Two Mikvahs Approved in UK

Daniel Lowe, Chabaduk.com

After a lengthy review of plans by a local council, Cambridge, England’s Chabad-Lubavitch center will now be able to convert a garage into the city’s first Jewish ritual bath.

A similar decision reached in the London suburb of Edgware will also allow that community’s Chabad House to construct a permanent ritual bath in a brick building abutting that Jewish center.

In Cambridge, Rabbi Reuven Leigh said that he was “ecstatic” at the news and that the ritual bath will be constructed without delay. It will be dedicated in the memory of his and his wife Rochel Leigh’s sister-in-law Chaya Rochel Paley, who passed away two years ago at the age of 26, leaving behind a husband and a one-year-old son.

“The plan will be to go ahead and build it as soon as possible,” Leigh, who also serves as the rabbi of the Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation, told The Jewish Chronicle. “The mikvah will be a significant contribution to married Jewish life in Cambridge.”

Barry Landy, an executive member of the Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation, was equally pleased.

“We are completely delighted,” he told the newspaper, “and hope the building will be completed soon.”

In North West London, where the Barnet Council granted permission to Lubavitch of Edgware to replace its former ritual bath – which burned down last year – Rabbi Leivi Sudak, the Jewish center’s director, praised the decision.

“This is a very significant and useful additional facility,” he said. “It means that women who live closer to our part of the area will no longer need to make the walk to and from the nearest alternative, a potentially risky journey for ladies on their own after nightfall.”