An UnOrthodox Dip In The Mikveh

From the Jerusalem Post:

The Orthodox establishment’s ban on non-Orthodox converts and brides using state-funded mikvaot (ritual baths) is a desecration of God’s name, Rabbi Barry Schlesinger, the newly reelected president of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, said on Sunday.

"We have to put an end to the discrimination against Conservative converts and brides," Schlesinger said.

"Tax-paying Israelis, interested in adhering to Halacha, are being prevented from using indoor mikvaot that are run and funded by the state just because they are not Orthodox Jews.

"Instead they are forced to perform their tvila [ritual immersion] in the sea or in a natural spring, where they are exposed to the elements and to less than ideal hygiene," he said.

A spokesman for Religious Services Minister Yitzhak Cohen said he was unaware of any restrictions on the use of mikvaot.

"We actually want to encourage as many people as possible to use the mikve," the spokesman said.

Rabbi Yitzhak Ralbag, the official marriage registrar in Jerusalem, said he personally refused a woman slated to be married in a Reform ceremony written permission to use the mikve.

"If she wants to use the mikve nobody will stop her," he said. "But don’t expect me to give a Reform marriage legitimacy. The pig also tries to prove it is kosher by showing that its hoofs are cloven."