February is Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month. Recently, we partnered with our friends at Kesher Newton, whose students learned about marking life transitions through mikveh and created some beautiful social stories about visiting the mikveh. Social stories are a visual learning tool, originally developed to support people with autism. The Kesher students lovingly created […]
Continue Readingby Erica Riddick I came up, breaking the surface of the water, and opened my eyes. Fresh lake water droplets melded with my saltwater tears. So many things colliding together at once burst forth as a geyser of emotion. I had entered the water in Saugatuck, Michigan with the intention of marking a transition toward […]
Continue Readingby Molly Kazan, Development Manager We’re really into water and its whole shtick over here. We exist because of water. We know all about its properties, we cherish its power, and we revel in its potential. Closing our doors this month because of water damage has been such a blow to our hearts. The bright […]
Continue ReadingDear Friend, I am writing to share important and bittersweet news with you. After fifteen years on staff and nearly eleven years serving as CEO of Mayyim Hayyim, Carrie Bornstein has decided to step down from that role in summer 2023. Since 2006, Carrie has been a pillar of the Mayyim Hayyim community, first as […]
Continue ReadingDecember 2022 / Kislev 5783 Dear friend, A few months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I opened my email to find this message: “Mayyim Hayyim will always be a safe place to mark an abortion, whatever the circumstances. Many in our community are righteously angry and ready to fight for our rights.” This blew […]
Continue ReadingTishrei 5783 / October 2022 Dear friend, My group of friends has a history of going on mikveh adventures. Once it was skinny dipping in a river before Shabbat. Another time it was in a cave in Israel. Most recently, my friend, Moises, invited us to join him at Mayyim Hayyim a few days before […]
Continue ReadingIn November 2004, the Sixth Day Group, a group of thirteen women gathered at Mayyim Hayyim; some were cancer survivors, others were caregivers and health care professionals. They had each wished for a specifically Jewish, spiritual guide to the difficult journey through treatment and its aftermath, and decided to join together and create one. For […]
Continue Readingby Rachel Eisen, Director of Development Who decides what ritual is and ritual means? I’m guessing you won’t be surprised if I told that here at Mayyim Hayyim, we believe the answer to that question is: you. At Mayyim Hayyim, we focus on making it possible for you to own the ritual of mikveh immersion […]
Continue ReadingOriginally posted February 22, 2016 By Shari Zakim-Yacouby and Talya Sokoll Talya: One thing I’ve learned in my 30 years as a Jew is that there is no one right way to be Jewish. Although my experience of living a fulfilling Jewish life has been intrinsically intertwined with the communities I am part of, I feel […]
Continue ReadingOriginally published April 4, 2018 by Naomi Baine My husband and I go to the mikveh together. It may not be common, but for us, it’s great. Here’s why. We observe niddah, the practice of abstaining from sexual intimacy around the time of menstruation. The Torah forbids men from being intimate with women in a state […]
Continue ReadingBy Steph Black It’s not often you can feel, in real time, pieces of your identity fall into place. Though I was apprehensive to attend, the Rising Tide Summer Gathering was invaluable for me as a person, as a Jew, and as a young woman. I was able to attend because of Naomi Malka, Director […]
Continue ReadingHere at Mayyim Hayyim, we love receiving letters and notes from our guests. Whether from students, from those who are celebrating, from those who are healing, or even from long-time volunteers, it is a joy for us to read about how Mayyim Hayyim has made a difference in someone’s life. So we were thrilled to […]
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