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Two Sams walk into Spot of Tea in Dupont Circle…and then chat about graphic design, online personas, social and institutional ways to engage with Judaism, fonts, and fashion advice.
Samuel: What brought you to the DMV?
Samantha: I grew up on Long Island. All my family is from New York. When I was ten, my parents decided to move to Virginia, near Richmond. And [that part of] Virginia is very, very different from New York – there wasn’t a huge Jewish community. I went to school at James Madison University for graphic design in Harrisonburg, and I liked the Virginia area, so I moved back home to Richmond after college.
I worked in Richmond for a bit, but a lot of my friends happened to move to [the DMV] in 2022. I got a job in DC doing graphic design, which is what I wanted to do. I like how it’s two hours away from Richmond, so I can still take a train if I want to go back home. It’s four hours from New York. [DC] has all the great things you need – the metro, the monuments, baseball and basketball and hockey…there’s so much to do. And it’s not as expensive as New York.
Samuel: What’s kept you here?
Samantha: That’s a great question…I think I’m finally, after three years, finding my community here. I have a lot of friends that I’ve met around here, especially in the Jewish community. After I started posting on social media [about being Jewish], a lot of people have reached out to me and I’ve met a bunch of people through social media that have become my really close friends. And, my brother moved here, so it’s nice to have family close in the area. For now, it’s where I want to be.
Samuel: What’s your Jewish community like?
Samantha: It’s hard, because I am still trying to find my place. I grew up Reform, and post-October 7, I have become way more observant, and want to learn more and grow in my faith and in Judaism. I have gone to a bunch of synagogues, but I haven’t found my place where I fit in. For the holidays, I went back to Richmond because I like my synagogue there.
Friends-wise, I found a lot of really great people who have a wide variety of how religious they are and how they practice. I have a really good community, but I’m still trying to figure out where I fit in Judaism. I’ll go to, say, Adas Israel, and there’s a ton of prayers that I don’t know, and I’m like: Oh, I’m not “Jewish enough” to be here. Or, for example, I really enjoy lighting Shabbat candles now, but I’d never done it previous to October 7. I’m trying to figure out how religious I want to be and learn more.
Samuel: It sounds like you’re balancing two ideas of community – one that’s with friends, and one that’s a relationship with an institution.
Samantha: I think there is a balance. As a 20–something still trying to find the balance between wanting to go to a place like a synagogue…I would love a place where I could just go every Friday and be like: This is where I go on Fridays. But for right now, I don’t really have that, and I don’t think that’s the end-all be-all. With Judaism, there’s so much – you can go to an event on a Thursday night, go do a challah bake at a young Jewish professionals event, and you can meet people and get that sense of community with a Jewish aspect. There doesn’t need to be a single place that I call home, like a synagogue.
Samuel: Switching gears. You have a passion for graphic design, and you’re in the social media content creation game – where is that coming from for you? What have you learned as you’ve begun that personal branding project?
Samantha: Starting off, I took a class in high school for graphic design and fell in love with it. I went to JMU, where they had a specific graphic design program. While I was there, I got into social media a bit more and started posting. I joined some ambassadorships – like, I used to work with Bumble, and they’d send me merch every month, and I’d post for them. I was in a sorority and ran their social media. Ever since then, I thought: I could make something of this.
In an entry level job, I found myself looking for another way where I could express my creativity and find my creative outlet. So I started posting about fashion; I’d meet up with other content fashion friends and we’d shoot three or four outfits and change in our cars and make videos with trending audio…that’s how I found my joy on the weekends. I love fashion, and taking photos, and it was very fun for me.
But there are so many people doing it, and it’s so saturated, and I wanted to stand out. What is different about me? After October 7, I had a lot of people telling me that I should be posting about Judaism. I was [unsure] because I didn’t want to get comments telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about. Which I do get, and it kind of hurts, because I feel like this is my religion, and I should know. It’s been a learning curve. Not to mention that I [see] a lot of antisemitism, like when I went on Birthright. That was another reason I was nervous posting about Judaism. But, there’s probably so many people who are like me, who want to get more into Judaism, so I wanted to be that person that people can come to.
Samuel: There are a lot of people, particularly Gen Zers, who have really never known a world where there isn’t some pressure to have a personal online “brand” – how do you separate IRL Samantha from Instagram Samantha?
Samantha: My online persona will never talk about personal personal stuff. I won’t talk about relationships, or friends and family. I want to be a person that is real – I would never fake anything, like brand deals that are inauthentic to me. But I don’t want to talk about other people who don’t want to be talked about necessarily. I would say that my online persona and real life persona are pretty synonymous, like I’m the same person, but I’m not going to talk about certain things online. I would hope, though, that if you watched a video [of me] and met me in person, you’d be like: Oh, she’s just how she is on social media.
The cool part about social media is how you can connect with other people. I’ve had so many people reach out to me like: I just moved to Arlington. I’m Jewish, too. I would love to meet up and get coffee with you, yeah? Something that’s really cool is transferring the social media world to the IRL world.
Samuel: Okay, a few quick ones to close. Back to graphic design. Do you have a favorite font? Least favorite?
Samantha: Favorite font has to be Helvetica. It’s classic. If you haven’t seen the Helvetica movie, you have got to watch it. Helvetica is on so much, even if you don’t recognize it.
I hate Papyrus.
Samuel: Are there any other graphic design pet peeves that you have?
Samantha: Kerning, the spacing between letters. It’s always too much. Like I’ll see a sign where one of the letters is not close enough to the others, and it just bugs me.
Samuel: What are you thinking about fashion right now?
Samantha: I’m not a fan of capris. I love polka dots. And chocolate-brown suede.
Samuel: You’re hosting Shabbat dinner and can invite three people. Who are you bringing?
Samantha: My grandma, obviously. She passed away last year and I would love to see her again. Then, Paula Scher – she’s a graphic designer, works for Pentagram, and made so many really cool things in New York City. I would love to learn from her. And then, Taylor Swift. I have been listening to her new album and initially was unsure about it. The more I listen, I’m really liking it! “The Fate of Ophelia” is my favorite.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Samantha: Everyone knows someone who knows someone else.
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