Shaari Emeth grow to 740 families
Wayne Siet has seen
Shaari Emeth grow to 740 families
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
DAVE BENJAMIN Wayne Siet is beginning his 30th year as cantor at Temple Shaari Emeth, Manalapan.
MANALAPAN — His resonant baritone voice has been permeating the sanctuary of Temple Shaari Emeth, Craig Road, for almost three decades.
"I’ve always had that resonance in my voice," said Cantor Wayne Siet. "People have said that when I speak, they can hear it. When I sing, it comes out."
Siet has been the cantor at Temple Shaari Emeth for 29 years and is now beginning his 30th year of service to the Reform synagogue.
Siet came to the temple in the summer of 1974 after serving as a student cantor in West Hempstead, N.Y., for one year. He continued as a student cantor at Shaari Emeth for several years before earning a full-time contract. Looking back at his youth in Chicago, Siet said it was Cantor Pincus Rabinowitz who inspired him, instilling a love for the study of Jewish music and helping to make his bar mitzvah most enjoyable.
"When I studied for my bar mitzvah, I really got very attached to Cantor Rabinowitz," Siet said. "I was brought up with a much more traditional background. I enjoyed working with this man, and his wife was a great baker. We hit it off very well, and whenever I had a lesson, she always baked, and I ate my share of good things."
Siet said he became involved in the choir at his synagogue in Chicago and remained a part of it after his family moved to the suburbs. It was probably then that he saw how much he enjoyed the music, the singing and his mentor, and decided that perhaps he might like to do this as a profession.
With the Vietnam War at hand and many things going on in his life, Siet had to make some decisions as to where he should go to school. Plans to go to Roosevelt University to study voice with a particular professor fell through and Siet entered a two-year school in Lincoln, Ill.
He transferred to the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music where he planned to major in voice, but that did not work out.
Siet then decided to go into musical theater, and he was in "Brigadoon" in a very minor role. He had a solo and during a rehearsal the director said, "Stop singing like a cantor, I want you to sing like a rock star."
"A light went off," Siet said. "My voice teacher told me, ‘Wayne, you’re not going to start singing from your throat. You’re going to destroy something valuable."
When Siet went to the dean of the school and announced that he was dropping out of the show, he was told he could not. So Siet, only two semesters away from a bachelor’s degree in musical theater, left school.
Siet explored the possibility of attending Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where rabbis and educators, but not cantors, are trained. Cantorial schools are in New York City, and with several suggestions from his great-aunt Ida and her cantor, Siet moved to New York City.
After an initial interview at one school did not pan out, Siet went for an interview at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. The interviewer noticed Siet was from Chicago.
"My secretary is from Chicago," the interviewer said, and Siet said at that point it became a very informal atmosphere.
"You’ll be a fine candidate for the school. Best of luck," the interviewer said.
That’s when he decided to enroll at the school, where he eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in sacred music.
"There were some teachers in my cantorial school that were wonderful people," Siet said. "Cantors like Israel Alter, Benjamin Meissner, Israel Goldstein, Ben Belfer and Lawrence Avery — these were teachers who instilled a great deal of love of what it means to become a cantor. It got to me at certain times that I really shared [about myself] with them. Although some of them have passed away, they will always be in my heart and mind."
Focusing on his three decades at Temple Shaari Emeth, Siet said he has seen the temple grow over the years from a membership of about 200 families to today’s membership of about 740 families.
"I came here with Rabbi Phillip Schechter, who was not only the rabbi of the temple, but my mentor, since I was a student," the cantor said. "He developed me into the kind of a cantor he wanted me to be. I [began to] do other things, like funerals and weddings. I became sort of like assistant rabbi/cantor."
Now with a new rabbi, Melinda Panken, at the temple, Siet said he is looking for a closer clergy team which "will allow us to do more of the life-cycle events together," or by all means to have the new rabbi do as many as possible.
Siet said he has also seen changes in Reform Judaism since the 1970s, toward a more conservative approach with more Hebrew and more traditional customs.
The cantor said Temple Shaari Emeth has always been gender sensitive, with equality and women’s rights at the forefront.
"Women are totally involved in the service," said Siet. "That was something Phil Schechter [now rabbi emeritus] brought in."
The congregation has also been involved with interfaith community services, including a Thanksgiving service and a Martin Luther King service. The cantor said he would like to see more fund raising at the temple, so that even more can be done.
Siet said he has a wonderful adult choir and a junior choir, noting that the choirs complement his job, particularly when there is new music for the High Holy Days or Friday night services.
"The music is presented better with the choir, [more so] than if I would do a solo," the cantor said.
Looking back over the years, Siet said his best experience over the years was witnessing his three children have their bar and bat mitzvahs at the temple. The cantor also had the privilege of naming his granddaughter, Amanda Faye, at the temple. Siet and his wife, Randee, have been married since 1973. They have three children, Lauren, 20, Jason, 25, and Brian, 28, who is married to Wendy.