In January, the two new mikveh facilities planned for the Dayton area came closer to fruition with the site dedication and announcement of a lead gift for one, and a municipal planning comm-ission’s positive recommendation for the other.

On Jan. 7, the Dayton Ritualarium Society announced at the groundbreaking for its new mikveh facility that David Rosenberg will provide the lead gift for the project. Rosenberg, a native of Dayton who now lives in Cincinnati, is founder, chairman and CEO of Unifund.

Chana Fox, president of the Dayton Ritualarium Society, announced the mikveh facility would be named The Rosenberg Dayton Community Mikvah in honor of Rosenberg’s parents, Eva and Tom Rosenberg, and in memory of his grandparents, Sarah and Moshe Rosenberg. The facility will be located at the rear of the parking lot behind Beth Jacob Congregation in Harrison Township.

Sugar Camp facility
The Oakwood City Planning Commission voted unanimously at its Jan. 17 meeting to recommend to the Oakwood City Council the approval of Oakwood Investment Group and Versant Group’s Sugar Camp multi-use site plan.

The plan includes construction of a mikveh facility, not to exceed 1,000 square feet, near the future site of Beth Abraham Synagogue on OIG’s land. The commission recommended that the mikveh’s “building materials shall be consistent with the site.”

According to Oakwood City Manager Norbert Klopsch, the recommendation for site plan approval will go to Oakwood City Council for consideration at its March 5 meeting. He said the council could vote on the site plan recommendation at that meeting, which will include a public hearing, or “if council identifies questions that need to be answered, they could delay vote to the April or May meeting.”

He added that the council could send the site plan back to the planning commission. Klopsch said the developers could begin to carry out the plan if it is approved.