Menorah lighting in Greenfield set for third year

GREENFIELD — For the third and perhaps final year, Greenfield will have a public Hanukkah menorah lighting and celebration — an event that Greenfield Orthodox Coalition founder Jasper Lapienski expects will be better attended than in past years.

With the menorah, which was built by Lapienski himself, expected to arrive on the Greenfield Common on Thursday, Dec. 11, it will be lit for the first time on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 3:30 p.m. and daily thereafter through Friday, Dec. 19, then at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 20, and again at the public illumination ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 21.

Because two public signs have been installed on the Greenfield Common since last year’s menorah lighting and the number of attendees has increased since Lapienski first held the celebration in 2023, Lapienski said this year the menorah will be on the side of the common facing City Hall, rather than on the side facing Main Street.

“This first year, we think it was about 75 people, and in the second year, we think it was about 150,” he said. “I’m expecting that the crowd will grow again this year.”

In lieu of the annual potato pancake social, a campfire sing-along for all ages will be held at 34 Washington St. following the Dec. 21 ceremony, Lapienski said.

Although the move is still uncertain, Lapienski said he plans to leave Greenfield next year and, unless someone else steps up to carry on the menorah lighting, he does not expect it will continue after this year.

Prior to 2023, a menorah had not been lit on the Greenfield Common since 1994.

In November 1994, Green Fields Market requested permission from the Selectboard to install an 8-foot menorah on the common, according to The Recorder archives. A group of businesses, including Greenfield Supply Co., Knapp’s Hardware, as well as carpenters Gary Seldon, Stephen Walk and Van Wood of SmallCorp., helped build the wood and Plexiglas structure. The request came in response to a “weekend of rash antisemitic graffiti,” which included swastikas, the letters “KKK” — a reference to the hate group, the Ku Klux Klan — and the phrase, “Hail Hitler,” spray-painted on the side of buildings in Greenfield. The menorah was meant to send a message of support for the Jewish community.

With the 2024 event having been sponsored by Living Waters Assembly of God, Garden Cinemas co-owner Isaac Mass, who is not Jewish, and Terrazza Ristorante, which is not Jewish-owned, Lapienski said he has been glad to see those outside of the Jewish community showing support for the annual tradition.

“Most of the Jewish people in Greenfield are over 70 and most of them are not very involved in Judaism. Temple Israel hasn’t been very active the last few years, and so
I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Lapienski said of the event. “I was doing this without any expectation of what would happen, but the fact that the whole community comes out and enjoys it … I thought that that was a big achievement, because we live in the current state of affairs where everyone is expected to be divided. That didn’t seem to be the case here in Greenfield.”

Lapienski added that the menorah lighting hasn’t been the focus of any antisemitic incidents since he brought it to the common in 2023.

“Wherever I go, one thing that I will miss about Greenfield is the lack of antisemitism,” he said. “If there was going to be an antisemitic incident, it would be when there’s a giant Hanukkah menorah on the common. We didn’t even have someone yell out of a car window the last two years, so that’s pretty good.”