Rabbi Menachem Blumental, the Rabbinate’s director of the Mikvaot Division, recalls, “The Batei Rand mikvah hadn’t been renovated in decades and had deteriorated into the worst possible condition. The mikvah was screaming, ‘Save me!’” He began searching for donors to fund the mikvah’s renovation. Mrs. Annie Hier, a stay-at-home mother in Jerusalem’s Shaarei Chesed neighborhood, also did.
Mrs. Hier, who made aliya from Los Angeles, had been shocked when she first saw the run-down condition of the mikvah. “Over the years, I had met newly married women who had come home crying after their experience at this mikvah,” she says. “I saw the disgusted reactions of non-religious women, who are required by the government to use a mikvah before getting married. Going to this mikvah was a degrading experience for women.
“Having had pleasant mikvah experiences in the States, I knew that creating more modern and attractive mikvaot in Israel would enable women to look forward to this beautiful mitzvah with the appropriate frame of mind.”
After months of organizing community fundraising events and hard work, Mrs. Hier located a family of American business-owners who expressed interest in anonymously donating the approximately $400,000 required to renovate the mikvah.
Mrs. Hier explains that this couple’s only motivation for this incredibly generous donation, made in honor of their parents, was, “the sincere desire to do a mitzvah.”
The mikvah re-opened for use this past month. It has been transformed from one of Jerusalem’s most neglected, into arguably its most beautiful. The team of professionals who oversaw the renovation managed to create a luxurious yet tasteful mikvah while maintaining the atmosphere of holiness and serenity that have been the mikvah’s trademark for the past century.
Rabbi Blumental says, “We strive to create attractive mikvaot in every neighborhood, but in less religious communities, such as the Nachlaot neigborhood served by the Batei Rand mikvah, we know that the neighborhood mikvah’s attractiveness is often the deciding factor in whether women will observe this crucial mitzvah or not.
“Several years ago,” Rabbi Blumental recalls, “we were rebuilding a mikvah that had been in very bad condition in the largely secular East Talpiot neighborhood. During the renovations, a man came to the construction site and asked the site supervisor, ‘Where were you 10 years ago when I needed you?’ He explained that after his wife had seen the terrible state of the neighborhood mikvah, she had insisted, “If that pit is what a mikvah is, then I am never going to a mikvah again!” They were not able to reach a compromise, and the couple divorced.
“After we have renovated mikvaot in religiously-mixed neighborhoods,” Rabbi Blumental explains, “we have regularly seen mikvah attendance rise by up to 700%. In the largely secular neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem, for example, since a donor gave money to renovate the local mikvah, around 300 new families have started using the mikvah on a regular basis.”
For the past three years, the Rabbinate’s Mikvah Division has suffered from severe budget cuts.
Rabbi Blumental laments, “Despite the urgent need to renovate many of the city’s older mikvaot, because of budget cuts, we do not have one shekel to contribute to this important project. For this reason, we are currently seeking donors to contribute to the renovation of the mikvaot in the largely secular and traditional Jerusalem neighborhoods of Rechavia, Katamonim, Neve Yaakov, and Bakaa.”
At the official celebration for the Batei Rand Mikvah’s reopening this past Sukkot, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger declared, “This exquisite mikvah will serve to draw hundreds of women to the mitzvah of family purity. These women and their families owe an infinite debt to the donors, whose reward for bringing this crucial mitzvah to so many families is unfathomable.”
The Batei Rand Mikvah is located at R. HaNetsiv 8 (off R. Betsalel, across from the Gerard Behar Center). Phone number: 02-625-5560.
Mrs. Annie Hier is currently raising funds to renovate the mikvah of Rechavia. This mikvah is conveniently located near Jerusalem’s major hotels. To learn more about contributing to this or other renovation projects of Jerusalem’s mikvaot, please contact her at anniehier@yahoo.com or call 011-972-(0)52-337-3230.
Mrs. Hier, who made aliya from Los Angeles, had been shocked when she first saw the run-down condition of the mikvah. “Over the years, I had met newly married women who had come home crying after their experience at this mikvah,” she says. “I saw the disgusted reactions of non-religious women, who are required by the government to use a mikvah before getting married. Going to this mikvah was a degrading experience for women.
