Why did mikveh fall from common use?
The mikveh was one of the first areas of traditional observance to be abandoned by immigrants to America, even among those who continued to observe the laws of Shabbat and kashrut. There are several theories for why this happened: facilities fell into disrepair and were thought to be unclean, there were negative associations and memories of mikveh from the “old country,” discomfort with what appeared to be the stigmatizing of women, a lack of Jewish understanding of the mitzvah, liberal Judaism’s abandonment of the ritual.
