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Rachel and I meet one classically humid and sweltering DC summer day at the West End Library. We sit in the air-conditioning and chat about Rachel’s deep fascination with television, finding community through shared interests, wanting know how things work, and why she’s begun telling the story of her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who fled to Shanghai.
Samuel: You mentioned off-mic that you were just in Austin, Texas. What brought you there?
Rachel: It was the ATX TV festival. It is this small-ish event that is a mix of people who work in the TV industry, actors, writers, creators, and fans – which is me. Because it’s half fan, half industry, the people there care less about the actors than they do about the writers and having small conversations. It’s something I found online. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a TV critic because I saw the stuff that TV critics get to go to. Then I realized I don’t love to write and I hate interviewing people. So, I found this.
I’ve just made so many friends through the festival. It’s such a good community. It’s probably one of my most diverse communities in terms of age, background, and geographic location. When I came to DC, for the first few years, all my friends were in their 20s and 30s. Here, I feel like I have a lot of friends from different generations and from all over the United States. When I’m bored, or sick, or need something to watch, I can be like: Tell me the show I missed because I was in high school or too young to watch. That’s been really fun, too.
Samuel: What’s a TV show that not enough people are watching?
Rachel: Shrinking on Apple TV with Jason Segel and Harrison Ford. I’m generally not a comedy person, but it is so funny and heartfelt and emotional. I saw a panel with the writers of that show and they talked about writing this show to work through trauma of their own. That’s the one that I don’t feel like people are watching, but I would recommend it to everyone.
Samuel: Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. What brought you to the DMV originally?
Rachel: I grew up in Virginia Beach and went to college at William & Mary in Williamsburg. Even in high school, I was like: I am getting out of Virginia. I wanted to go as far away as possible, so I got a job in Dallas right after I graduated college. I spent four and a half months out there. I loved the people I worked with, loved my job, but just didn’t love Texas and how far apart everybody was. I missed my friends and family. So I got a job and moved to DC at the end of 2011. I’m on the Virginia side, so I still never technically stopped being a resident of Virginia.
Samuel: What’s kept you here?
Rachel: I love my job and the people I work with. Then, DC is the perfect distance from my parents. It’s like three hours, so I can drive home easily and see them, but I also get the arts and culture [of DC]. I’m not a city girl, but I like DC. Every time I go to New York or another city, I’m like: DC is better. Bring me back! I’ve had friends move in and out. I’ve had phases where it feels like everybody’s gone, and –
Samuel: How do you get through those phases? That feels very real.
Rachel: Honestly, I’m not the best at it. I’ve gone through phases where I’m doing very little and I’m sad. But I come out of it asking: What’s something I want to do for myself? What’s something new? Around 2016, I started doing a lot of Gather stuff, got to know Rabbi Aaron and Rabbi Ilana, and did a lot of learning. I’ve always liked knowing how stuff works, so I’ve always been really into that learning aspect. I did the first Beyond the Tent Retreat. That was really big to help get me out of my shell after a lot of college friends had left town.
Since 2020, it’s been a lot of embracing my interests in DC – even if nobody will do it with me, or even if I’m scared. I want to try things that I’m scared to do. This year, I have my first theater subscription. I’d never done that before, and I’ll go to shows with friends or alone.
I’ve also been trying to figure out what parts of being Jewish make me happy, and what parts I miss from my childhood. I grew up going to Jewish Day School, summer camp, youth group. When I came to the DMV, there were so many options that it felt overwhelming. One of my goals is to find a synagogue this year. I’ve been totally fine in my 20s and early 30s hopping around – finding somewhere to go for this holiday, somewhere to go for this Shabbat. When I was younger, I wanted to be around people my age. Now, I’m realizing how much I like being around people of all different ages. I want to find a synagogue that I can fit into.
Samuel: What else feels alive Jewishly for you right now?
Rachel: I’m a big reader, and in the last six months I’ve discovered that there’s this whole community of Jewish women authors who write romance books. They run a Facebook group called Jewish Women Talk About Romance, and they’ve started a Jewish joy subscription box where they send out a romance novel each month with other stuff – I got my first challah cover through one. They are just, like, the loveliest community. I aspire to be like these women. They’re writing stories about people who happen to be Jewish, who are being authentically Jewish, proud of being Jewish, happy to be Jewish. It brings me that joy and I’ve enjoyed seeing that representation.
Samuel: I know you’ve also been working with 3GDC recently. What’s the story there?
Rachel: I grew up a few miles away from my maternal grandparents and always knew that my grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. For as long as I can remember, he would go to different classrooms all over Virginia Beach and Norfolk military bases to tell his story. I grew up being very proud of him. When he passed away in 2012…I just lost something. I lost the ability to ask him questions. For years, I’d been trying to do the WEDU training through the 3G New York group (now run by Living Links) and finally, in June 2024, they accepted me.
I spent many hours relearning my grandfather’s story and learning how to tell it my way as his grandchild. I did the training, and I just kind of sat on it. I didn’t do anything. I was afraid. But then, so much of what’s going on in the world Jewishly has been tough to deal with, and I felt like I needed to do something and this was my chance. Starting in April, I’ve been telling my grandfather’s story once or twice a week to classrooms, mostly virtually.
It’s been interesting to engage with his story – he escaped from Berlin in 1939 and moved to Shanghai as a young adult. There was a whole Shanghai ghetto, with 20,000 Jews from Germany and Austria who made it to Shanghai. He saw how antisemitism starts, how he was treated differently starting in his childhood. Every Holocaust story is different. There’s different ways to learn about it, different value to get from everyone’s story. It’s been really good talking to kids about it, and it’s been important for me.
Samuel: A couple quick ones to close. You can bring any three people to Shabbat dinner. Who are you bringing and why?
Rachel: We did Friday night dinner, Shabbat dinner, every week at home, alternating between my parents and my grandparents. I miss that, and I miss being around my grandfather, so he is invited. And, for his sake, I’m also inviting someone I met at the ATX festival last year, Phil Rosenthal. He was the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond and Somebody Feed Phil, and he is just the most charming Jewish dad. One of the only TV shows my grandfather watched was Everybody Loves Raymond, so they need to have Shabbat dinner together. Then, I’m also bringing my grandmother, because she’s been gone much longer, and I have a lot of questions that I never got answered. And, she was a great cook and baker.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Rachel: We have a lot of interesting conversations!
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