“Having had pleasant mikvah experiences in the States, I knew that creating more modern and attractive mikvaot in Israel would enable women to look forward to this beautiful mitzvah with the appropriate frame of mind.”
After months of organizing community fundraising events and hard work, Mrs. Hier located a family of American business-owners who expressed interest in anonymously donating the approximately $400,000 required to renovate the mikvah.
Mrs. Hier explains that this couple’s only motivation for this incredibly generous donation, made in honor of their parents, was, “the sincere desire to do a mitzvah.”
The mikvah re-opened for use this past month. It has been transformed from one of Jerusalem’s most neglected, into arguably its most beautiful. The team of professionals who oversaw the renovation managed to create a luxurious yet tasteful mikvah while maintaining the atmosphere of holiness and serenity that have been the mikvah’s trademark for the past century.
Rabbi Blumental says, “We strive to create attractive mikvaot in every neighborhood, but in less religious communities, such as the Nachlaot neigborhood served by the Batei Rand mikvah, we know that the neighborhood mikvah’s attractiveness is often the deciding factor in whether women will observe this crucial mitzvah or not.
“Several years ago,” Rabbi Blumental recalls, “we were rebuilding a mikvah that had been in very bad condition in the largely secular East Talpiot neighborhood. During the renovations, a man came to the construction site and asked the site supervisor, ‘Where were you 10 years ago when I needed you?’ He explained that after his wife had seen the terrible state of the neighborhood mikvah, she had insisted, “If that pit is what a mikvah is, then I am never going to a mikvah again!” They were not able to reach a compromise, and the couple divorced.
“After we have renovated mikvaot in religiously-mixed neighborhoods,” Rabbi Blumental explains, “we have regularly seen mikvah attendance rise by up to 700%. In the largely secular neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem, for example, since a donor gave money to renovate the local mikvah, around 300 new families have started using the mikvah on a regular basis.”
For the past three years, the Rabbinate’s Mikvah Division has suffered from severe budget cuts.
Rabbi Blumental laments, “Despite the urgent need to renovate many of the city’s older mikvaot, because of budget cuts, we do not have one shekel to contribute to this important project. For this reason, we are currently seeking donors to contribute to the renovation of the mikvaot in the largely secular and traditional Jerusalem neighborhoods of Rechavia, Katamonim, Neve Yaakov, and Bakaa.”
At the official celebration for the Batei Rand Mikvah’s reopening this past Sukkot, Israel’s Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger declared, “This exquisite mikvah will serve to draw hundreds of women to the mitzvah of family purity. These women and their families owe an infinite debt to the donors, whose reward for bringing this crucial mitzvah to so many families is unfathomable.”
The Batei Rand Mikvah is located at R. HaNetsiv 8 (off R. Betsalel, across from the Gerard Behar Center). Phone number: 02-625-5560.
Mrs. Annie Hier is currently raising funds to renovate the mikvah of Rechavia. This mikvah is conveniently located near Jerusalem’s major hotels. To learn more about contributing to this or other renovation projects of Jerusalem’s mikvaot, please contact her at anniehier@yahoo.com or call 011-972-(0)52-337-3230.
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Batei Rand is located next to Mazkeret Moshe. The neighborhood, named in honor of Mendel Rand who donated the funds, was built in 1910 for 22 very poor ultra-orthodox families. Each apartment has two rooms with a kitchen outside in the courtyard.
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Batei Rand
From The Jewish Press: America's Largest Independent Weekly
Jerusalem's Oldest Mikvah Is Reborn
By: Chana (Jenny) Weisberg
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
For years I have heard people say that my neighborhood mikvah, the oldest publicly-operated mikvah in Jerusalem, is a very special place. But I have never been sure exactly why.
Shoshana Levy, who has worked in the Nachlaot neighborhood’s Batei Rand mikvah for the past 35 years, explains the basis for our mikvah’s unique reputation. “After the mikvah was built, a prominent Kabbalistic rabbi placed a blessing over this mikvah that every woman who immerses here will be blessed with children.”
For many years, there was a plaque in the mikvah that memorialized this blessing. The plaque is no longer there, but according to Mrs. Levy, the rabbi’s blessing still performs its wonders.
