Volunteer of the Month: Cantor Michael Shochet

Why do you volunteer for the ACC? How do you make time for it in your busy schedule?

Giving back to my community, whether it's the community in which I live, or the community of Cantors in the ACC is an important part of what I feel is my duty. With a clergy schedule that keeps me busy most of every week, I find that the time I can give to the ACC or other volunteer projects and programs happens in off hours of the night, or on my day off. I do put family first, which is one of the reasons that I haven't been actively involved in the leadership of the ACC in recent years, and so squeezing in time to work on projects comes after time devoted to family and my congregation, but I do manage to get things done...even if it takes a while!

What projects are you currently involved in with the ACC? What past involvements have given you exceptional memories?

Currently, I'm involved with the Vatikim video project, a video archive of some of the distinguished and dedicated cantors who have served our movement for some 40 and 50 years. At each convention, we hope to show a new video of 5 or 6 cantors, highlighting their career with interviews and historical photos. This will be the second video produced for the conference, which will be shown in Chicago. Cantors around the country are helping interview their distinguished colleagues.

In the past, I've served in numerous volunteer positions within our conference. I started on the Board in 1994, shortly after graduating from HUC-JIR, and went on to become Secretary and then Vice President. Also during this period, I served on various committees, including convention committees for several conventions since 1994. I was also the co-chair of the 2001 Washington, DC convention. One of the most memorable projects that I was a part of was the ACC Cantor's Manual, which I co-edited and produced in 2000.

What do you like to do completely unrelated to your cantorate?

It's not completely unrelated, as it has to do with my pastoral role, but I'm extremely active in the law enforcement community. In 1986, I was a sworn police officer in the Baltimore City Police Department. I left the department after a couple of years, and then in 1990 began at HUC. Since graduation from HUC, I've been active in the law enforcement community as a volunteer chaplain, first in New Orleans, and then, when I moved to the Washington, DC area, became much more active in the National Capital Region. I am the Chaplain Coordinator for the Fairfax County, VA Police Department, the area Jewish chaplain for the FBI, Washington Field Office, and the only Jewish Chaplain at the CIA in Langley, VA. I am the co-chair of the Washington, DC Council of Governments Public Safety Chaplain's Group, which helps lead the area in chaplain training and response for major events. Oh, and in my very spare time, I am a sworn Auxiliary Police Officer with the Fairfax County Police Department. So every now and then, you may see me driving around town in a police car handling accidents and directing traffic. Luckily I haven't yet given a parking ticket to one of my congregants!!

How do you try to inspire Jewish young people?

I've been fortunate at my congregation that there are a number of young people who would like to become cantors. Our congregation is blessed with a great clergy team, including 4 invested cantors currently on our staff: Tracey Scher, Jeff Saxe (one of our Rabbis), Allen Leider (our Educator) and me. We've had great student cantors: Leigh Korn and Rebecca Robins. All of the cantors at Temple Rodef Shalom have served as exceptional role models and have encouraged young people to pursue the Cantorate, just by doing what we do best...being caring, compassionate and engaged clergy people. Our congregation sees each of us as committed clergy people...rabbi and cantor teams...whose mission it is to cater to the full spectrum of congregational needs. Plus, we sing too! I look forward to helping these young people fulfill their dreams to become cantors!