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By Donald H. Harrison
 SAN DIEGO—Although word had leaked out unofficially, Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal made it official during Rosh Hashanah services on Saturday, September 19. The Conservative congregation has agreed to provide land for a community mikvah in San Diego—the first such facility that will be available for non-Orthodox conversions as well as for non-traditional Jewish rituals.
The rabbi said that the synagogue has given Waters of Eden--San Diego Community Mikvah and Education Center an “offer they couldn’t refuse”—a $1-a-year, 50-year lease on a piece of land adjacent to the parking lot of Tifereth Israel Synagogue but separated visually and physically from the synagogue buildings. There is also an option to renew for another 50 years.
Previously the land had been used as a playing field by the San Diego Jewish Academy before that school closed its campus in the San Carlos region of San Diego and consolidated its operations at its present site in the Carmel Valley area.
Although there are three mikvaot operated under Orthodox auspices in San Diego, none are available for conversions by the other movements. This means that many people who convert to Judaism under Conservative auspices, for example, now must go to American Jewish University in Los Angeles, where they meet with a beth din (three-member rabbinical court) and then immerse in a ritual bath. Some ritual immersions have taken place alternatively in the Pacific Ocean.
The Waters of Eden project has been supported by the San Diego Rabbinical Association (SDRA), whose members include pulpit rabbis drawn from the Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform movements as well as rabbis who work as educators and at other endeavors.
Rosenthal told the High Holy Day congregation that the idea of building a community mikvah in San Diego was given impetus after Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent, spoke to the United Jewish Federation’s Women’s Division “Options” event in February 2008. Coincidentally, Diamant is to be a Nov. 10 luncheon speaker at this year’s San Diego Jewish Book Fair. Her latest novel is Day After Night, which follows the lives of four Jewish women after they survive the Holocaust and immigrate to Israel.
Rabbi Scott Meltzer of Congregation Ohr Shalom is serving as SDRA's liaison to the Waters of Eden. He said the rabbis' main role will be to make certain that the mikvah is constructed and then operated in accordance with rabbinic law, so that everyone can use it. He said that Rabbi Benzion Bergman, who was responsible for the construction of the mikvah at American Jewish University (known formerly as the University of Judaism) as well as the Mayyim Hayyim mikvah near Boston has lectured to SDRA on the kashrut of mikvah, and continues to be consulted by its members.
One of the reasons that Tifereth was an appealing location for Waters of Eden, Rosenthal said, is that the particular piece of land can be accessed directly from the lower parking lot thus providing privacy for people who use the mikvah.
Meltzer said the fact that Tifereth Israel Synagogue is located in the eastern portion of the City of San Diego at 6660 Cowles Mountain Boulevard means that some people may have to drive as long as a half hour to an hour to reach it from the northernmost parts of the county. But, he said, he believed that in Southern California's automobile culture, such a ride will not be considered burdensome--and may even add to the sense of going to the mikvah as a spiritual journey.
Having once been a junior high school student at the San Diego Jewish Academy when its play field was on that very piece of property, Meltzer says he can assure people it is a very pleasant location.
He said he looks forward to the day that he might be able to lead a delegation of men to use the mikvah prior to High Holy Day services and when his wife, Jennifer, may do the same thing with a group of women from his congregation.
Dr. Lisa Braun-Glazer is president of the Waters of Eden organization's 12-member board of directors, and has been a voice calling for construction of a mikvah even before Diamant's appearance in San Diego.
Other board members are Rabbi Lenore Bohm, Laura Galinson, Craig Lambert, Karen Levinson, Esther Michan, Olivia Okovita, Leslie Simon, Amy Speilman, Ashley Stone, Jan Tuttleman and Zelda Waxenberg. In addition to Rabbi Meltzer representing SDRA, Charlene Seidle represents the Jewish Community Foundation as a community partner.
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Braun-Glazer, a psychologist at UCSD who also practices privately, said she was impressed by the Mikvah Project exhibit that was shown at the Gothelf Gallery at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center some years ago. "I was very taken with the possibilities of renewal, celebrations and feelings that having a community mikvah afforded," she said.
Subsequently she went to the University of Judaism (now American Jewish University) mikvah to mark the end of the mourning period following her father's death.
She said that immersing in the mikvah can be a transformative experience, in her case enabling her to accept "that this was the end of formal mourning and to go on without my father."
Although there was no prescribed prayer for this occasion, she said the Shehechiyanu, thanking God for allowing her to arrive at that moment.
"We have prayers in our heart, prayers that are formulated and prayers for specific occasions--such as for a miscarriage or for the end of an illness," Braun-Glazer said. "Some are in our liturgy, some are brand new prayers."
Author Diamant's concept of mikvah was realized at the Mayyim Hayyim facility, which has served as a model in the planning of the Waters of Eden mikvah.
Although some people think of a mikvah primarily as a place where women go to ritually purify themselves after their menstruation, Braun-Glazer described Mayyim Hayyim as "a place for anyone who is Jewish or becoming Jewish to connect with their religon and the spiritual experience of God within their Jewishness, whether they're affiliated or not, young or old, gay or straight, male or female, for whatever transformative purpose they may be needing. They could be becoming a bar or bat mitzvah, be at the end of a chemotherapy regime, or recovering from some sort of trauma, divorce, loss, or they could be celebrating a significant birthday or anniversary."
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wo separate immersion pools are planned to allow bride and groom to go to separate mikvaot at the same time. One of the pools will be inside, the other will be open to sky above.
Asked about the decision to locate at Tifereth Israel, she said the committee had the help of a San Diego State University marketing team in deciding what would be the most appropriate place. Respondents to a survey indicated they care more about whether the mikvah is staffed by warm, caring people and is in a beautiful place than how far they might have to drive to reach it.
Waters of Eden needed sufficient room to accommodate a building that will be between 3,000 and 3,500 feet and a meditation garden of 2,500 feet, Braun-Glazer said. And, of course, the land needed to be affordable
Although all Jewish facilities were contacted and a number responded favorably, Tifereth Israel was the one that met all the requirements, she said.
A $5 million budget has been established for construction and operation of the facility for five years, Braun-Glazer said. Already the board members have pledged or contributed $1 million of this total, she added.
Marcia Tatz Wollner is serving part time as the project's manager in addition to her regular position as a director of school services and programs at the Agency for Jewish Education.
Although no architect has yet been selected, plans call for a place for a beth din to meet, a library and meeting facilities, Wollner said.
Waters of Eden is expected to break ground in 2011 and be open for community use by the end of 2012. Braun-Glazer said she would like the dedication to occur during Chanukah that year -- as Chanukah celebrates the re-dedication of the ancient Temple.
"It won't be just a mikvah," Wollner said. "We will run programs, Rosh Chodesh programs, renewal programs. The goal is to be really partnering with different agencies, organizations and synagogues in the community."
Even before construction, the organization plans programming. The first, a reading of Diamant's play The Mikvah Monologues, is intended to better acquaint the community with the uses of a mikvah. That program will be presented Saturday evening, January 30, the night prior to Limmud, the day of Jewish learning sponsored annually by the Agency for Jewish Education. The program will be repeated the next day during the Limmud at the Lawrence Family JCC.
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