Carrie Bornstein

Facing the Future – An Update from Mayyim Hayyim

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by Carrie Bornstein, Executive Director For those of you on Mayyim Hayyim’s email list, you likely saw the message we shared last month that it appears the organization has been the victim of financial improprieties by a former staff person. While we are still working with forensic accountants to determine the exact extent and duration […]

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LGBTQ+, Mikveh Guides

Pride and Liberation at the Mikveh

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by Naomi Sobel, Mikveh Guide If you ask Hallmark, June is wedding season. In my immediate family, June is a roller-coaster: we have three yartzheits (anniversary of one’s death), two birthdays (on the same day!), plus Father’s Day. At Mayyim Hayyim, it’s peak season for conversions – we have 25 conversion immersions scheduled just this month. […]

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Life Transitions

Hineni

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by Rabbi Salem Pearce Two weeks ago, I immersed at Mayyim Hayyim with almost a dozen people. The calendar full of appointments, one after the other, we took over the mikveh that early Friday morning. I immersed with my classmates, all of us candidates for rabbinical ordination from Hebrew College. We were to receive smicha […]

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Fertility

Filling a Need in the Jewish Community

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by Lisa Berman, Mikveh and Education Director On May 30, we at Mayyim Hayyim launched our newest resource: Fertility Journeys: A Jewish Healing Guide. This book, lovingly created and compiled by Dalia Davis of Uprooted: The Jewish Communal Response to Fertility Journeys, provides readers a wealth of texts, meditations, stories, and exercises – all from […]

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Art Gallery and Education Center, Youth

Mikveh Competition in Somerville?

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The seventh graders of the Jewish Community Day School (JCDS) are building a mikveh in Somerville. Or, to put it more precisely, a team of dedicated JCDS educators (in partnership with Mayyim Hayyim and others) created a week-long Learning Adventure that involved a hands-on education program at Mayyim Hayyim, followed by a week designing all […]

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Conversion and Affirmation, LGBTQ+

Ode to Spontaneous Selves

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by Al Reitz It was fall the first time I asked my mom if I looked handsome, about halfway through my process of becoming Jewish. It’s hard to forget a moment like that—something shifts. I had my chin up high, my button-down shirt layered under a leather jacket. I wasn’t sold on the word quite […]

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Potpourri

Hope Lives Here

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by Leah Robbins, Administrative and Marketing Assistant I hate to sound like a nihilist, but we are living in a profoundly uninspiring moment – a bleak and unyielding cycle of shock and sadness. In an even more inverted universe, I’m finding my workplace, of all places, to be the only oasis of joy. In the […]

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Special Events

A Dream Mikveh – 3 Years Later

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Sheri Gurock has served as President of the Mayyim Hayyim Board since January 2016. We will honor her integrity, fierce passion, and devotion to innovative Jewish life at Coming Up for Air on May 24 at 6:00PM. Join us for mikveh stories and circus arts as we celebrate Sheri and her husband, Eli, and Idit […]

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National Network

You are Welcome (At the Mikveh)

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by Amber Caulkins, Director, Rising Tide Open Waters Mikveh Network Recently, I have been thinking a lot about what makes a mikveh welcoming: a place that invites you in, makes you feel that you belong, and gives you the space to have a meaningful experience. These thoughts haven’t emerged out of the blue, of course. […]

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Men, Shabbat and Holidays

Shavuot Reflections – Revisited

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As we prepare for the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, we wanted to re-share this post reflecting on the relationship between Mount Sinai, marriage, and mikveh. Join us May 19 at 8:00PM at the Community Tikkun Leil Shavuot for dramaturgy and discussion with Associate Director of Education, Leeza Negelev. Originally posted May 25, 2012 by Rabbi David […]

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Special Events

Taking in New Air

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by Rachel Eisen, Director of Annual Giving What does it mean to come up for air? What does it mean to breathe deeply, to take time to be refreshed and rejuvenated, so that you can give of yourself to create a better a world? That’s the side of Mayyim Hayyim we’ll be exploring and celebrating […]

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Life Transitions, Men

A Post-Tufts Tevilah

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As graduation day nears, we invite you to consider immersion as a way to appreciate your journey to this milestone. An immersion gift certificate also makes a thoughtful gift for graduates. Originally posted June 21, 2017 by Andrew Wofford When my Rabbi suggested that I immerse in the mikveh to mark my graduation from college, I was rather confused […]

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