Kesher and Mayyim Hayyim, Boston’s community mikveh, joined forces to support kids and people with disabilities at the mikveh. Through Kesher’s project-based learning model, kindergartners through eighth graders created “social stories” for mikveh guests to make their immersion experiences more accessible.

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Students learned how social stories use pictures and simple sentences to explain a new experience to someone. They then toured the mikveh and got an introduction to its place in Jewish tradition and the modern events that Jewish people mark with immersion. Then, each of Kesher’s Judaics classes was given a different lifecycle event to contemplate. The kids took photographs, created and edited the text, and put their stories together. The classes then presented their stories to the Mayyim Hayyim staff and their parents at two special events. We are so proud of how our students embraced and connected to this different space in the Jewish community and created a resource that can be used by visitors to the mikveh for years to come.