Coming full circle, Mayyim Hayyim CEO returns to mikveh where she immersed to convert

As our introductory film highlights, we don’t not only have to pay attention to wheelchair accessibility, but also to people with other disabilities like blindness or Down syndrome. How do you welcome them in to what you’re doing, so that it works for them – whether you’re in a mikveh or anywhere else. Our goal here is to say yes and to be as open and as welcoming as possible, and that means giving as much of the ownership and the decision-making rights to the person who is coming in the door, who is immersing; they get to call the shots, not me, because it’s not my immersion. Childers succeeds Bornstein after local community roles including executive director at Our Bodies Ourselves and assistant director at UCLA’s Streisand Center for the Study of Women, as well as a stint at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

About Mayyim Hayyim

Mayyim Hayyim houses two immersion pools, an education center and an art gallery that offers programming and events for adults and children. Mayyim Hayyim is a “kosher” or “proper” mikveh, built and maintained under rabbinic supervision. Each of our two mikva’ot actually consists of two permanent pools, watertight pits built into the ground. The first, smaller pool is located outside and called the bor haotzar (collection pool); it is filled with at least 40 se’ah or 200 gallons of “living water” (water not drawn by human hands). At Mayyim Hayyim, rain water fulfills this purpose; our borot (pl) each contain at least 500 gallons of rain/living water.

Mayyim Hayyim

We bought an aquatic lift that’s used to help lower someone into the water who can’t walk; that was an early purchase. There was someone who was converting to Judaism, normal balance who waited for Mayyim Hayyim to open in order to convert. He helped us figure it out, including what kind of equipment we’d need to purchase and how to protect someone’s privacy.

Coming full circle, Mayyim Hayyim CEO returns to mikveh where she immersed to convert

We’re also creating a new picture-guide version of our Seven Kavanot for mikveh preparation, which is a whole set of steps that a person goes through to get ready for the mikveh. In many mikvaot, there’s a photocopied checklist on the wall that says, “Take a shower, brush your teeth,” etc. Ours has that, but it’s also a spiritual kind of preparation, that helps you think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Because most American Jews were unfamiliar with even the idea of mikveh, Mayyim Hayyim’s board and executive director launched a dual campaign to teach about the possibilities of this ancient ritual as well as to raise funds to build a totally unprecedented institution. But with visionary help from many individuals mayyim hayyim in the greater Boston area, the idea caught on and money was raised. In the next couple of weeks, we’re launching a companion discussion guide to go along with that six-minute film.

Michaela first learned about Mayyim Hayyim through Temple Beth Elohim in 2007 and immersed prior to becoming bat mitzvah. Michaela was a Judaic studies major at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She forged a strong Jewish identity through her upbringing at Temple Beth Elohim as a cantorial mentee, assistant teacher and youth choir director, personal tutor, and congregant Shabbat service leader for 14 years. She attended URJ Eisner camp and traveled to Israel, where she connected with Jews of all denominations and gained a deep understanding of and love for the broader Jewish community.

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• The walkway coming into the building is all to regulation – there are no stairs to climb.
• In raising funds for its launch, the mikveh’s board and executive director launched a campaign to educate as well as to fundraise; in 2004, the facility opened in the Boston suburb of Newton, Mass., with two mikva’ot – immersion pools – four preparation suites, and a reception area.
• Mayyim Hayyim has a filter/disinfectant system in the basement, through which the water to the two mikva’ot flows.
• The spaces on the floor where people would need to go for the education center or the mikveh are all wheelchair-accessible.
• In 2019, Mayyim Hayyim celebrated its 20,000th immersion and 3,000th conversion.
• Mayyim Hayyim opened in 2004 and by the end of 2014, it had hosted more than 2,000 conversions and nearly 14,000 immersions over all.

Writer Anita Diamant, author Partnership Accounting of the novel The Red Tent, had the idea to create a beautiful, vibrant, inclusive mikveh space, Childers said. Diamant assembled a small, dynamic founding board and hired Aliza Kline as Mayyim Hayyim’s executive director. In raising funds for its launch, the mikveh’s board and executive director launched a campaign to educate as well as to fundraise; in 2004, the facility opened in the Boston suburb of Newton, Mass., with two mikva’ot – immersion pools – four preparation suites, and a reception area. The facility is also home to the Paula Brody & Family Education Center, which contains an event hall and art gallery.

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• Michaela lives in Quincy and is raising a Siberian Husky puppy, as well as two Blue and Gold Macaw Parrots.
• In fact one of Mayyim Hayyim’s guiding principles is tzniyut which means modesty.
• In addition to traditional purposes, new uses include celebrations for milestone events such as a graduation, the end of a period of study, or an important birthday or anniversary.
• Everything else, where you’re building from scratch, I don’t know that it added expense.
• We’re here to say “yes” as much as we possibly can, to welcome in the whole diversity of the Jewish community.

“The mivkeh should be place for reflection and celebration, but there was no time for any of those people to meditate or sing; nowhere for the assembled rabbis to lead each of those new Jews through a thoughtful, personal ritual; and afterward, nothing to do but get back in the car. As if it was no big deal to change your identity, alter your family constellation, and transform the Jewish people forever. Since the opening of its building, the organization has sponsored art exhibits and public programs to engage the community. To mark its first anniversary, the group staged a performance of Mikveh Monologues, modeled after Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, and featuring the stories of mikveh users. There are communities now that have started something completely from scratch, based on this model.

• For Boston-area Jews who immerse ritually on a monthly basis, in keeping with Jewish tradition, the closure could be a significant interruption.
• But with visionary help from many individuals in the greater Boston area, the idea caught on and money was raised.
• She’s also an entrepreneur and a community activist who has launched multiple programs to build community in her town.
• At its local “test kitchen” and innovation lab in Boston, Mayyim Hayyim is a destination for Jews across the spectrum of observance and affiliation.
• In 2001, the only local option for people who were converting to Judaism was an Orthodox mikveh with minimal capacity for non-Orthodox conversions.

Partnering with him was really important in figuring out how to do this in a way that preserves and maintains one’s dignity through this process, this celebration. We’re here to say “yes” as much as we possibly can, to welcome in the whole diversity of the Jewish community. That means anticipating people’s needs, anticipating all of the reasons why they might think that this is ‘not for them’, or weird, or scary – all the different sensitivities that people understandably have around mikveh – how can we just throw those out the window? How can we get around them, and change things so it doesn’t have to be like that.