Name: Jaime Morocco
Age: 36
Hometown: Andover
Currently living in: Miami
Alma mater: Sanborn School, West Middle School, Andover High School, Suffolk University (undergrad) and Babson University (graduate school).
Job: I own my own business, an online nutrition and fitness company.
Favorite food: My favorite food is french fries.
Favorite music: I really like house music.
Favorite movies: “Contact” and “The Matrix.”
Favorite TV show: “Real Housewives” on Bravo – anything on Bravo.
Favorite books: “The Alchemist,” and there’s a book called “10X,” and I read that once a year. It’s a really good business mindset book, going all in on your business, just doing everything 10x.
Favorite travel destination: Paris and Tel Aviv.
Favorite Jewish practice: Going to Israel.
Favorite Boston spot: I really like Mastro’s at the waterfront in the Seaport.

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Tell me about your Jewish background.

My mom is Jewish and my dad is Catholic. I was raised Jewish and we lived not even a minute from the Temple Emanuel synagogue – we were right down the street. So I grew up going to Hebrew school and I was bat mitzvahed and everything. I’m definitely somebody who’s more culturally and spiritually Jewish than super-religious. But that’s something I really like about the religion and the ethnicity – there are so many ways that you can be Jewish.

How did that Jewish upbringing impact you and your career choice?

I would just say from a value standpoint, just something that my mom always told me was that tikkun olam is really important, meaning healing the world. So just having that lens, I think, has just helped remind me to be committed to helping people change their life and having empathy and all of those things. I primarily work with women who want to lose weight. And with that comes a lot of emotion and a lot of challenging conversations and things like that. So just being able to hold that space for people where they feel safe, and that they can really open up to me and [know that] I’m actually going to help them and not judge them.

How did you end up in Miami?

I met my husband actually out in San Francisco. I was working in the tech industry for a while. And then we both quit our jobs and built our own businesses, and his business took us back to Boston. So we lived with my parents for a while, and then we moved out and were living in Boston and we were both like, ‘we’re just over the winter.’ We decided to move to Miami, so we’ve been here for like two and a half years … winter is actually the best time of year here! There’s no humidity, and it’s the perfect sun. It’s awesome.

Do you miss anything about the North Shore?

I miss my parents for sure. They’re amazing. I definitely miss the specific coffee that New England has, that I love. Nothing can beat it … I think it’s literally called New England Coffee. It’s flavored coffee that the coffee shops there have. It’s my favorite thing.

How does Judaism inform your life today? Where do you find Jewish connection now?

I would just say the friends that I have – I mean, there are a lot of Jewish people here. I live in a high-rise building and I would say it’s 90% Jewish, and a lot of my friends are Jewish. So I would say definitely more of the social aspect of things is where I feel like I connect with the community. There’s a really good Israeli restaurant here. It’s called Motek, which means sweetheart in Hebrew, which is so cute. Just going there makes me feel really connected. Θ

Know someone we should feature in our Gen X/ Gen Z/ Millennials column? Email klein@jewishjournal.org.