What We Do
Immerse is a pluralistic, feminist, community mikveh project of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan that facilitates deep ritual experiences and educational programs.
Deep Ritual Experiences: Our trained, volunteer mikveh guides facilitate welcoming, transformative mikveh immersions for our diverse Jewish community, which honor the sacred nature of our lives, bodies, and experiences, and reclaim an ancient ritual for a new world.
Educational Programs: We organize workshops and events about mikveh, feminism, and life transitions for adult learners, community groups, religious schools, seminary students and clergy. To arrange a group tour of the mikveh or learn more about related educational offerings at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, please email immerse@mmjccm.org.
Who We Are and Who We Serve
Our staff and mikveh guides include rabbis, educators, parents, young people, men, unaffiliated Jews, queer Jews, Jews of color, and observant women from across the spectrum of Jewish identity. Community members immerse to mark experiences of transition such as healing, conversion, niddah (women's monthly immersion), b’nei mitzvah, and many others.
ImmerseNYC mikveh guides serve our community’s “four children:” those who immerse regularly, those who are skeptical of immersion and might say ‘mikveh?!?,’ those who have not immersed, and those who do not yet know about mikveh immersion.
We model the Jewish community we want to see: a pluralistic network where Jews support one another through life transitions with love and authenticity.
Why Our Work is Important
When our founder, Rabbi Sara Luria, began sharing her vision for ImmerseNYC, she heard again and again from our community that people are seeking connection with one another both during times of celebration (such as weddings and anniversaries) and times of loss (such as divorce, miscarriage, and mourning).
ImmerseNYC was created to help our community members experience sacredness and connect to each other and their Jewish heritage during times of life transition.
Our Vision and Values
Melo chol ha’aretz kevodo: The whole world overflows with holiness.
Every Part of our Lives is Sacred.
Visible, communally recognized milestones have value and so do internal changes that only we can see: our grief, our transitions, our growth.
Our Bodies are Sacred.
Mikveh immersion is one way our tradition encourages us to respect our personal embodied histories and experiences, and to honor our physical form unconditionally.
Inner Work and Communal Work Are Connected.
We believe powerful experiences of ritual and connection, such as mikveh immersions, can help to heal and transform individuals, who can then heal and transform communities, which contributes to the healing and transformation of our society.
