Rabbi David Miller and Mikvaot in America pre-1950

The landscape of American Jewish Orthodoxy has changed so drastically in the last century, that some pioneers in the fight for halakhah in the United States inevitably are left behind and nearly forgotten. A brief work, titled Mikveh Yisrael which I came across this week, was written by one such figure, Rabbi David Miller. Born in Lithuania in approx 1869, and having studied in several Yeshivot including Slabodka, he received Semicha from R. Yitzchok Elchanan and others and headed to America. After serving as a pulpit Rabbi in the Northeast in several communities, he abandoned the rabbinate, writing that he did not wish to profit from the Rabbinate and headed west, settling in Oakland, CA. By the time this brief work of his was published, he was well settled in Oakland and ran a successful real-estate and construction business. 

Published with several prominent approbations, Mikveh Yisrael contains detailed instruction on building a proper kosher Mikveh in the privacy of your home, something that would have encouraged the use of Mikvehs in a time where Mikvehs in the USA were few and far between. A second book he published, The Secret of the Jew, being a marriage guide and on family purity, was distributed for free by the author and make a great mark on American Jewry at the time, encouraging numerous families to keep the halakhot of family purity. He was not perceived kindly by many in his city of Oakland, with some local community leaders fearing him as being too religious for their taste. Throughout America though, his books were very well received and widely disseminated. 

Rabbi Miller's blueprints for Mikvaot used municipal water, based on the halakhic decisions brought forth by many prominent poskim, including the Aruch Hashulchan. Though it may seem odd to suggest it today, through the 1950s, most of the Mikvaot in America used municipal water, these Mikvaot being slowly phased out with the arrival in America of Rabbi C. Y. L. Deutsch, known as the Helmetzer Rebbe. The Helmetzer Rebbe fought a long and often bitter fight to heighten the standards of Mikvaot throughout the world, and by his death in 1990, was credited with upgrading over 200 Mikvaot. One is left to wonder how different the statistics of Jewish Family Purity observance would be if Rabbi Miller's system would have had a more lasting impact, with a Mikveh in every Jewish home.