Water and Wine with ImmerseNYC

I’ve heard that for those who come to use the mikveh (ritual bath) with ImmerseNYC and other community mikvaot across the country, one of the most powerful aspects is the embodied experience of feeling fully accepted and enveloped in the warm water. Our lay-led planning team for Water and Wine, ImmerseNYC’s launch event, attempted to replicate that experience for attendees. 

We wanted to send the message that through various life experiences — whether a person is filled with gratitude, grief or both — the Jewish community has the capacity to hold them in a warm embrace.

It’s hard to say exactly how successful we were in accomplishing that goal, but looking around the room, at Jewish people spanning the denominational spectrum — laughing, crying and honoring each other by listening to stories about mikveh use, appreciating one another and engaging in creative ritual — I know we are on the right track on our journey towards nurturing a deeply caring Jewish community. 

To see more photos from the event (and find your favorite Wexner alums in the pictures!), click here. To schedule an immersion or explore our fertility/pregnancy loss resources, please visit us at www.immersenyc.org. 

Hadas (Dasi) Fruchter, a current Wexner Graduate Fellow (Class 25), thrives on spiritual leadership, community building and faith-driven social justice work. Originally from Silver Spring, MD, Dasi is studying to be ordained as clergy at Yeshivat Maharat, the first institution to train Orthodox Jewish women as spiritual leaders and halakhic (Jewish law) authorities, and is the current Maharat Scholar at Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah in Potomac, MD. She is a graduate of NYU’s Wagner School for Public Service and also holds an MA in Jewish Studies. Dasi, who has experience organizing for economic justice with organizations in New York, Washington D.C., London and Israel, is also a presenter on Judaism, social justice, feminism and conflict resolution at synagogues, schools and conferences. Dasi works at ImmerseNYC, New York’s only community mikveh project. She can be reached at fruchterhadas@gmail.com.