by 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 Sherri Goldman, Administrative and Finance Director It was my joy a few weeks ago to attend my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah in Atlanta. After an impressive Torah reading, his father and my brother, Rabbi Eric Levy, gave a sermon about nonconforming conformity among the Jewish people. I hadn’t heard of nonconforming conformity before, and I […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein My daughter is now 6 ½ years old. The same age as many of last year’s victims in the tragedy at Newtown. In the week leading up to its anniversary, I found my mind pulled in all sorts of directions. Thinking about that awful day, imagining the families’ goodbyes on what seemed […]
Continue Readingby Terri Ash In one of his seminal works, The Lonely Man of Faith, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soleveitchik speaks of a Covenantal Man. This is the Adam of the second creation story in Genesis. As a Jew, that phrasing has always struck me. We are are a people of a covenant. When our boys are born, […]
Continue ReadingRabbi Rachel Silverman is the Rabbi for Congregational Learning at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline. The following is an excerpt from the story I shared with my congregation on Rosh Hashanah. The full text of the sermon can be found here. (http://congki.org/rosh-hashana-sermon-rabbi-silverman/) A few months ago, I received an interesting call from a colleague in […]
Continue Readingby Rachel CaraDonna, Mayyim Hayyim Development Intern Summer is transitioning quickly into fall; the air is becoming noticeably crisp and the leaves are beginning to change. The season known best in New England brings along the classic activities and foods such as apple picking, pumpkin carving, apple crisp, and pumpkin pie. Going anywhere, it’s inevitable […]
Continue Readingby: Mayyim Hayyim Staff It’s not often that young people immerse at Mayyim Hayyim for reasons other than conversion or B’nai Mitzvah. We are however, thrilled to see a renewed interest in immersion as preparation for Shabbat. For the past three Fridays (and two Fridays in 2012), groups of teenagers participating in the Genesis program […]
Continue Readingby Jessica Lang Kosa My daughter Evelyn was born underwater. Soon afterwards, we collected rainwater for her naming ceremony, and washed her feet in living water as we welcomed her to family and community. Three years later, the two of us immersed together, marking her weaning, and welcoming a new stage of her life […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein, Executive Director There’s nothing that lowers one’s body image quite like giving birth. Within a matter of hours, I felt like my body went from its cutest, most beautiful form to its least attractive possible form. I know that it’s a good problem to have – many woman with fertility issues would […]
Continue ReadingBy Mayyim Hayyim Staff To date, nearly 2000 people have chosen Judaism at Mayyim Hayyim! April, May and June are particularly busy months for “brand new Jews”. Ever wonder what goes through people’s minds as they finalize their conversion or affirmation process at Mayyim Hayyim? Here are some quotes from our guest book… Thank you […]
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