Waze
WazeScreenshot

The Religious Services Ministry on Wednesday morning published figures showing the overwhelming usage of the popular Israeli smartphone traffic application Waze in finding mikveh ritual immersion baths.

In 2014 the ministry began contact with Google, which acquired Waze the previous year, about making it easier to use the application to discretely navigate ones way to the nearest mikveh, ritual baths which are regularly used by observant Jewish women.

The application identifies the nearest mikveh and navigates on a map how to reach it.

The new figures showed that in 2015 a full 195,786 users utilized the mikveh search, and conducted 797,903 direct searches. Around 55,200 women used the navigation services to reach the nearest mikveh.

Religious Services Ministry director attorney Oded Plus responded to the publication of the figures, saying, "in recent years the ministry is making many efforts to make it easier for women to comfortably and discretely arrive at the mikvaot."

"We have invested large funds in the matter and I am happy to see that our efforts are bearing fruit, and many women are using the advanced service."