The GatherDC blog strives to present a holistic portrait of the DMV’s Jewish community, sharing a wide variety of Jewish voices and perspectives. If you have a 20- or 30-something to nominate as our Jewish Person of the Week or for a Spotted in Jewish DMV feature, please email us!
Samantha and I stake out seats in Silver Spring’s bustling Panera to chat about her Kemp Mill group chat, indie filmmaking, her pivot from theatre to film, the best kosher pizza in the DMV, Shabbat as a refuge, the magic of WhatsApp, and keeping secrets (or not).
Samuel: What brought you to the DMV?
Samantha: I’ve grown up in Maryland, in the town of Kemp Mill. I did leave for college at Cornell and lived in Ithaca for a bit, and then I came back for grad school at American and resettled back in Kemp Mill. I got an MFA in Film and Media Arts.
Samuel: What’s kept you here post-graduate school?
Samantha: I love the DMV! It’s close to DC on the Red line and accessible to the city. I wanted to come back to home base after college and I knew I’d loved the internships and things I’d done in DC, the hustle and bustle of DC. But I also enjoy living out [in Kemp Mill] because it’s suburbia and a different way of life. It’s also a very religious Jewish community, which provides a lot of infrastructure. There’s maybe seven shuls to choose from. There’s just so much Jewish life, and then there’s the shopping center that has Shalom Kosher and Ben Yehuda Pizza.
I wasn’t planning on staying necessarily. But, I found that American had a good MFA program in film, and thought: I’ll blend the DC life with arts and filmmaking and still have the best of both worlds with the Jewish community.
Samuel: Why filmmaking?
Samantha: I was a Theatre major in college. I’d been in all the plays. I was the quintessential theatre kid all the way from elementary school. I was in Fiddler on the Roof three times between different schools. I was just totally theatre all the way. But when I was graduating, it was Covid, and theater was kind of iffy at the time. So I thought I might as well learn how to operate a camera.
I am in a pivot phase. I recently completed a contract working as a civic educator with middle and high school students. I did not think I’d be working with young people, but I loved it. I’ve been building an indie route for myself, making my own projects – I had a film screen a couple weeks ago at the Wheaton Library. People kept asking me: What are you doing next? So just yesterday, actually, I decided that I’m going to make an independent pilot of a script that I’ve been writing for a long time based on the young folks of Kemp Mill group chat that I’ve been running, based around my friends and the woes of dating and young adulthood in a really religious community when you may not be quite as religious yourself.
Samuel: Wow, I feel like I’m getting breaking news.
Samantha: You’re the first to know. Other than the group chat.
Samuel: And I was going to ask about the group chat!
Samantha: Yeah! It’s become a community, and it started not as ambitious as it has become. Casually, I was in the midst of grad school and doing this crazy commute [into DC], so my weekdays were really hectic. Shabbat became my refuge and a lot of my social time; I would host a lot of meals and things through Shabbat Clusters.
I realized that I wanted to get together with friends locally on Shabbat, but a lot of them don’t use their phones. So I added a few people to the chat and I thought we’d just plan, like, if we wanted to do something Saturday afternoon. It was lowkey, and then people started adding people, and it just started growing. It started with only five or six people and now we’re at 108. I wasn’t expecting it to keep growing, but people want to add their friends!
We’ve started to do some larger-scale events. We did a Shabbaton in May, which was really successful. We had people from DC, Rockville, Baltimore, and even a couple from New York and New Jersey. I don’t know how it reached them. Magic of WhatsApp.
Samuel: What else is feeling alive in your Jewish practice?
Samantha: Shabbat. Specifically, Friday night has become a cornerstone for me. Even on the 4th of July, I was traveling and visited a friend, and did the Shabbat meals and everything. It felt really good. Part of me felt like I was missing out, because it was 4th of July weekend, but I also felt this peace that comes with it. I’m not 100% observant; I’ll use my phone to check something, or slip up. But it’s that slower pace and being with friends and family, carving that time out, is really important to me.
Samuel: Okay, a few quick ones to close. What’s something more people should know about Kemp Mill?
Samantha: You need to come try Ben Yehuda Pizza. On a Saturday night, if you want to schlep out to the suburbs, there’s quite a scene there sometimes. It’s just a cool hangout.
Samuel: What’s something you’re bad at?
Samantha: Keeping secrets.
Samuel: What are you feeling proud about?
Samantha: What we’ve been talking about – I realize how proud I am of my community and of my friends.
Samuel: What’s something you want to leave behind for future Jewish generations?
Samantha: My mind goes to film, and what I’m building now, which I hope will become a series. I don’t know if people will be watching in 200 years. But if you’ve ever watched, like, Srugim, it’s very insider for the Jewish community, with very specific references. I think I want to leave behind something that makes you feel, that you can relate to, that can make people feel like they belong.
That’s what I want to do with my community organizing, too. That’s the common thread in both of these major things in my life. I’m all about inclusion. We should all be able to find our place and be comfortable and accepted. I don’t know how exactly that’ll look in 200 years, but hopefully the world will be more like that in 200 years.
Samuel: You can invite any three people to Shabbat dinner. Who are you bringing and why?
Samantha: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Sojourner Truth.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Samantha: They create community.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog and on this website are solely those of the original authors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the organization GatherDC, the GatherDC staff, the GatherDC board, and/or any/all contributors to this site.
