Stunning New Mikvah Opens in Tehran, Iran

Visitors to the new, state-of-the-art women’s Mikvah in the Jewish community in Tehran, Iran are greeted by a portrait of two great rabbis who have deeply influenced Jewish life and practice in Sephardi and Mizrachi communities.

The first is Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Iraqi-born chacham and halachic authority known for his responsa in the series Yabia Omer and Yechaveh Da’at and who served as Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of the Shas party.

The second portrait is of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the 7th spiritual leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement who is described as the most influential rabbi in modern history. Despite living in New York, the Rebbe’s global outreach network was and continues to be widely active in Muslim and Arab countries as well.

The portrait of the Rebbe is the same as the one which hangs in the Brooklyn offices of Merkos 302, the office for global Jewish development at Lubavitch World Headquarters. A source told COLlive.com they were involved in the renovation project. Merkos declined to comment on their connection to the project.

The community in Tehran is led by Rabbi Yehuda Gerami who said the Mikvah had been renovated with halachic stringencies and new hygienic capabilities.

The Mikvah now has installed an advanced purification system that purifies the water after each tevillah within 10 minutes, Rabbi Gerami said.