“… prayer can be held in virtually any location… But Jewish married life… is possible only where there is accessibility to a mikvah… the touchstone of Jewish life and the portal to a Jewish future….” (R. Slonim, “The Jewish Woman”)
Ancient Mikvahs (ritual baths) mark the history of Jewish life around the world. They existed even in Biblical times; but only under Soviet rule did Jewish women actually risk their lives to visit the illegal mikvahs of Tashkent, Moscow and Kiev.
Over the past 20 years, the Federation of Jewish Communities has built, with the participation of the Mamash foundation and the Rabbinical Center of Europe, dozens of new mikvahs throughout the Former Soviet Union. Attractive, inviting, clean and discreet, they are designed with the modern Jewish woman at heart.
Our goal is to build a mikvah in every Jewish community, so that lengthy excursions to purify the body will be a thing of the past.
