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Emma and I meet one stormy morning in Van Ness at The Whale Tea for bubble tea and stories about Emma’s former life as a USAID contractor, her love for Temple Shalom, why teaching at the temple’s religious school feels particularly rewarding right now, finding intergenerational spaces, feeling a little unhinged, and the culinary scene in Silver Spring.
Samuel: What brought you to the DMV?
Emma: I grew up in Montgomery County. My dad grew up Conservative and my mom grew up Reform, so we went to Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase. It’s meant different things to me at different points in my life; I gave a speech at Temple Shalom’s Kol Nidre a few years ago about my “Eras Tour” through temple leadership. It’s come full circle where I’m still there and teaching now. Judaism isn’t the main thing I do. It’s not my career. But it’s been a consistent presence in my life, and when I came back to the area, all of the community lay leaders who I knew were like: Come teach! So I’ve stayed doing that, and it’s been really grounding in the way that I’ve been able to build a lot of community since I’ve been back these past four years.
I’m in the middle of a bit of a career transition, so [working at Temple Shalom’s school] has equipped me well for exploring teaching. I actually had my first day full-time substitute teaching yesterday…it was French immersion, also third grade, and I speak about third grade-level French, so it was actually quite appropriate.
Samuel: What do you teach at Temple Shalom?
Emma: I teach third grade religious school. I just wrapped up my third year teaching, which I love. I love kids. Getting to talk about Judaism at a values level has been really cool. This past year, we talked about the Ten Commandments, and put it into language the kids understand. Like: “respect boundaries” for don’t covet your neighbor’s wife. We talk about what it means to respect a boundary. And the other half of the year, we talked about Jews around the world, which was really good for me because my previous career was as a USAID contractor. I don’t really know what’s going to happen, hence the career transition, but it was a cool way to combine my international experience with my Jewishness, and a cool way to teach respect for diversity.
Sometimes Jewish communities are stereotypically pretty homogenous, and that’s not the reality everywhere. I think our synagogue is really cool in the sense that it does have people from all different walks of life and backgrounds. My take on Judaism is a lot less about reading Torah every single week, and more like: What are these values teaching me about how to be an accepting and inclusive person? How am I giving back to the world? Being able to pass that on is cool.
Samuel: Obviously, we have a lot of folks in our community who have been affected by layoffs and contract cancellations these past few months. What was that experience like for you?
Emma: It felt like a nightmare that started at the end of January. We got stop work orders, and it became clear that things were going to get bad pretty quickly. As we were dealing with that uncertainty, my grandma died, and then there was a month of being on some temporary work that other parts of my company were doing. I was grateful that they were able to keep me a lot longer than other companies were, but I’ve been officially laid off since the end of March. My big message to myself has been: No sudden movements. Things are changing so rapidly, and I sometimes struggle with not having the complete information to make decisions.
Jokingly, but not jokingly, we made friendship bracelets in our Rosh Chodesh group, and I wrote “Unhinged” on mine. At one point, I was like: I’ll make the most unhinged decisions possible, because nothing matters. But unfortunately, rent is due, so things do matter. I’ve always been pretty scrappy, so it’s equipped me well to support myself somehow. I’ve been busy, and out of the house, which is nice.
Samuel: How have you approached building your Jewish community now that you’ve returned to the DMV as an adult?
Emma: I was away for six years of college and grad school. I made a lot of Jewish friends in college, and I was technically involved with Hillel, but it was not a big core part of my identity. After I graduated undergrad, I looked at different synagogues, but nothing really stuck with me. Growing up, I had a really good group of friends that I made around the time we had our bar and bat mitzvahs, and we stuck around through confirmation, post-confirmation, and youth group in high school and such. I felt very tied to Temple Shalom. So, I guess it wasn’t surprising that I went looking for something else and didn’t find that same thing.
When I came back, at first, it was just something I did – and then I started meeting people. I was able to get into more realms of Judaism, just as a young person meeting other Jewish people. Being part of an intergenerational synagogue has also resonated with me. There’s something really beautiful about being in a community where the kids can run around and anybody in the room can help, or the older people can give advice. That’s been really meaningful for me.
And, at the same time, it’s important to have that 20s and 30s community. We’re getting a 20s and 30s group set up at Temple Shalom, and I’m really excited about it. There are a lot of people who live in Silver Spring, and getting to [Jewish events] downtown can be harder. It’s nice to have young people gathering together and makes sense for us. We don’t have a name for the group yet, and calling it Young Professionals when everyone’s out of work seems…triggering. So it’s amorphous. We’ll see what happens.
Samuel: What else is feeling alive Jewishly for you?
Emma: I love hosting people. Through Moishe House Without Walls, I’ve been able to do a Hanukkah party, and I hosted my first Passover Seder this year. It was a little untraditional – I adapted the Seder I did for my family during lockdown, which was a Schitt’s Creek-themed PowerPoint. I think it’s a nice way of bringing people into something in a way that’s not super serious. My partner’s not Jewish, so it was fun to introduce him to some of those customs. And there was lots of wine flowing and good food and community, which made it all better. Being able to be in social Jewish spaces in a home setting has been really lovely for me.
Samuel: Okay, a few quick ones to close. What should more people know about Silver Spring?
Emma: Silver Spring has so many different types of food; there are people there from all over. In one of my previous jobs, I was working with people from all across sub-Saharan Africa, and talk to people who’d know about New York, and maybe DC, but they would always know about Silver Spring because there’s such a huge diaspora community from so many different countries there.
Samuel: What are you feeling proud about right now?
Emma: I’m still on my feet. And I’m happy, relatively speaking. I’m still able to take care of myself despite feeling like my entire livelihood has been upturned in the course of a few months. My friends have been amazing. My partner’s been really great. And, I’ve been supportive of myself in a way that I don’t know if I would have been a few years ago. Therapy is great.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Emma: Joy ensues! Community is formed!
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