Anyone know what's being constructed on 15th street between 6th and 7th avenues?

dont you mean btw 5th and 6th?

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 9:15 AM

I believe that that's the new mikvah (ritual bath) being built by Congregation B'nai Jacob, the Lubavitch-led synagogue on 9th Street. It's going to have the mikvah and also a couple of apartments on top that they will rent out to relatives of people being treated at Methodist, or in town for a family simcha (celebration). Mikvahs are primarily used by women, who go at night, after their periods end and before they start having sex again with their husbands, and also by observant men (who go during the day) before Yom Kippur. Some Chasidic men also go during the day before Shabbat. In this neighborhood it shouldn't create much foot traffic....

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 9:42 AM

Guest 9:42 here -- also, I think your husband may have been seeing the ground-breaking ceremony.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 9:44 AM

im sick of all this yuppie talk. You guys need to get a life and get the fuck of this forum.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 9:47 AM

Shocking - "Yuppie Talk" on a blog about brooklyn brownstone neighborhoods. Where do these people get off???

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 10:03 AM

Reality check. This is the 21st. century, isn't it?

Such arcane religious rituals still being followed just shows how religion is the opiate of (some) people.

Interesting that at least one person is opposed. No doubt that will be considered anti-semitic.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 11:03 AM

11:03, most anything that people do is a ritual. Your own comments are entirely rhetorical and don't display any real rigorous or logical thought. Big deal you've parroted some paraphrased comments from a completely misunderstood marxist. Critical Theory is no less an opiate for lots of people with a certain outlook or a certain educational background.

This is awesome. People who peacefully practice a religion bring community to an area, even if it's not your community. This is what we want more than a new condo tower.

This is a site for people who like old fashioned architecture and believe that it has a place in the world--it's weird that these same people hate old fashioned belief systems that aren't harming them.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 11:38 AM

But did you see how ugly the proposed building is!

I think there would be very few objections if they chose a decent design.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 12:13 PM

9:42,

That's truly a classic case of "too much information."

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 1:05 PM

9:42 here -- I figured most people wouldn't know what it was, that's all....that just to say it's a mikvah wouldn't mean much to most readers here. it's TMI to speak of something having to do with sex? You must really be a repressed.....

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 1:59 PM

We know what a mikvah is. This is brooklyn, not columbus ohio. Go away.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 4:59 PM

Who has been building all these ugly condo towers? What happened to our "eye"? Even reasonably acceptable new townhouses are marred by bad proportions. I thought cities were the antidote to McMansions and cheese. Sometimes, blending in is a good thing--I think a lor of these sore thumbs dotting the city will age even worse than they look now. Not opposed to new construction on 15th Street or anywhere--just wish there was respect for a community by improving on what's there rather than dropping in crap.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 5:05 PM

actually thanks for explaining what a mikvah is. i didn't know. this is brooklyn, which means i flung myself from who knows which crook of what hill in which country, but certainly where there is little talk of mikvahs. also, i believe what is being referred to as too much information is probably the woman's period. get over it.

Posted by: guest at June 4, 2008 9:16 PM

um, im not from columbus and i had no idea what a mikvah is. not every new york resident is jewish.

Posted by: guest at June 5, 2008 1:42 PM

What's a period?

Posted by: guest at June 5, 2008 3:43 PM

i'm from st paul and i didnt know what a mikvah is. and why do you people always dis the midwest?

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 1:15 PM

Not everyone at that mikvah ground-breaking was hassidic. I was there. I have lived in Park Slope for the past thirty years, and I am as secular a Jew as one would want to guess. And.....I WAS THERE! So enough over-generalizing, and a little information is a dangerous thing. And the front represented on the poster was merely a representation of a front, not necessarily the front that the mikvah will have. There will most certainly be respect shown for the rest of the block, and any front will fit in nicely, I promise as G-d is my witness.
THis neighborhood is changing-too many over-controllers and yuppified minds. too much detail about the wrong stuff. Hmmmmmmm.....

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 7:49 PM

Not everyone at that mikvah ground-breaking was hassidic. I was there. I have lived in Park Slope for the past thirty years, and I am as secular a Jew as one would want to guess. And.....I WAS THERE! So enough over-generalizing, and a little information is a dangerous thing. And the front represented on the poster was merely a representation of a front, not necessarily the front that the mikvah will have. There will most certainly be respect shown for the rest of the block, and any front will fit in nicely, I promise as G-d is my witness.
THis neighborhood is changing-too many over-controllers and yuppified minds. too much detail about the wrong stuff. Hmmmmmmm.....

Posted by: guest at June 7, 2008 7:51 PM

I found this -- http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/22/31_22_jewish_bath_rises_on.html

Is it really so terrible to build a mikvah in Park Slope?

Posted by: guest at June 9, 2008 2:41 PM