Rising Tide Gathering 2023

Here is a sneak peak of the 2023 Rising Tide Gathering program! We will continue to update this space with more exciting details as the event approaches. 

Featured Speakers & Facilitators: 

• Rabbi Miriam Berger, Wellspring Project UK 
• Rabbi Minna Bromberg, Fat Torah 
• Julie Childers, Mayyim Hayyim
• Carly Coons, Blue Dove Foundation 
• Anita Diamant, Author & Founder of Mayyim Hayyim
• Rose Espinola, JOC Pregnancy & Postpartum Research Project 
• Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck, RUACH 
• Allison Goldman-Blustin, Rising Tide Network
• Karen Goodis, Toronto Community Mikvah 
• Sara Greenhalgh, Let Justice Well Up 
• Lara Haft Yom-Tov, SVARA Trans Halacha Project 
• Jill Housen, Sandra Caplan Community Bet Din 
• Rabbi Amalia Mark, Mayyim Hayyim
• Rav Sarah Mulhern, Base 
• Jordan Namerow, Writer, Communications Strategist, Facilitator 
• Rabbi Jackie Ninio, Emanuel Synagogue 
• erica riddick, Jews of Color Sanctuary 
• Soreh Ruffman, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh 
• Rabbi Frankie Sandmel, Base & SVARA Trans Halacha Project
• Rabina Fernanda Tomchinsky, Comunidade Shalom Mikva 
• Rabbi Lauren Tuchman, Teaching the Transformative Power of Inclusive Torah 
• Jamie Weisbach, SVARA Trans Halacha Project
• Aki Yonekawa, Jewish Educator & Professional 
• Rabbi Julie Zupan, Union for Reform Judaism 
• …and more! 

Interactive Workshops: 

• Inclusive Torah: A Text Study on Disability and Ritual Water Immersion 
• Make Waves: Create & Share Your Mikveh Story 
• Mikveh as Spiritual Medicine: Water and Wellness 
• Let Justice Well Up: Mikveh Stories of Jewish Women of Color 
• Design Elements of Ritual
• Welcoming Waters: Enhancing Mikveh in the Conversion Process 
• Queering Niddah: Wisdom & Experiences of Trans and Nonbinary Mikveh Users 
• Belonging for Every Body: Fat Torah for Inclusive Mikveh 
• Mikveh Makes the World Go ‘Round 
• Peer Learning Spaces for established mikva’ot, emerging mikveh initiatives, current and future clergy, and Mikveh Guides 
• … and more! 

At the 2023 Rising Tide Gathering, the open mikveh movement will honor individuals and organizations who embody our shared values with the inaugural Rising Tide Wellspring Awards. We will celebrate those who act as wellsprings, bringing healing waters to Jewish communities around the globe. These awardees were nominated by Rising Tide Network members around the world, and we are thrilled to recognize the waves of impact they’ve made on the open mikveh movement. 

Outstanding Mikveh Guide: Andrea Kuti 

Andi (Andrea Kuti) is a certified Doula and a 5th year student at the Aleph Rabbinical Seminary. Andi is originally from Budapest, Hungary, and now lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where she has been researching, teaching about, and facilitating mikveh immersions for the last 14 years. Andi loves creating rituals and sacred spaces uniquely tailored for each occasion and immersion. In a community that does not yet have an open mikveh, she goes to great lengths facilitating mikveh immersions that are welcoming, safe, beautiful, and transformative to all members of the Jewish community. Andi creatively partners with nature to facilitate gentle, yet powerful, mikveh immersions in seas, lakes, and dams amid the mountains. Through song, teaching, innovative ritual, and compassion, Andi is able to welcome anyone into the holiness of water, ensuring every immersee feels safe, held, connected, and inspired through mikveh. 

Exceptional Mikveh Educator: Tracie Bernstein 

Tracie Bernstein is a skilled facilitator with extensive experience providing collaborative, comfortable, and productive spaces for team building, mediation and visioning. Tracie is a founding leader at MACoM (Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah), and co-authored its 8-hour Guide Training, which has welcomed more than 50 mikveh guides into service over the 7 years since MACoM opened its doors. Tracie also serves on MACoM’s board, has developed mikveh immersions for healing, and provides ongoing community workshops. 

