Less than ten percent of the mikvahs supervised by the Ministry of Religions are fully accessible, and in some of the main cities in Israel there is no accessible mikvah at all.
Thus, women with movement limitations who seek to immerse each month, are forced to make a long and cumbersome journey, or humiliate themselves and immerse in an inaccessible place.
An inspection by Israel Today and the National Center for Family Purity shows that out of about 600 mikvahs operated by the Ministry of Religions, only about 55 are fully accessible.
At the same time, hundreds of additional mikvahs are operated in Israel privately, without supervision and without strict adherence to the issue of accessibility.
A small proportion of them are accessible to the disabled in one form or another, and the vast majority are not accessible at all.
As early as 2012, regulations requiring access to the mikvahs came into force, including requiring local councils to make several mikvahs fully accessible in each city, and large cities to make at least one mikveh fully accessible - that is, including a leaflet that allows women with mobility disabilities to immerse.
The following year, the director general of the Ministry of Religions pledged that within two years "there will be no city in Israel that does not have at least one mikveh with accessibility."
Many years have passed since that statement, but even today there are many cities where there is no fully accessible mikveh - including some of the major cities in Israel, such as Bat Yam and Holon.
Jerusalem, the largest city in Israel, has one fully accessible mikveh operated by the Ministry of Religions, as well as Rishon Lezion, the third largest city in Israel.
In Tel Aviv, there are two mikvahs accessible to the disabled, at both ends of the city, which forces women to travel for a long time, sometimes by public transportation at night, to perform the baptism properly.
The National Center for Family Purity sent a letter to Minister of Religions Matan Kahana, Minister of Welfare Meir Cohen and Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, as well as to the directors of their offices, demanding that all women's mikvahs in Israel be made accessible at least at a basic level. "In recent weeks, the issue of inaccessibility to the holy places has repeatedly come up," the letter referred to an inspection in Israel Today.
"Today, in Israel 2022, many women are forced to give their lives to keep the mitzvah, because the vast majority of mikvahs for women are not accessible to women with disabilities," wrote the center's chairman, Rabbi Chaim Levy. The number of private individuals is about 900, and many of them are old and inaccessible. The balanim try to help them as much as they can, but many of the women leave the mikveh after the baptism with great feelings and great anger. "
Rabbi Levy further clarified that "in the days when awareness for people with disabilities crosses sectors and parties, there is no reason for there to be in Israel even one hope that is not accessible to the disabled. This is not 'another structure'. This is one of the most basic and important commandments "Right."
Rabbi Levy demanded immediate action to make all the mikvahs accessible to women in Israel and to transfer budgets for this project to the local authorities and the religious councils.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs responded: "We consider it very important to comply with the provisions of the law regarding access to the mikvahs. It is not known about a local authority that does not comply with the provisions of the law, except for one local authority.
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