This mikvah was hidden for 500 years — it’s still a place for purification and connection
In Sicily, at Europe's oldest surviving ritual bath, a chance encounter that maybe wasn't so chance, after all
mikvah
The Latest
-
Culture -
Fast Forward Sun, sand, reggae — and ritual bath: A mikvah in Jamaica
Chabad opens the island’s only mikvah. Will more Jewish destination weddings follow?
-
Life Will my friend think it’s weird that I don’t sleep with my husband on my period?
From its start in 1906, A Bintel Brief was a pillar of the Forward, helping generations of Jewish immigrants learn how to be American. Now our columnists are helping people navigate the complexities of being Jewish in 2020. Send questions to [email protected]. Dear Bintel, My husband and I are visiting a friend of mine from…
-
Life American Jews Are Getting Rituals Like Mikveh All Wrong
In our community, there is a Marine Corps captain currently on yet another deployment to Afghanistan. He serves our country as both a soldier, and a medic and a firefighter. Every day of his deployment While he’s deployed, he sees the devastating effects of war on children, women and the elderly. And every time he…
-
Life The Forward Guide To The Mikveh
Most religions, including the “big three” (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), incorporate water as a means of ritually cleansing the body for religious practice. And in Judaism, the mikveh is a ritual bath filled with rain water used for a variety of purposes, including conversion, marital purity, immersing newly acquired utensils, and preparation of the body…
-
Life Mikveh And The American Jewish Woman: It’s Complicated
The ultimate training for a rebbetzin is not, in fact, hosting a Shabbat dinner, or remembering the name of a congregant during Kiddush. It happens, actually, in your dining room on a late weeknight. When you’re basically still a novice bride yourself, your wig sitting awkwardly on your head, not yet molded to your crown,…
-
Fast Forward Synagogue Reaches Settlement In Case Of Rabbi Who Spied On Women In Mikveh
A Washington, D.C. synagogue has reached a settlement with people who filed a class action lawsuit after the synagogue’s former rabbi secretly videotaped women in the mikvah ritual bath. If the court approves the settlement, the cases would be resolved on a class-wide basis for $14.25 million, rather than the $100 million originally sought, according…
-
Life The Mikveh Is The Trendy Place To Be, In Manhattan’s Upper West Side
ImmerseNYC, a non-profit start-up founded by Rabbi Sara Luria, will be merging with the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, the JCC has announced. ImmerseNYC is a pluralistic, feminist project which facilitates “welcoming, tranformative mikveh immersions” through volunteer mikveh guides and educational programming around Jewish ritual bath immersions. The merge will mark the JCC as the first…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Music For Bob Dylan’s biographer, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a dream come true — even if it’s mostly fiction
- 2
Culture They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka
- 3
Culture ‘A Complete Unknown’ proves that one thing about Bob Dylan will certainly endure
- 4
Film & TV Why ‘The Brutalist’ resonated so deeply with me
In Case You Missed It
-
News 18 notable Jews who died in 2024
-
Fast Forward Department of Ed resolves Title VI antisemitism complaints against 5 U of California campuses, U of Cincinnati
-
Theater While Yiddish lives, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s ghost stories may flourish
-
Yiddish World Frankie’s Menorah (a Yiddish Hanukkah story)
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
