19th-Century Ritual Bath Uncovered in Rural Connecticut

News June 10, 2013

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(Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

OLD CHESTERFIELD, CONNECTICUT—A mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, has been discovered at the site of a late-nineteenth-century agricultural community in rural Connecticut. This is the first such structure to have been found in North America outside of a major city. “The image many people have of those who belonged to the earliest agricultural communities is that they were largely socialists, and that they weren’t particularly religious. This is going to enable us to write a chapter of Jewish history which to my knowledge hasn’t been written, one that will deal with the spiritual life of these communities,” said Stuart Miller of the University of Connecticut.

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