Our Spiritual Leader -- Marcey Wagner

Marcey Wagner is committed to joyful Judaism and to the art of helping others connect to our rich Jewish tradition in meaningful ways.  She has a great love of singing and Jewish prayer and has also been involved in all facets of Jewish education- teaching students ranging from preschoolers through senior citizens.  Her most previous dual position was as the Cantor and Education Director at Temple Isaiah of Stony Brook. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Youth and Family Education at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, as the Principal of the Lower School of the Schechter School of Long Island for four years and as Hazzan and Educator at the Jewish Congregation of Brookville, on Long Island, for 10 years. She has held High Holiday pulpits in Colchester, Connecticut, Riverhead, and Cold Spring Harbor N.Y. and has appeared in concerts throughout the NY metropolitan area.

Rabbi/Cantor Wagner has been on the faculty at the Jewish Education Project where she taught seminars on many subjects including Tephillah, Differentiated Learning, and Using Drama in the Classroom.  She was co-author and developer of Project Etgar: A New Curriculum for Congregational Schools for United Synagogue and the Melton Research Center. Rabbi/Cantor Wagner is a certified Family Educator and was the instructor for the first on-line certificate course offered by the Cantors Assembly.  She is a trained 4MAT facilitator and has run workshops at public and Jewish schools in the 4 MAT Educational Framework across the country.  She received her investiture as Hazzan from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where she also received her Master’s Degree in Sacred Music with a Special Concentration in Education.  Rabbi/Cantor Wagner also holds a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of Virginia.  She was also selected to attend the Leadership Seminar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education: The Principals  Center. Cantor Wagner was recently ordained as Rabbi in June of 2020 and has been actively performing life-cycle events and doing educational consulting work for synagogues in the New York metropolitan area.

Rabbi Wagner is excited to begin her new position as spiritual leader of Chavurat Emet in Smithtown.  She lives in Huntington with her very patient husband and is the proud mom of 3 very accomplished children and Bubbie to 3 granddaughters. 

When Chavurat Emet was founded in 2003, Neal Spevack was the natural choice for taking on the responsibility of spiritual leader.  He had years of experience as a cantor and years of experience as an active participant in the Jewish community including leadership roles in a local synagogue.  However, it is his love of learning, passion for teaching, and his kind, compassionate responsiveness to the needs of others that truly made him a remarkable leader for 18 years .