One Good Thing: 98-year-old hosts virtual women’s group

Trudy Berlin looks at a book during her weekly Zoom session at the Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, March 16, 2021. During the coronavirus pandemic, Berlin moved her in-person classes to Zoom. She’s grown a steady audience of about 50 women from the U.S. and Canada who have come to view the class as a support group. Berlin says it’s “a whole new world out there” and she’s having fun.

Trudy Berlin, who hosts a weekly Zoom session at the Levis Jewish Community Center, works in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, March 16, 2021. During the coronavirus pandemic, Berlin moved her in-person classes to Zoom. She’s grown a steady audience of about 50 women from the U.S. and Canada who have come to view the class as a support group. Berlin says it’s “a whole new world out there” and she’s having fun.

Trudy Berlin hosts her weekly Zoom session at the Levis Jewish Community Center in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, March 16, 2021. During the coronavirus pandemic, Berlin moved her in-person classes to Zoom. She’s grown a steady audience of about 50 women from the U.S. and Canada who have come to view the class as a support group. Berlin says it’s “a whole new world out there” and she’s having fun.

By FREIDA FRISARO and CODY JACKSON Associated Press

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Levis Jewish Community Center last year, 98-year-old Trudy Berlin sprang into action to keep her weekly women’s group active.

For Berlin, who began hosting “The Ladies Room” at the JCC’s Sandler Center in 2000, the show needed to go on. So with a little help from Stephanie Owitz, the Boca Raton, Florida, center’s director of arts, culture and learning, the show went virtual.

“When the pandemic hit, of course, she was very disappointed we were shutting down the JCC,” Owitz said. Then, the center decided to make some classes, including Berlin’s, available on Zoom.

“At first she was very intimidated by that idea. She’s 98 years old and not that comfortable with the technology, but I assured her I would help her get started,” Owitz said.

Since March, Berlin has grown a steady Tuesday morning audience of about 50 women, mostly age 70 and up, from the United States and Canada. They discuss everything from grief to politics.

“I’m happiest when I can be talking to a group, and I believe in groups very very much,” Berlin said.

At first, Berlin did the show from her Boca Raton apartment. Now that the center has reopened, she does her virtual class from the JCC, sitting at a table with newspapers and notes spread out in front of her.