One Minute with Jacqueline Shuchat-Marx

Libby Barsky

September 26, 2008

Name: Jacqueline Shuchat-Marx

Occupation: Cantor at-large; adult education and religious school music teacher at Temple Shaari Emeth, Manalapan; tutor b'nai mitzvah students at Temple Sinai of Roslyn, N.Y. and substitute cantor for Shabbat services. She will be co-leading High Holy Day services at Congregation Beth Sholom in Corpus Christie, Texas.

Address: Manalapan

Family: Married for 12 years to Mark Shuchat-Marx, a content editor at Dow Jones. Two children: son Harry, 6, and  daughter  Xiao-Ling, 5. Mother Ursula Marx, retired dental technician living in Columbia, Md. Father Harry Marx, president of Morristown Foam, and of temple died in 2000. Sister Elaine Friedman, a retired educator and her husband Elliott Friedman, also retired, live on the eastern shore of Maryland. Their daughter, Rachel Tanenhaus, is a public healthcare researcher in Cambridge, Mass.

Community activities: Sings and serves on the board of the New Jersey Cantors' Concert Ensemble sponsored by the New Jersey region of the Cantors' Assembly (Conservative). The N.J. Concert Ensemble rehearses twice a month and performs around the state at synagogues, nursing homes, and day schools, raising scholarship funds for the cantorial schools including Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Jewish Theological Seminary and others.

Hobbies: "Movies, reading, music, travel, cooking, hanging with family and friends, playing with our two cats, taking advantage of local activities, and trying to do nothing once in a while.

Self-portrait: "Outgoing, organized, serious about rearing my children and being a cantor while maintaining a sense of humor. I believe a sense of humor is essential for getting through life -- you need one or you don't have a marriage, a job, a life."

Motto: "Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig."

Greatest accomplishment: "Becoming invested in 1997 in Israel as a cantor from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and raising two wonderful children with my husband, who are the three funniest people I know."

Bad Habits: "Not exercising enough."

Favorite TV Show: "Cheers," "All in the Family," "Maude," "The Golden Girls," "The Nanny," "The West Wing," and "Ugly Betty."

Favorite food: Asian, particularly sushi.

Best childhood memory: "Holidays with my family. My parents escaped from Hitler's Germany and had nothing when they came to America. It made them very mindful to share with others as they became prosperous, especially when the Jewish Russian immigrants came to America.

"I grew up in a small Baptist community where the Jews and the Catholics were in the minority, so we always got together for each other's holidays and at our seder table there was usually a priest or two. My parents also took me to every concert, play, musical, and live show available in our area and I discovered a beautiful world within and without the everyday routine."

People don't know that: "I fought anti-Semitism in college while on the job as a Christmas reindeer in a department store. A guy in my degree program had been telling Jewish jokes in the cafeteria. Later, he and his buddy got in line downtown to see the reindeer and they really stuck out next to all the little kids in line. I was completely camouflaged by the reindeer suit and I disguised my voice, used his name and called him on his actions, saying I'd flown over the school and witnessed them. When I threatened to tell Santa to stiff him on his Christmas gifts, he fled in fear."

Last book I read: "The Mercedes Coffin," by Faye Kellerman. "This is the latest installment of the Peter Decker books. The characters in these later books become deeper and darker."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish communities: "Our potential and big hearts. There is so much we could accomplish together."

The biggest problem in the local Jewish communities: "Each institution regards one another as competition instead of unifying for the common goal of tikkun olam and keeping the Jewish world Jewish."

If I had more time I would... "Mow the yard, make my own mulch, plant rosemary, and lavender, and collect hair from local barbers to strew around to keep the deer away."