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Claire and I meet one melty, sweltering afternoon at Arlington’s Northside Social. We chat about Claire’s journey to Judaism, familial connection through (and across) faith, teaching in NoVA, singing in a choir, Stephen Sondheim, and art as an antidote to dread.
Samuel: What brought you to the DMV?
Claire: I was born in Georgia and moved up here in 2012 to go to William & Mary. My parents moved up to the Alexandria area around the same time – they liked the DC area. Then, I just stayed here since I graduated. I’ve lived in Alexandria, DC, and now Arlington.
Samuel: What’s kept you in the area?
Claire: A lot of my friends from college live here. It’s very common for people from William & Mary. Initially, it was because I’d be able to live at home, and that was convenient. But then I built a really strong community in this area with two different things. One is the choir that I’m in. I sang at William & Mary, and that’s where most of my friends came from. We heard about a choir in DC that has a lot of alumni, and I’ve been in that choir now since 2017.
Then, post-pandemic, the reason I know Natalie is through the Sixth & I Jewish Welcome Workshop. That was another form of meeting people and having this Jewish community. And, I got a job at a school that I really love out in Falls Church, and I have a great community there as well.
Samuel: How did you find yourself signing up for the Jewish Welcome Workshop?
Claire: In the early pandemic, I sort of didn’t have anything to do. I was in grad school for teaching. I had been laid off from my part-time job at Barnes and Noble. So, I started messing around on Ancestry.com, and was able to learn more about this part of my ancestry that I was aware of but didn’t know a lot of details. Basically, my mom’s dad’s family were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine in the early 20th century. My grandfather passed away in 2017 and my mom passed away in 2014; I couldn’t ask them anything anymore, so I was interested in looking it up, and that opened up this whole part of my self.
I had always felt a kind of pull toward Judaism, but it gave me more context. I decided over the course of a year or two that I wanted to pursue just learning more, so I signed up for Basically Jewish and then was like: Yeah, I think I want to do the whole thing. I ended up officially converting in the summer of 2023.
Samuel: I’ve always enjoyed the idea that all Jews, present and future, were at Mt. Sinai during the giving of the Torah. I hear a little of that in this idea of a “pull toward Judaism” – how did that show up for you?
Claire: Growing up, I knew part of my ancestry was Jewish. My mom would talk about it. But when I look back on it, I can see all this Jewish vocabulary – even though, it’s funny, my grandfather was Episcopalian. So the practice was not there. No one was celebrating Hanukkah. But we had a close family friend who was Jewish and who would visit for holidays, and between him and my grandfather, I feel like I got familiar with the culture, even though I didn’t know very much about religion. And then when I was 13, I went to exactly one bar mitzvah and one bat mitzvah. When I went to the bat mitzvah, I just remember being like: This is amazing. I wish that was me.
I remember vividly that my mom loved klezmer music. Or, she would talk about how she saw Fiddler on Broadway when she was a kid and that she felt so connected to it. She was like: That was our family! So Judaism was there – I knew that it existed, but my grandfather didn’t talk that much about his childhood, and his parents were long gone. Obviously, something had happened that had caused his family to go from being Jewish to not practicing, and then their son is an Episcopalian. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll ever know.
But that knowledge, combined with the fact that my mom died when I was 20, and my grandfather died a couple years later…basically, I have this side of my family where I have no real connection to them anymore, and so pursuing Judaism was both something I had already been interested in, and being able to feel connected with that part of my family where I didn’t actually have any living people who I could connect with.
Samuel: How do you think your story would land for your mom and grandfather?
Claire: My mom was very spiritual. She grew up Episcopalian, raised me Episcopalian, but she always found Judaism interesting. I don’t think she would be surprised [at the conversion] at all. I have no doubt in my mind that she would be like: Hell yeah. That’s awesome. That totally makes sense.
With my grandfather, it’s a little more nebulous. My grandparents were old when I was born. I wish I could, I wish I had asked more about his family and heritage when I had the chance. But I just didn’t do that as a kid.
Samuel: What’s your Jewish community looking like now?
Claire: It was easy when I was doing Jewish Welcome Workshop because every week I saw these people, and every month you had to go to three events, and do all these different things. Then, you convert, and you’re on your own. It’s not hard, I’m just not a member at any synagogue. I still go to Sixth & I, and I still see people from my class – some of my closest friends have since moved out of DC, which is classic DC. But, I also have friends from my choir who are Jewish. I did two Passover Seders this year, one with Natalie and one with my choir friends. That was much more chaotic and not really a ‘serious’ Seder, but it was really fun. It was a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish people, so it was fun for me to be one of the experts in the group.
Samuel: What else is feeling immediate for you Jewishly?
Claire: I teach at a school that has a significant Muslim population, including students who are Palestinian. After October 7th, it was just like: all those anxieties and frustrations and anger and sadness were just multiplied exponentially. I have Muslim students directly affected. I have Jewish students directly affected. There’s no easy way to be like: Now it’s fine, I figured it out. I can’t change what’s happening.
I would say that probably teaching is one of the only things that has helped me cope. I am open about being Jewish, and I teach one class where we have a poetry unit where students get to pick between five English-language poets, and one of them is Naomi Shihab Nye. We’ve given her as an option for years, but when I introduce her I’ll talk about my relationship to the conflict as a Jewish person, and how it’s difficult.
I have good relationships with almost all my students, but it’s specifically meaningful to me to have these strong relationships with my Muslim students. A lot of my students don’t know much about Judaism – my school has a much smaller Jewish population. So I like being able to both learn about other faiths and then also share about mine. Teaching is one of the only ways that I feel like I can make a quantifiable difference.
Samuel: Okay, a few quick ones to close. What’s something about the choir that non-choir people don’t know?
Claire: A lot of other people in choir would say – and for me, too – it’s a kind of spirituality. There is something particularly pure about singing. There’s no equipment. If you’re in the choir, you’re on an even playing field. This is all we have: our voice. I’ve also found that it is challenging physically and mentally, which is something people probably don’t realize. You have to get ego out of the way when you’re singing in a choir, because it’s not about you. You have to sound beautiful as a whole. You’re not supposed to be able to hear any one person.
Samuel: What’s something in the DMV that doesn’t get enough shine?
Claire: My favorite place might be the National Gallery of Art, specifically the cafe with the waterfall and the atrium with all the plants. I remember going alone when I was 16 years old and being like: This is the best day of my life. I’m in this museum with all this art. I love to people watch and read and eat gelato and look at the art like I’m saying hi to old friends.
Samuel: You’re hosting Shabbat dinner and can bring any three people. Who are you inviting?
Claire: Stephen Sondheim. I love Into the Woods. I love Follies and Sweeney Todd. I’ll invite Rachel Bloom. I met her one time and didn’t fully appreciate it – very shortly after, I watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and was like: Damn! I would have had so much more to say! So I want to invite her so I can properly express my appreciation for that show. And then I’d bring my mom.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Claire: Lives change for the better. And, there are lots of places in the DMV to do amateur arts, and I think it is a highly underrated way to be involved with community and feel like you’re doing something meaningful. The world is so awful right now – making time to intentionally make something beautiful with other people is one of the most powerful things you can do anytime, but especially when it feels like there’s so much out of your control. When the powers-that-be want you to feel beaten down, and tired, and like you can’t do anything, you can go and sing. You can go make art. You can go find beauty. It’s out there.
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