Sail250 Maryland and Airshow Baltimore was a thrilling time last weekend. As the Fourth of July nears, a number of organizations, vendors, musicians and more, as well as plenty of tourists, flocked to the Inner Harbor and the Baltimore Peninsula to take a peek at some old ships in the water and new planes in the air.

Tucked in a grass field by the Baltimore Visitors Center, between a stall selling oyster shell jewelry and another representing naval veterans, were the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. — a bit off the beaten path and, last weekend, pretty sweaty thanks to an especially humid Maryland day. But the handful of Jewish United States military veterans in attendance to represent their organization at the 250th event were nothing if not happy to be there.

Vietnam Veteran Marshall Sapperstein said that an event like this draws a large swath of the community from all different backgrounds, making it a good chance to be able to spread the history of Jewish military service.

“It gives me a source of pride. I never had any antisemitic issues in the service, so it’s not like I ever felt on the defensive at all. But what I recognized was that a lot of people don’t know that Jews actively participate in military service, and JWV gives me a chance to show that being a Jew and serving our country has been a tradition from the beginning,” Sapperstein said.

The Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. is the oldest veteran service organization in the country, a little known fact that often surprised those who approached the tent to learn more.

“That was one of the things I saw yesterday — a lot of people who came up to our booth, regardless of their religion, were surprised to learn about Jewish participation in the U.S. military,” Sapperstein said.

Dan Berkovitz, adjutant of the Maryland, D.C., and Israel Jewish War Veterans of the USA, is the leader of the local wing of the operation. He knows that right now in particular is a crucial moment for Jewish visibility in spaces that people don’t know Jews exist. The United States’ conflict in Iran, which Israel is intimately involved in, has also been a topic of conversation from people who approached the booth last weekend, even though the JWV of the U.S.A.’s mission is to support veterans of the U.S. military, not advocate for Israeli intervention.

“My position is to listen to everyone. Obviously we’re going to try and stay away from conflict in terms of politics, but at the end of the day, everybody’s human,” Berkovitz said.

“We want to have conversations with people, we want to support all veterans, regardless of their opinion. If people have issues or concerns about the conflict, they can talk to us about it. At the end of the day, the United States has a mission to protect its citizens and the U.S. decided to go into Iran, so you know we’re going to support the warfighter and the veteran in that regard.”

Last weekend, some of the folks who came up to the tent were Jews who had never heard of the organization. Some were members of the public who might have never met a Jew.

Some were veterans who didn’t know that the organization existed, and one was even an Iranian Muslim who spoke with the JWV members for a while about the organization, the conflict and more.

Sapperstein said that he was happy with how the event went, and that he has nothing negative to say about his experience.

“It was actually all positive while I was there. There was no confrontation or anything. I felt like that whole event was very positive and unifying. I thought it was a wonderful event. It was a good turnout, despite the weather, and [I was] just impressed [that] people of all persuasions stopped at our booth and talked. Just being able to be there and show our pride, but also just let them know that we exist [was great],” he said.

As the festivities in Baltimore wrapped up Tuesday, the Jewish War Veterans were proud to have made their mark on the event. The 250th anniversary of American independence is a big deal, and for Jewish Americans, it’s a big deal to have their own community play a part in it, too.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com