Tracie’s approach to facilitation draws from profound Jewish wisdom to enhance group cohesion and articulate shared goals. Utilizing decades of organizational experience and her skill as a deep listener and conversation guide, Tracie draws out multiple perspectives, helping teams identify their core needs and values, and how to meet them through shared problem solving that respects every voice in the room. 

Amazing Mikveh Mobilizer: Naomi Malka 

For the past 17 years, Naomi Malka (she/her) has been a mikveh professional in a wide variety of roles.  As the mikveh director of The Soul Center in Baltimore, MD  (2022-2023) and the director of the Adas Israel Community Mikvah in Washington, DC (2006-2022), Naomi has witnessed thousands of immersions, designed and facilitated numerous educational programs, and written extensively about the relevance of mikveh for Jews of all backgrounds. She trained as a Mikveh Guide at Mayyim Hayyim in Newton, MA in 2008 and was a founding member of the Rising Tide Network. She is also the creator of Tevila b’Teva: immersion in nature, a program that introduces outdoor immersion to Jewish summer camps. Naomi developed an award-winning program called “Bodies of Water,” to introduce kids ages 10+ to learn about mikveh as a tool for positive body image and healthy decision making from a Jewish perspective. She earned a masters in Sacred Music from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2000 and a BA in Sociology from UCLA in 1991. 

Mikveh Champion Clergy: Rabbi Julie Zupan 

Rabbi Julie Zupan (she/her) is the Director of Jewish Engagement and Learning for the Union for Reform Judaism, where her work is focused on welcoming newcomers from diverse backgrounds through adult Jewish learning and on building inclusive Jewish communities. She also serves as Director of the Gerecht Family Outreach Institute, which trains HUC-JIR rabbinic and cantorial students to guide individuals exploring conversion. 

She is proud to have introduced hundreds of Introduction to Judaism students and others to the transformative waters of mikveh, both at the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh in Newton and online.   

Rabbi Zupan holds a B.A. from Tufts University and smicha (rabbinic ordination) from HUC-JIR. She lives in Sharon, Massachusetts, where she is an active member of Temple Sinai of Sharon. 

Collaborative Community Partner: The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland 

The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland (JFGP) took a major leap of leadership to create a beautiful mikveh that is welcoming and accessible to the entire community. In partnership with the Oregon Board of Rabbis and the Portland Kollel, JFGP co-created Rachel’s Well Community Mikvah, providing overall leadership, vision, and funding to get the project started. Embodying the value of shutafut (partnership), JFGP convened community leaders, businesses, diverse stakeholders, and city officials to ensure the new mikveh was shaped by the voices and visions of everyone in the community. Over the past five years, the organization has continued to grow, oversee, and manage the mikveh, ensuring a safe and welcoming place for all Jews to have meaningful immersion experiences. 

Registration fees cover the costs for the Rising Tide Gathering, including expert presenters and facilitators, innovative technology platforms, program staff, marketing, participant resources, and more. 

Rising Tide Network members receive a significant discount to the Gathering. All registration levels are structured as a sliding scale, so please choose the level that is proportionate to your access to resources. To ensure that this convening is accessible to all, we need folks to register at all levels of the sliding scales, including above the suggested amount. Thank you for supporting and sustaining the open mikveh movement! 

• Rising Tide Community Members: Sliding Scale $100-$240 (Suggested: $180) 
• Rising Tide Mikveh Guide Members: Sliding Scale $36-$180 (Suggested: $72) 
• Non-Members: Sliding Scale $200-$360 (Suggested: $300) 
• Accessibility Scale: Sliding Scale $18-$180 (Suggested: $54) Please select this sliding scale if cost is a barrier to your participation. 

The 2023 Rising Tide Gathering will feature a virtual art gallery in the virtual exhibition hall. The gallery will feature creatives within our community and offer a new way of engaging with mikveh at the Gathering. We are currently accepting submissions of completed or planned artwork inspired by mikveh, water, ritual, Jewish identity, or a related topic. If your piece is selected for the virtual gallery, you will receive free admission to the 2023 Rising Tide Gathering. Please share out about this opportunity with your community! Learn more and submit your art piece here: https://www.tfaforms.com/5059291