MACoM Celebrates Multiple Milestones
Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah recorded its 1,000th conversion and 3,000 total immersions.
This month, the Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah (MACoM) celebrated two incredible milestones – their 1,000th conversion, as well as 3,000 total immersions. Barton Day, who was that 1,000th conversion, described the feelings of that day.
“Before I got there, I was nervous – not of actually converting itself, just going through the process,” he said. “I found that MACoM was very pleasant. It was very relaxing; it was a very spiritual experience. It was the best part, I think, of my conversion.”
Barton Day’s wife, Michelle Day, is the current Executive Director of MACoM.
“We’re really honored to be one of seven or eight mikvaot in central Atlanta,” she said. “However, we’re the only one that is not directly affiliated with or associated with the Orthodox community. We open our doors to a lot of people from different Jewish backgrounds, and different entries to Judaism. So, if somebody is converting through a reform congregation, they can come to MACoM. We are the mikvah for all the surrounding states as well. We have working relationships with synagogues in Alabama, Tennessee, some in South Carolina – they all come to MACoM to utilize the mikvah mostly for conversions, but also just for lifecycle events.”
MACoM, which is on the Congregation B’nai Torah campus, but is not affiliated with any specific congregation, was founded in 2015 through a community funding effort. Rabbi Joshua Heller, who was MACoM’s first president, and who gave up two of his office windows for the mikvah to be built, often expresses his thankfulness for the mikvah.
“I’m really proud of the work that we put in, creating MACoM. It’s about much more than conversions,” said Rabbi Heller. “There are people using it for spirituality, for different phases of the life cycle, for other traditional uses, and that’s great. I love that people can join the Jewish people just a few feet from my office. I’m also proud that it’s a place that’s open to a lot of different approaches.”
Lindy Radow, who had the first ever conversion at MACoM, and who will be speaking at an event celebrating MACoM’s tenth anniversary this coming November, described how important this was to her.
“It was probably one of two of the greatest days of my life. It was very spiritual, very emotional,” she said. “It means everything that we have a place where all of the community, regardless of Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, can convert.”
Notably, conversions make up about a third of immersions at the mikvah – but are far from the only reason people immerse.
“A misconception that a lot of people in Atlanta have about mikvah is that it’s only for conversions, or for women that are going for their monthly cycle,” said Beth Tieman-Feldstein, who has been involved with MACoM since its inception, and has been training mikvah guides since that time. “To me, that third category of personal/contemporary immersions [is something] we should always mention so that people know this is a place that’s accessible for everyone.”
“About a third of our immersions are conversions, the other ones are for a million different reasons,” said Michelle Day, as she listed off a few of them. “Gender affirmations, adult bar and bat mitzvahs, my kids immersed when I first started working there to celebrate going into the second and third grades.”
“Also, children who have been born, who have not technically converted yet, because one parent wasn’t Jewish – a place for babies, children, adults to convert, as well as a community vessel to use the mikvah for life events,” said Radow, listing more, “for father-son bar mitzvahs, for mother-daughter bat mitzvahs, someone’s finished a cancer treatment, they want to feel like a rebirth. We kind of saw this place as being used for many occasions.”
“The idea of contemporary uses of mikvah are new to Judaism and also to a lot of people that might not have heard that they can immerse for holidays and to celebrate special occasions, or during difficult times of illness – things like that that really broadens the scope of what mikvah can be used for,” said Tieman-Feldstein. “And some of those things have been in our traditions for thousands of years but might have not been continuous until more recently.”
Barton Day, who also mentioned he expected he may immerse again in the future – before his daughters’ bat mitzvahs, or in honor of family that has been lost – suspects the mikvah may be under-utilized.
“It certainly seems like something that if people knew about it more, or if it were discussed more, it would be leveraged a lot more,” he said.
Michelle Day reaffirmed this view.
“Honestly, I think that the most important thing is [that] this isn’t just an ‘oh, it’s nice to have’-type of thing. This is an imperative part of our Jewish community, so much so that people come from the surrounding state. It’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.”
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