MANSFIELD - Members of the town's Jewish community are appealing to the school committee to cancel school in observance of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah next year, as debate continues over the school calendar for 2008-09.

The rabbi of Temple Chayai Shalom in Easton, Jodi Seewald Smith, and members of her congregation appeared before the board recently to make the request.

Smith said it would be "a gift to Jewish families in Mansfield" if the committee recognized both holidays.

Smith said it will be four years before both holidays again fall in midweek, since their dates are set by the lunar calendar and thus fall on different days of the week each year.

There are 80 families from Mansfield who worship at Temple Chayai Shalom, Smith said, and among them they have about 150 students enrolled in Mansfield schools. The Easton temple is one of a number of local synagogues to which the town's Jewish families belong, and Smith said their number is growing.

In a draft calendar the board reviewed in February, Superintendent Brenda Hodges proposed to close the schools on Oct. 9 in observance of Yom Kippur, but to keep the schools open on Oct. 1, which coincides with Rosh Hashanah.

Smith told the committee that both holidays are widely observed. She compared them to Easter and Christmas, the two holidays on which even infrequent churchgoers attend services.

They are "holidays of reflection ... (and) intense prayer," which are celebrated in a communal setting, Smith said. As children get older, it becomes harder for parents to pull them out of school for the holidays, she said.

In Sharon, Canton, Randolph, and Stoughton, the schools are closed for two days on Rosh Hashanah and one day on Yom Kippur, Smith said, while in Easton, the schools are closed for one day each.

The Jewish community in Mansfield is of comparable size to those in Easton, Randolph, and Stoughton, she said, and the families would be grateful for a single day off for each holiday.

A final vote on what days off to adopt will take place near the end of the school year, school committee Chairwoman Jean Miller said.

Miller also noted there are a number of other considerations the committee must take into account as it sets the calendar, including contractual obligations with teachers, the legal requirement of 180 school days, the need for professional development, and a day off for the November election.

TED NESI covers Mansfield for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at tnesi@thesunchronicle.com or 508-236-0434.