As Mendel Rice lit the first wick on the menorah, he reminded two dozen people standing in a half-circle around him of the symbolism that ignites the tradition. “Every day is another miracle, and that’s why we light the menorah,” he said. The faces of the onlookers, who gathered in the parking lot outside of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last Thursday evening, grew clearer with each new light. It was the third day of Hanukkah, and the newly-established group called the West Marin Jews were holding their inaugural valley event to celebrate the Festival of Lights. There were young families, elderly couples, and a newborn among them. It was a lively, casual celebration, though on some men, traditional tzitzit fell over blue jeans. The group sang traditional songs—including one in Ladino, a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew—spun dreidels for chocolate coins and fried latkes eaten with homemade apple sauce. A grassroots organization, West Marin Jews was established by a young couple who settled in the valley last year. Mr. Rice and his wife, Batsheva, live across the boulevard from the community center and recognized an opportunity to enhance the Jewish community in their new home. “I loved that this place is so authentic and real, and I felt that there were a lot of Jewish people in the nooks and crannies or hiding in the trees,” Ms. Rice said. “We were living in West Marin for a year trying to meet other Jews, but we didn’t have anything to invite them to. We were connecting, but we didn’t have a gathering place.” Ms. Rice, a doula, was raised in Australia. Mr. Rice, a farmer for Devil’s Gulch Ranch, is from Lucas Valley. (The handmade menorah he lit last week is composed of pieces of a metal fence from his childhood home; the candles were from the couple’s wedding last year in Fairfax, where they are also hosting Jewish gatherings.) Ms. Rice is in the process of arranging a family-centered birthright tour to Israel sometime next year that would be open to all (Jewish or not) to visit the holy sites and tour farms. She said her husband always dreamed of organizing a Jewish community in West Marin, though there is already another: Gan HaLev, West Marin’s independent Jewish congregation, was founded in 1992. Yet Gan HaLev has seen declines in membership, particularly with young families—a part of the population that West Marin Jews has begun to attract. Traci Prendergas, who lives in San Geronimo with her husband and young children, attended the candle lighting last week, as did Laurie Chorna, a Woodacre resident and a founding board member of Gan HaLev. “I wanted to participate more in the community,” Ms. Chorna said, adding that there isn’t a competition between the two groups. “This is an ability to offer more,” she explained. During a prayer before the meal, Ms. Rice thanked God for “giving energy to the earth to make things grow” and, as the group took their first bite, a chorus of “mmms” ensued.
West Marin Jews hold inaugural Hannukah candle lighting
