First off, this isn't a review of the synagogue itself. It is a review of their mikva, which is ritual bath Jews use to cleanse themselves in a ritual immersion. See a full description at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikva
Women use the mikva after their menstrual cycle or childbirth (women are so unclean). Men use it before they get married. They both use it before converting to Judaism, which is why we were there.
We were there to dunk my daughters in the mikva before a short conversion ceremony in the sanctuary (now my wife is the only non-Jew in the family). In some other areas of the country (L.A. and New York), we might not have been welcomed there because we are not Orthodox, but Rodfei is pretty open.
We had to laugh when we realized my oldest, Samantha, had brought Piglet with her. Our rabbi told Sam she could dunk her in the mikva also, but none of us wanted to get her wet. So, Piglet is still a shiksa.
I got into the water with the girls and dunked them one by one, with the rabbi directing the activity and two of our synagogue's regulars witnessing. Sam loved the warm water, but Charlie (one year old) got very upset when she got dunked.
The pool was clean and well maintained, but the thing I really liked was that the Orthodox synagogue let a bunch of Conservative Jews in to do their thing. read more