“Once there was a woman who immersed in the mikvah,” Mrs. Levy recalls, “but something went wrong, so she had to immerse again. I blessed her that she would have twins, in the merit of the fact that she had been so careful and had immersed twice. And sure enough, a few months later she called, and had given birth to twins.
“For many years I had a special 600-year-old vessel from Iran with which I would pour mikvah water over women who had been unable to conceive. We saw many miracles among women who became pregnant after many years when they used our mikvah. Today, like the rabbi’s plaque, I no longer have this vessel, but the wonders continue. Just this past week, a woman who had been trying to conceive for seven years called to say that she has finally become pregnant.”
Most of the women who use the Batei Rand mikvah live in the surrounding neighborhoods of Nachlaot, Shaarei Chesed, and Makor Baruch. But women who have heard of the mikvah’s blessing have come from as far away as Switzerland.
Today, the historic Batei Rand section of Nachlaot is a closed charedi community that bears more resemblance to Mea Shearim than to Nachlaot’s diverse population of secular, traditional, and Orthodox Jews. It is hard to believe that this community, where Yiddish is spoken in most homes, thrives just a two minutes walk away from downtown Jerusalem’s modern commercial center.
Jerusalem's Oldest Mikvah Is Reborn
By: Chana (Jenny) Weisberg
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
For years I have heard people say that my neighborhood mikvah, the oldest publicly-operated mikvah in Jerusalem, is a very special place. But I have never been sure exactly why.
Shoshana Levy, who has worked in the Nachlaot neighborhood’s Batei Rand mikvah for the past 35 years, explains the basis for our mikvah’s unique reputation. “After the mikvah was built, a prominent Kabbalistic rabbi placed a blessing over this mikvah that every woman who immerses here will be blessed with children.”
For many years, there was a plaque in the mikvah that memorialized this blessing. The plaque is no longer there, but according to Mrs. Levy, the rabbi’s blessing still performs its wonders.
“Once there was a woman who immersed in the mikvah,” Mrs. Levy recalls, “but something went wrong, so she had to immerse again. I blessed her that she would have twins, in the merit of the fact that she had been so careful and had immersed twice. And sure enough, a few months later she called, and had given birth to twins.
“For many years I had a special 600-year-old vessel from Iran with which I would pour mikvah water over women who had been unable to conceive. We saw many miracles among women who became pregnant after many years when they used our mikvah. Today, like the rabbi’s plaque, I no longer have this vessel, but the wonders continue. Just this past week, a woman who had been trying to conceive for seven years called to say that she has finally become pregnant.”
Most of the women who use the Batei Rand mikvah live in the surrounding neighborhoods of Nachlaot, Shaarei Chesed, and Makor Baruch. But women who have heard of the mikvah’s blessing have come from as far away as Switzerland.
Today, the historic Batei Rand section of Nachlaot is a closed charedi community that bears more resemblance to Mea Shearim than to Nachlaot’s diverse population of secular, traditional, and Orthodox Jews. It is hard to believe that this community, where Yiddish is spoken in most homes, thrives just a two minutes walk away from downtown Jerusalem’s modern commercial center.
The philanthropist Rabbi Mendel Rand bought the land on which the Batei Rand neighborhood was built close to 100 years ago. In his native Galicia, Rabbi Rand had been a wealthy landowner and distributor of dairy products. But he realized that his wealth was not bringing him happiness, and in 1901 he decided to sell everything and move his family to the land of Israel in order to devote himself there to the performance of mitzvot and good deeds.
In 1909, after buying several properties in the Old City, Rabbi Rand purchased the property where the Batei Rand neighborhood would be built, and where he would live with his family until he died. The very first structure on his property was the mikvah.
Despite the mikvah’s distinguished history, and the special blessing it has brought over the years to women who visit it, over the past decade the Batei Rand mikvah had become a source of local embarrassment rather than the source of pride it should be.
In 1909, after buying several properties in the Old City, Rabbi Rand purchased the property where the Batei Rand neighborhood would be built, and where he would live with his family until he died. The very first structure on his property was the mikvah.
Despite the mikvah’s distinguished history, and the special blessing it has brought over the years to women who visit it, over the past decade the Batei Rand mikvah had become a source of local embarrassment rather than the source of pride it should be.
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God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
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