The Open Waters Mikveh is not the only non-Orthodox or non-Chabad-run mikveh in the greater Philadelphia area. There is at least one more, at Shir Ami in Bucks County.
But Wynnewood, where Open Waters is located, and Newtown, where Shir Ami is located, are almost an hour from each other. For Jews of any label aside from Orthodoxy on the Main Line, Open Waters is the option for the purifying Jewish ritual bath.
That’s why Amy Eisen, the mikveh’s director, refers to it as “the only local mikveh that serves Jews and Jews-to-be of all affiliations, gender preferences and races.”
Eisen has supervised 325 conversion baths in the mikveh since 2023. But those Jews and Jews-to-be of all affiliations, gender preferences and races have also gone in before weddings, b’nai mitzvah and other life milestones, as well as during grief periods and other moments of physical, emotional and spiritual healing.
Jews who are not Orthodox would not necessarily be turned away from Orthodox and Chabad-run mikvehs. It’s just that, in those spaces, the circumstances surrounding immersion may be more limited.
Orthodox communities also generally do not accept conversions that are overseen by a non-Orthodox beit din, as they do not consider them to be in full accordance with halachic standards.
Before the Open Waters Mikveh opened in 2002, many Main Line Jews had to drive more than an hour north to the Lehigh Valley Community Mikvah for a ritual bath. Rabbi Neil Cooper and his wife, Lori Cooper, opened the Wynnewood mikveh as part of their synagogue, Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El. Rabbi Cooper, now the synagogue’s rabbi emeritus, thought he had financial support from a congregant, but at the last second, the congregant dropped out. The rabbi went to his synagogue board to ask for support; they told him the shul couldn’t handle it.
For the next two decades, Rabbi Cooper ran the mikveh with regular commitments from donors he knew. Lori Cooper served as shomeret, or the mikveh’s attendant or guardian.
The mikveh survived, but it didn’t thrive. Its facility on Remington Road was not updated for more than 20 years, according to Eisen.
Eisen knew about the mikveh because she was a congregant at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El.
Upon retiring from her career as an occupational therapist and developmental school psychologist, she wanted to find a way to serve the Jewish community. She described herself as someone who didn’t come from a religious household, but who nonetheless connected with the more spiritual side of Judaism.
“I wanted to have a role that was going to contribute, but was also going to be ritualistic,” Eisen said.
In 2019, Lori Cooper trained her to be a shomeret. Two years later, Rabbi Cooper retired from the synagogue after 30 years. While Lori Cooper continued to serve as director of the mikveh, she asked Eisen to be the primary shomeret. But as the Coopers made “yo-yo aliyah,” meaning they had children in the U.S. and Israel and went back and forth, and Lori Cooper became ill, the longtime director asked Eisen to take over her role.
She accepted.
Then, she realized that the mikveh needed a full-scale makeover.
It needed a new name, website, sources of funding and equipment. The Mikveh at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El was still associated with the synagogue, which confused people as they sought to make appointments, according to Eisen. It had also run out of endowments.
Fortuitously, the new director was able to secure a large grant from a nonprofit that was sunsetting. The nonprofit had given to the mikveh before, and it had the organization on its list of places to donate to before closing down.
The mikveh is now in the third year of operating on that grant money.
“We were able to get a really big grant,” said Eisen.
The money bought her time.
First, she renamed and rebranded the place. The new name — Open Waters Mikveh — refers to the open waters mikveh movement.
Launched by author Anita Diamant in Newton, Massachusetts, in 2004, the movement — and Diamant’s mikveh, the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center — expanded the mikveh’s role beyond the traditional immersion following the conclusion of the menstrual cycle.
“She created a way for women to use the mikveh for their own purposes,” said Eisen.
A website, openwatersmikveh.org, accompanied the rebranding. So did upgrades to the facility: The filter was replaced for the first time in 22 years. The old electric heating system, which is no longer the industry standard for pools, was replaced by a gas-based system.
And as the money from the grant ran out, Eisen came up with a new funding system: Suggested donations are $180 for an individual for a conversion, $118 per person for an individual visit, $36 per visit for a monthly immersion and $236 for an annual membership, according to openwatersmikveh.org. There are also sponsor levels for 5786: Visionary ($5,000 and up), Guardian ($1,800-$4,999), Pillar ($1,000-$1,799), Sustainer ($540-$999) and Friend ($360-$539).
In the fall edition of The Ripple, the mikveh’s biannual newsletter, two visionaries, three guardians and a pillar are listed. There are also several sustainers and friends.
Eisen built the donor base by using the addresses of all the rabbis who had visited the mikveh, and sending out what she described as “a really professional letter and brochure.” “We said, ‘We’d really appreciate your considering being a sponsor for the year,’” she said.
She was able to raise almost $10,000.
“This is the first year of the sponsorship program, and we hope it continues. People seem really enthused by it,” she added.
Transforming the mikveh has become a second career for Eisen, though she’d describe it as more of a calling.
“There are a lot of personal reasons why people feel that they want to visit the mikveh,” she said. “I can say I’m doing something for our people; it’s really a special place.”