by Becca Shimshak “For the Jews, there was light, happiness, joy and honor; so it should be for us.” ~Esther 8:16 with quote from prayer for Havdalah When I got married ten years ago, I chose this quote for our wedding invitation. For all of our friends, there were big, beautiful weddings. Hotels, tuxedos, cute flower […]
Continue Readingby Tamara Reese This article originally appeared on kveller.com I had hoped for a mikveh immersion at the end of my first pregnancy. I wanted the ritual waters to embrace me as a soon-to-be mother as openly as they had to Judaism and to marriage. I had dreamed of how I wanted every aspect of […]
Continue Readingby Shira M. Cohen-Goldberg This has been a hard year. At this time last year my heart was a well of despair. Some of you may have read about how I emerged from having a miscarriage at 12 weeks gestation last year on this blog. Writing that post was extremely healing for me. Many of you reached […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Haviva Ner David I arrived home last night to Israel, where I live with my husband and seven children. We were all in the U.S. to visit family, and I stayed on for a short book tour for my new memoir. It was an intense three weeks of 24/7 family bonding and little […]
Continue Readingby Sheila Handler It’s Thursday evening and I’m lying in my bathtub, preparing myself for the mikveh. In the background, the radio is playing, announcing the missile strikes, as they hit; down South, in Ashkelon, Yavne and Be’er Sheva; in the center of our country, in Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva and Kfar Saba; up North […]
Continue Readingby Jody Comins, Development and Events Coordinator When my older daughter was born fifteen years ago, I went to my supervisor and asked if I could work 4 days a week to have time with my baby. A year later, I cut my hours back to “mom’s hours” and she said to me, “It’s wonderful to […]
Continue Readingby Jody Comins, Development and Events Coordinator Last Sunday, I had a glimpse into one of the many amazing programs that happen here at Mayyim Hayyim, when my younger daughter came with her Rosh Hodesh, It’s a Girl Thing group to the mikveh. My daughter, Elizabeth, and the other girls in the group are from […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein It’s been just over a year since I brought my 5-year old to the mikveh to prepare for becoming a double big sister. Three weeks after that immersion, Jonah was born and our family adjusted to its new addition. The experience Ellie and I shared was powerful and I am grateful that […]
Continue Readingby Hope Suttin Late last year, my youngest daughter, Liana, and I spent three Sunday afternoons at Mayyim Hayyim participating in their Beneath the Surface class for Bat Mitzvah girls and their mothers. We joined on a friend’s recommendation and had no expectations. I had attended several fundraisers for Mayyim Hayyim over the years, but […]
Continue ReadingBy Lisa Berman, Director of Education I’ve been thinking a lot lately about listening. It began as my colleague, Rabbi Sarah Tasman, and I worked to create a new program here at Mayyim Hayyim for moms and 8/9th grade daughters. Inspired by our successful bat mitzvah mother-daughter program, Beneath the Surface, we wanted to design two Sunday […]
Continue Readingby Shira M. Cohen-Goldberg You have to start somewhere. Everybody starts somewhere. But my little one started and never got there. Now I am here, crying inside. Here I am at Mayyim Hayyim. This water, this mikveh, lets me write my life, marking time with every visit. I remember immersing as my heart burst with joy, […]
Continue Readingby Jody Comins, Development and Events Coordinator …said my daughter, Talia, who just started her freshman year at Gann Academy. I was thinking the same thing! This is a big year for my family, with both children starting new schools. Talia started high school and Elizabeth started middle school. On the first day of school […]
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