The Jewish Week Does it Again

When I started reading this story in the Jewish Week, I thought it was a simple feel-good story about the beautiful new Mikvah built on Manhattan's Upper West Side neighborhood:

The reception area is clad in palm wood, with gold-leafed ceilings and mosaics in rose and gold hues based on those from ancient Israel. Preparation rooms feature Frette robes and a new kit with shampoo, soap and nail clipper for every visit. The women’s immersion pools are lined with glass tile and surrounded by white marble.

It’s all part of the trend to make new mikvehs a luxurious and sensual pleasure.

“Many women don’t come with a tradition of mikveh, so you need to do everything you can to make it appealing,” says Sharon Liberman Mintz, an Upper West Sider who has been involved with the new mikveh’s construction and design.

“Making it physically beautiful is the first step. When people come into a spa-like atmosphere, they feel relaxed. That’s the way it should be,” she said.

I agree completely. When a woman - especially a newly observant woman - takes the time out of her busy schedule to perform the Mitzvah of Taharat Hamishpacha, making it a pleasant experience should certainly be a priority.

I have had the dubious pleasure of, due to scheduling issues, having seen Mikvaot in cities all over the US. Let's just say that some are more, er...spalike than others. A local Mikvah here in the Five Towns has also gone through a recent renovation, and I can assert that the experience of visiting it has definitely become a more positive one. And I can't dispute that just like any other Mitzvah, beautiful accouterments make the Mitzvah more of a positive experience - which is always desirable.

All well and good.

But then the Jewish Week article takes a turn for the worse, becoming rife with unverifiaed anonymous allegations about the new Mikvah:

The new mikveh also has a new attendant, who replaces the storied Mrs. Lobel. Lobel, a tiny woman with a thick Hungarian accent, was the mikveh lady for decades at the old location. She lived above the mikveh and is regarded with affection by many of the women who used it.

The mikveh’s board forced her to retire in February, say some Upper West Siders, and gave her a severance package that she wasn’t happy with. Lobel, who reportedly moved in with one of her grown children in Brooklyn, could not be located for comment.

Sources critical of the change asked not to be named because of Gibber’s influence within the New York Orthodox community, as president of the nearby Manhattan Day School among other volunteer leadership roles.

The old mikveh was “perfectly fine, not glamorous or glitzy. If the price of having a deluxe mikveh is treating people this way, that feels very disturbing,” said one woman. “We’re building castles but treating people as if they’re expendable.”

Another concern some have had is that the new mikveh attendant will be less tolerant than her predecessor was of unconventional uses, as when Conservative rabbinical students have immersed on the morning of their ordination, or when women who are unmarried but are sexually active have visited the mikveh.

There was also concern that non-Orthodox rabbis, who along with their Orthodox colleagues have long used the West Side mikveh for conversions, would now be barred.

That has not been the case, said Conservative rabbis who have used it since Lobel left.

Anonymous allegations that the former Mikvah lady is unhappy, without any interview of her to back up those allegations? Check. Anonymous suggestions that certain users will be barred from utilizing the Mikvah - while there is evidence presented in the article that no such banning has occurred? Check. Anonymous jibes at a community leader, with the reason stated for the anonymity because he has "influence"? Check.

Classic Jewish Week. Nothing like a few unverifiable, anonymous allegations to spice up what could have been a very positive story. Just the facts, guys. Please. Just try to stick to the verifiable facts.