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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 645

mikveh

Archaeologists at Ostia Antica near Rome, Italy, unveiled what they believe is the oldest mikveh ever found outside the land of Israel in March 2025. (Parco archeologico di Ostia antica)
March 14, 2025, 12:14 pm
Roman-era Jewish bath in Italy may be oldest outside of Israel, points to vibrant Diaspora
Newly excavated site in Ostia Antica, dating as early as the 3rd century CE, offers fresh insight and new enigmas about the city’s potential melting pot of Roman Empire communities
By Rossella Tercatin
Head of ITIM Rabbi Seth Farber. (Courtesy)
November 24, 2023, 9:20 am
What Matters Now to Rabbi Seth Farber: Hostages and mixed burials in Jewish law
Issues of religion and state can take on more urgency in times of war. The head of ITIM, an NGO aimed at helping Israelis navigate the country’s religious bureaucracy, explains
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
A mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in a Jerusalem neighborhood. (illustrative photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)
August 31, 2023, 12:58 pm
Public mikvehs routinely violate women’s right to immerse alone, study finds
Analysis by ITIM group reveals that only 188 of 320 of ritual bathhouses in large cities say they comply with a 2016 ruling on the issue
By Canaan Lidor
The site of a former synagogue in Chmielnik, Poland. (Wojciech Domagała/Wikimedia Commons)
August 23, 2023, 4:30 pm
Owner of former nightclub in Poland discovers mikveh in basement
Marian Zwolski, a businessman from the Polish town of Chmielnik, says he hopes to turn the discovery into a tourist attraction or a museum
By jacob gurvis
Steve Gray, a member of Kibbutz Hanaton, stands in an ancient mikveh moved to the kibbutz. (Shmuel Bar-Am)
August 12, 2023, 7:46 am
Immerse yourself in the Holy Land’s history by visiting these ancient ritual baths
Essential to Jewish religious life, mikvehs can be found throughout Israel — and some tell captivating tales of life millennia ago
By Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am
Illustrative: A Jewish wedding with chuppah in Vienna 2007. (CC BY SA 2.5 Gryffindor)
April 16, 2023, 5:20 am
Many Jews eligible to marry via Rabbinate elect to do so abroad instead — survey
Report finds 1 in 3 couples who got a civil marriage could’ve had a religious ceremony in Israel, indicating rising alienation from religious bodies even as observance remains high
By Canaan Lidor
The cover of the new book by Rabbi Haviva Ner-David and Rachel Stock Spilker. (Bedazzled Ink Publishing)
March 20, 2023, 2:04 pm
Mysterious mikveh fish helps educate kids about ritual bath
New children’s book harnesses childish curiosity and wonderment to expose very young readers to the deeper aspects of the Jewish purification ritual
By Canaan Lidor
Mayyim Hayyim is a community mikveh outside of Boston. (Courtesy Mayyim Hayyim via JTA)
February 16, 2023, 8:32 am
Boston pluralistic community mikveh closes after pipes burst in freezing weather
Video shows damage to Mayyim Hayyim congregation’s ritual baths; no date set for reopening; CEO: ‘The impact is devastating’
By Jackie Hajdenberg
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) with Supreme Court President Justice Esther Hayut at a memorial service marking 22 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin held at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, November 1, 2017. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
January 30, 2023, 8:17 am
From a rogue MK to Haredi subsidies, 8 times High Court struck down laws, decisions
As the coalition moves to radically constrain the top court’s capacity to thwart legislation and decisions it considers undemocratic, here’s a look at some of its key interventions
By Jeremy Sharon
An Afghan worker reconstructs part of the Yu Aw synagogue in Herat, Afghanistan. (AFP/Getty via JTA)
October 28, 2022, 10:23 am
Taliban approves conservation work on historic Afghan synagogue, mikveh
Yu Aw synagogue in Herat, formerly home to tens of thousands of Jewish residents, set for $500,000 renovation despite last Jew abandoning city after Taliban takeover
By Jackie Hajdenberg
Rebecca Erev, co-founder of the Queer Mikveh Project, blows the shofar at the first QMP mikveh event at the Albany Bulb in Albany, California, in 2015. (Chani Bockwinkel/ via JTA)
January 17, 2022, 2:37 am
The Queer Mikveh Project immerses marginalized Jews worldwide in a changing ritual
Online and in-person, a new group is making the tradition of the ritual bath communal rather than personal, and more welcoming to non-cis-gendered participants
By Rachel Román
Naian González Norvind as the title character in 'Leona,' directed by Isaac Cherem. (Photo by Diana Garay, courtesy of Fosforescente/ Menemsha Films)
February 12, 2021, 3:51 am
Debut film by Mexican duo, ‘Leona’ is way more than a Jewish ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Nuance, attention to detail, and ultimately, believability make for a gripping journey into Mexico’s insular Syrian Jewish community. Streaming Friday in virtual cinemas
By Jordan Hoffman
Illustrative: Leana Tapnack, seen here with mikvah attendant Talia Lakritz at the West Side Mikvah in New York, decided to observe the laws of niddah together with her wife, Sandy. (Courtesy of Tapnack/ via JTA)
October 24, 2020, 6:46 am
How queer Jews find meaning in the biblical laws of family purity
Guidelines around menstruation and intimacy are a pillar of Jewish life that many same-sex couples refuse to abandon, even as they fear rejection by those running the ritual baths
By Josefin Dolsten
An ancient Roman Jewish farm discovered in the Galilee, with an intact ritual bath that was moved to nearby Kibbutz Hannaton in September 2020 (Courtesy Ibrahim/Israel Antiquities Authority)
September 30, 2020, 7:37 pm
Northern community successfully transfers ancient ritual bath to new home
Kibbutz Hannaton in the Jezreel Valley raised hundreds of thousands of shekels needed to move 57-ton Roman-era mikveh discovered during highway construction
By Jessica Steinberg
Alexa Rae Ibarra immersed in the lake at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires to complete her conversion to Judaism. (Courtesy of Ibarra via JTA)
August 2, 2020, 2:12 am
With many US ritual baths closed, converts go to Jewish summer camp for a dunk
Due to ongoing COVID-19 crisis, camps are shuttered and there are no kids in sight, so 15 Jews by choice immersed themselves in Camp Ramah’s lake to finalize their conversions
By Josefin Dolsten
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