A place to buy just the gifts for eight nights

Marshfield temple organizes Hanukkah Bazaar

For members of the region's Jewish community who look for Hanukkah candles in local supermarkets and chain stores and walk away empty-handed, Marshfield-based Shirat Hayam has an answer: Sunday's Hanukkah Bazaar.

The Jewish congregation's seasonal fair, which sells the proper candles needed to light the menorah on Hanukkah's eight nights - the Festival of Lights' principal ritual - exists because there's a need for it, organizer Karen Wong said.

"Not too many stores offer Hanukkah gifts and Judaica," said Wong, of Duxbury. "Who wanted to have to go to Boston? So we thought it would be nice to bring all that to the South Shore."

"The bottom line," agreed Chuck Goldman, Shirat Hayam's president, "is if you want to get some nice Judaica, you have to go to Brookline or get it off the Web."

Last year's bazaar drew 140 shoppers, including non-Jews who came for the baked goods and crafts, Goldman said.

Affiliated with the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, Shirat Hayam holds services in the Marshfield United Methodist Church, at 185 Plain St. (Route 139), where the bazaar will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Founded a dozen years ago, the congregation welcomes interfaith families. The congregation has 49 families, a 10 percent increase over a year ago, Goldman said. Some of the congregation's newest families have moved to the South Shore from Brookline and Newton, towns with larger Jewish populations.

Beyond candles, the bazaar offers such Hanukkah basics as dreidels (tops inscribed with Hebrew letters) and chocolate coins wrapped in gold-tinted foil (known as gelt). The fair also features Judaica such as jewelry with a Star of David design, traditional Jewish culture items such as mezuzas (scrolls with Hebrew words, traditionally affixed to door frames), books, stationery, quality crafts, general gifts, baked goods, and raffles, Wong said.

Many Jewish families follow the custom of giving children a gift on each night of Hanukkah. Its date determined by Judaism's lunar calendar, the holiday this year begins on Dec. 21.

"It's been a good fund-raiser," said the congregation's Harry Katz. "A lot of people who aren't Jewish but have Jewish friends" buy items for holiday gifts.

While most non-Jews may be aware of Hanukkah because of its proximity to Christmas, the Jewish community's relatively low profile on the South Shore has made it hard for some of its other important dates to gain recognition on the mainstream calendar.

The High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Judaism's most important religious holidays, are likely to cause absences from school - a fact that takes many school systems by surprise every year.

Wong, a member of the Duxbury School Committee, calls her town's policy not to hold tests on the two high holidays or to penalize students for missing school that day "a good compromise." The school superintendent has also made a point to remind teachers of this policy.

Providing more services to a growing regional Jewish community is also a goal of Congregation Sha'aray Shalom, a Reform temple in Hingham, which last week announced the opening next fall of the South Shore's first Jewish preschool. The new "comprehensive early learning center" is designed to serve up to nine toddlers (ages 15 months to 2.9 years) and 18 preschoolers (ages 3 to 5) in separate classrooms.

"We have seen many young families move into the South Shore" over five years, said Steven Weiss, the congregation's cantor and director of education. "This is really an untapped area in terms of mainstream Jewish organizations taking part in the area south of Sharon."

Services by national organizations have tended to go to communities with large Jewish populations, such as Sharon and Newton, Weiss said. Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston will provide the curriculum and staffing for the school, open to both Jews and non-Jews. Combined Jewish Philanthropies backed the project with a large grant.

The basis of religious education is Judaism's traditional "ethics and values," Weiss said, including the value of "good deeds and reaching out to others. What it means to be a good person in this day and age."

Founded in the 1950s, Sha'aray Shalom draws members from 21 towns. The congregation has 265 families and "a little less than half" are interfaith families, Weiss said.

The South Shore's Jewish population is growing today and will continue to grow, said Weiss, because the housing market is "saturated in Newton and Sharon." Young families looking for good housing will "look to our area," he said. "The most important thing is to look for a full-service synagogue they can join. We can be that place."

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.