for others. And that appears to be happening.
On the first afternoon of the conference, Neal Linson of Congregation Eilat in Mission Viejo, Calif., was busily taking notes at one of Mayyim Hayyim's two ritual pools.
Upstairs, he unrolled plans for the mikvah he is building at his Southern California congregation, which is Conservative and serves about 280 families.
Construction should begin in six weeks, he says.
Ironically, Chabad is building a mikvah an hour away, as is the local Reform synagogue, "so Orange County will go from no mikvahs to three in one year," he says.
"A number of people are against it, they think it's anti-woman," said Linson. "To men, it's a very feminine ritual that has been perverted. If it's made to be nice and wonderful, for men and women it can be a spiritually uplifting ritual that you carry with you for a long time."
"Mikvah attracts Jewish people who are not otherwise connected," says Penelope Oppenheimer Kieffer, former head of the mikvah at the University of Judaism. "People come before their wedding, or because they've adopted children, and they don't belong to a congregation.
"That gives you an opening to invite them to a support group, or a class. It could be a staging ground for them to make their way into the larger Jewish community."
Even in small Jewish communities, the mikvah trend is taking hold.
Libby Bottero of Eugene, Ore., and her husband, Joseph, built their own mikvah four years ago, following directions given in the Artscroll book, "Mikvaot."
"It's small, but it's something," she says.
"We wanted to be empowered to build our own, for who we are," she says, adding that she posts instructions on her Web site, www.homemikvah.org.
"It's great that there are places like Mayyim Hayyim, but even in a small community you can do this," Bottero says. "The more mikvahs the better, so everybody has a choice, and it can become a normative part of Jewish life."