Tel Aviv Freezes Plan for Needed Mikveh in Ramat Aviv

Following an intense campaign by secular residents, Tel Aviv Municipality has backed away from building a ritual bath in the north of the city. The move came alongside a closure order and a fine of 250,000 shekels against the rabbi operating a kollel in the neighborhood.

What had been intended to provide a basic halachic service for tens of thousands of women in northern Tel Aviv, religious, traditional and secular alike, became a focal point of bitter social friction, led by a small group of residents with the backing of a city council member, who openly worked to prevent any Jewish symbol in the public space. At the same time, city officials also issued a harsh stop-use order against an avrech study hall operating in the local commercial center. Under the terms of the order, if activity in the building does not stop within 35 days, the rabbi running the המקום will be fined 250,000 shekels, on the grounds of unauthorized use of land.

The council member who led much of the campaign quickly praised the measures, saying they were meant to preserve the character of the neighborhood and protect its secular-liberal identity from what she described as forces seeking to change it. The Tel Aviv-Yafo Religious Council rejected the claims and said it was deeply shocked by the decision. The council stressed that building a mikveh is not coercion but the provision of a basic and essential public service, requested directly by local women and residents who see immersion as part of their way of life. The council noted that a mikveh had operated in the area in the past but was destroyed, and that the planned building on Naḥ Street was meant only to replace it and provide a nearby solution for women who use it.

Religious figures in the city said that several politicians, in order to gather a few votes in elections, had chosen to turn a sacred purity project into a focal point of hatred and social friction. They said that matters for which their forebears gave their lives in Soviet Russia to build mikvaot underground are now disturbing people in the heart of the Jewish state. The decision has renewed painful debate over the historical change the city has undergone, and over what religious leaders say is the shrinking Jewish character of Tel Aviv.