Jennifer Osterweil, 54, says working at the Edward A. Myerberg Center for seniors is like being with family.
“It’s the staff as well as the members,” said Osterweil, director of programming at Myerberg. “Tomorrow, it’ll be five years that my mother passed away, and Friday will be 21 years that my father passed away. So, to not have parents, but to come here and to see the members who remind me of my parents, is great. It’s like you have fans here. These people, they love me like their daughter. … I still miss my parents, of course, all the time, but it’s nice to have these older adults in my life.”
While Osterweil has only worked at Myerberg for six and a half years, she has been volunteering in the Baltimore Jewish community since her son and daughter — Jordan, 23, and Zachary, 21 — were children.
Osterweil grew up in Randallstown attending Beth Israel Congregation with her family. Over the summers she went to Camp Milldale, a camp operated by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore but, in 2015, was absorbed by the Pearlstone Center.
She went to University of Maryland for accounting and earned her MBA from Loyola University. Then, in 1998, she met her husband, Steve, on an online Jewish dating website called “Yenta” and moved to Long Island, New York. After moving back to Baltimore when her first child was born, Osterweil continued her work in accounting but returned to her roots at the JCC.
Still working in accounting, Osterweil became involved with the parents’ association at the JCC and served on the board for roughly seven years.
“My kids grew up through JCC, going to preschool through kindergarten, and then camp, the J camps,” she said. “When I had left [working in accounting full-time], I actually became the art director one summer for camp, and I also taught cooking camp for one summer.”
Osterweil said she left accounting because she wanted something different. Then, in 2019, a position opened at Myerberg and Osterweil became the assistant director of programs and “loved it ever since.” The center in northwest Baltimore offers classes in art, fitness, technology and other areas for older adults.
“Working at the Myerberg, it’s so funny because they make you feel young,” said Osterweil, who lives in Owings Mills. “It’s great to see the energy around here. It really does inspire you to live your best life, and the community and connection that people make at the Myerberg is one of a kind.”
In addition to her full-time job at Myerberg, Osterweil also runs a small business called Peace Love Sprinkles, where she creates Judaica shadow boxes and other handmade products.
She enjoys traveling, getting together with her book club and baking her mother’s Jewish apple cake. She says she’s kept the original recipe in her mother’s handwriting.
Osterweil shared with the Baltimore Jewish Times her favorite family tradition; when she and her family sign and date their Haggadahs on Passover.
“I always love to host the holidays. Rosh Hashanah and Passover, everybody always comes to my house. We have a nice, big Seder and one of something fun that we always do during Passover in the Haggadah, we sign the books,” she said.
“You sign your name and you write the date of the Seder, and then it’s nice to go back and see — I can see my mom’s signature, my bubbe’s signature,” Osterweil added. “So, we have these books that have lines and lines of family. I love that tradition.”
While tradition is an important part of her life, Osterweil says so is tikkun olam. “To me, for my kids, I always tell them ‘tikkun olam,’ repair the world. We always want to leave the world in a better place than we found it. And that’s, I feel in this role, I’m helping to do that.”
