When it opened in 1999, Shir Ami’s community mikveh became just the second of its kind at a Reform synagogue in the United States. Today there are a few more, but the Newtown temple continues to offer the only mikveh at a Reform shul in the Philadelphia area. As Rabbi Charles “Chuck” Briskin explained, the ritual purification bath draws Jews from all over Bucks County, from Philadelphia out into the suburbs and from across the New Jersey state line, extending as far north as New Brunswick and as far south as Cherry Hill. The mikveh makes Shir Ami a Reform...