Beth Jacob Congregation agrees to lease land at $1 a year

With $150,000 in prior commitments toward a $350,000 goal, the Dayton Mikvah Society is now going public with its fund-raising campaign to build a new facility.

“We’ve been looking for the right location for almost two years,” said Mikvah Society President Deva Zwelling.

It was more than three years ago when society members voted to move the mikvah from its current Dayton View location to a site in the suburbs north of Dayton.

Zwelling said that Beth Jacob Congregation, 7020 N. Main Street, has offered the society land at the back of the synagogue’s parking lot.

The society will enter into a 50-year lease with the congregation, with payment of $1.00 a year.

A mikvah is a ritual bath. As required by halacha (Jewish law), Jewish women traditionally immerse themselves in the mikvah after their monthly cycle and before they resume sexual relations with their husbands. The mikvah is also used for conversions to Judaism.

Though not required by halacha, some men immerse themselves in the mikvah for a heightened sense of spiritual purity before their wedding, the High Holy Days, or other occasions.

For more than 50 years the society’s community mikvah has been located in Dayton View.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, Dayton View was the predominant Jewish neighborhood in the Miami Valley.

Today, Dayton’s Jewish community has moved on from Dayton View, evenly split among the suburbs farther north and south of the city.

According to Zwelling, the new, 1,353 square-foot mikvah will feature two ritual baths: one for women and one for men, with a separate men’s entrance.

“The additional mikvah can also serve as a backup if one is broken,” Zwelling said.

The new facility will also include spa-like men’s and women’s preparation areas and a separate bath for immersing new kitchen utensils, which is required by Jewish law.

Architect Stan Better of Cincinnati designed the plans for the mikvah; he is also the architect for Cincinnati’s new community mikvah.

The Dayton Mikvah Society is currently having the property on Beth Jacob’s lot surveyed.

“We would like to break ground in the spring, hopefully opening in time for the High Holy Days,” Zwelling said.

For more information about the Dayton Mikvah Society campaign, contact Zwelling at 854-4150.