Starting at age 4, Jim Trager was his grandfather's right-hand man at every Passover Seder.

He'd sit at the head of the dining table next to his grandfather and recite the Four Questions to remind family members about the Jewish plight in Egypt and their journey for freedom. He wouldn't get up from the chair for an hour and half, afraid that he might somehow botch the ceremony.

Richard Colman of Carlisle waits for Temple Shir Hadash services to begin at Fellowship Hall in Westford. Though statistics are not kept, the local Jewish community appears to be growing. SUN/BOB WHITAKER

Now a father of two teenage daughters, Trager still observes the tradition. His relatives come to his Chelmsford home for the dinner, instead of going to his grandfather's house in Newton. His wife's recipe for chopped liver replaced his grandmother's. But children run around the house, just as he used to, playing the game to find hidden pieces of matzo.

The joy of family togetherness and passing down the wisdom comes over him just as it did when he was a child.

And Trager now has 40 families to share his Passover stories with.

This week, from sundown tomorrow through Saturday, the families will mark Yom Kippur, the holy time of atonement in their faith.

 

Those who attend Temple Shir Hadash of Westford, which Trager helped found, may come from different backgrounds. Some are Orthodox, others Reform.

"It's like different flavors of the same ice cream," Trager says.

But they have similar holiday memories. A strong sense of pride in their tradition brings them together.

Being in the community, "you just feel you are part of something bigger than you are," he says.

Several religious and social groups of Jews have started in recent years across Northwest Middlesex County. The Jewish community here has grown quickly within the past five years, as the region -- smaller towns in the Nashoba Valley like Westford and Littleton, in particular -- boomed, according to community leaders.

Statistics counting the Jewish population in these towns are hard to find. The U.S. Census does not collect data on religious affiliation. Most private organizations' surveys focus on the metro-Boston area or nationwide populations. According to The Association of Religion Data Archives, the number of those who practice the Jewish faith across Middlesex County increased by 31.8 percent from 1990 to 2000.

And results of a survey by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, published last November, indicates the Jewish population in northwestern suburbs of Boston -- which excludes towns north of Acton and Carlisle -- rose from 19,000 in 1995 to 25,000 in 2005.

Experts say it's hard to keep track of Jews moving into the area for a reason -- they are young families who don't necessarily belong to established synagogues.

Some Jews attend temples in Greater Lowell.

"All other Jews living in Nashoba Valley aren't very active religion-wise," says Rabbi Zalman Gurkow of Chabad of Nashoba Valley, which opened in Westford two years ago to reach out to those demographics.

Capturing some of their attention are "grass-roots" congregations like Temple Shir Hadash, says Gurkow. Trager and four other families created the first temple in Westford six years ago, and it now has 40 families but no physical house of worship. The congregation uses the Fellowship Hall on Westford Common.

Groton Jewish Community Group, which is strictly a social group, has 80 families on its list, and half of them don't go to temples, says Leslie Lathrop, who founded the organization 10 years ago.

"We started in somebody's living room, sitting comfortably," Lathrop says of the group.

Now, they rent a hall for a get-together.

A Web site, www.nashobajewishlife.com, is designed to help Jews in Westford, Groton, Littleton, Chelmsford, Acton and surrounding towns connect to other Jewish communities in the Boston area.

"Not quite in the MetroWest or the Merrimack Valley, this site is our first step to being an online Jewish Community Center for the rapidly growing Jewish population of the Nashoba Valley," the site says. "While we prefer to keep our names private, we are simply concerned, caring, Jewish families who would like to participate in Jewish activities near our homes in the Nashoba Valley."

Many Jews moved here from different parts of the country for high-tech jobs and brought diverse backgrounds with them. That has made Trager's temple a "melting pot" of Jews.

"They arrive here and they look to find a community that fits them," says Richard Smith, president of Congregation Shalom in Chelmsford.

The Reform congregation also has experienced a "substantial growth" in membership during the past few years.

"I have not seen a terribly strong Orthodox (presence)," says Rabbi Neil Kominsky of Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley, a Reform temple in Lowell. "There is less a sense of special denomination loyalty," which is characteristic of younger Jewish populations, he adds.

Trager, a communications manager for Nortel, and his family used to attend a Lowell temple. After their daughters finished Hebrew school, they got together with other families with whom they shared similar ideas and started Temple Shir Hadash.

The temple is neither Reform nor Orthodox, but "somewhere in the middle," he says.

"Unlike established synagogues that strictly follow traditions on everything from conducting services to selecting educational books, Temple Shir Hadash takes different ideas from its members and tries to be flexible," Trager says.

And whether it's a religious setting or not, Jewish residents here are trying to enjoy being with others who share common ground.

When the Groton Jewish Community Group first started, "Everybody who came into the room said, 'Jeez, we thought we are the only Jewish'" in the community, says Lathrop, who looks forward to the challah bread that some members buy in Brookline and bring to holiday get-togethers.

"It all comes down to the philosophy of congregation," Trager says. "You always want to be with people who make you feel welcome."