On the shore of Lake Nokomis in South Minneapolis, chattering groups of friends, dog walkers, and runners passed by a group seated in a circle of folding chairs. Some cast a curious eye as the circle repeatedly sang or hummed a verse of Hebrew, with a few smiling or nodding to those in the circle.
The afternoon of Thursday, August 13 was balmy and only slightly overcast. An oppressive heatwave had broken the day before, and on this late summer afternoon 40 or so people had gathered at the park to walk into the lake together and undertake the ancient Jewish ritual of mikveh, or ritual immersion in “living waters.”
Three participants in the lake (Sara Lynn Newberger)
This was the seventh year since 2019 that Maayanot Community Mikveh of Minnesota has organized group immersions to mark the transitional month of Elul, which precedes the Jewish High Holidays. Asked about the importance of making mikveh available to a wider community, Maayanot’s founder and board president Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker said, “People always have special occasions and milestones to mark, celebrations, healing journeys, holidays, and so much more. I also think mikveh offers a type of solace and quiet that can be welcome in challenging times in the country and the world.”
The organization settled in 2025 on building its facility on the Beth El Synagogue campus in St. Louis Park, and Spilker said progress is being made in the fundraising for the facility.
“We are meeting regularly with our architects, and we are still early in the ‘leadership phase,’ but we are so grateful for the community’s genuine excitement and generous response,” Spilker said. “After just two months, we are nearly halfway to the goal!” of $3.5 million.
Until its planned opening in 2028, Maayanot’s team has hosted these events by meeting at public beaches around the Twin Cities. This year’s mikveh at the lake, co-hosted with TC Jewfolk’s FolkLab, opened with song and poem, time for individual intention setting, and a teaching on midrash.
“Each year we invite new teachers and clergy to co-lead,” Spilker explained. “Rabbi Jason Rodich of Temple Israel and Rabbi Joey Glick from Shir Tikvah were wonderful leaders, and each of them brought thought-provoking texts for the group to dig into. It’s always nice for folks to learn with clergy that are not necessarily their own.”
A volunteer wraps a towel around a participant as they emerge from the lake (Sara Lynn Newberger)
The ritual setting was notably flexible: volunteers at the welcome table had more than a handful of ritual guides available to choose from, including the traditional blessings but also, for example, scripted prayers for healing. A volunteer was waiting to assist with a handwashing ritual at the shoreline for those who could not or would prefer not to enter the lake.
Invited to head down to water, most participants entered the lake singly, in pairs, or small groups. Several headed to the hand washing station, where they were greeted by Mandy Roll-Kuhne, a volunteer and an old friend of the leadership of Maayanot.
Roll-Kuhne said she was present for Spilker’s early ideation of bringing an open mikveh to the area, starting “probably 10 years ago on a Mount Zion women’s retreat, [where] we first talked about mikveh. And at the time I got really angry because I felt I was excluded…Here’s this beautiful ritual. It’s so Jewish. I never had it growing up. I didn’t have it as a young person. I didn’t convert, so I never got it that way.”
Roll-Kuhne would immerse in a lake for the first time after her naturalization ceremony. “Rachel helped me write a ritual for the immersion, for my transition from being British to being American, and it was really meaningful.”
Ann Silver, who immersed in the lake, also highlighted the sense of community from the event. “I did the immersion with somebody I know tangentially from my synagogue, and I just feel like I kind of made a new friend, even if it was just for a moment, like we were very intentional together, and it made it more special.”
Mindy Roll-Kuhne assists at the ritual handwashing station (Sara Lynn Newberger)
Roll-Kuhne explained why the hand-washing option had been included in the 2025 event: “I was getting chairs set out, and it was very, very cold last year. It was 50 degrees – which is fine in March, but we were not ready – so we set up the handwashing station. And Rachel asked me if I would do it.”
The handwashing station was well liked enough to have brought it back, even with this year’s ideal weather. Roll-Kuhne was glad to be back at the table.
“It was wonderful to witness it and to share it with people who wanted to have somebody share it,” she said. “It feels really like holy work. There was a guy earlier, and I said, ‘Would you like me to be here, or do you want to do this by yourself?’ And he said, ‘I need you to be here to remember that I’m in community.’”