Jewish Veterans Welcome To Attend Sweetheart Breakfast

Jewish veterans from all branches—who served during any wartime or not—are invited to join a military group in the Baltimore area: the Rodger C. Snyder Memorial Post No. 117 of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA Inc.

Next month is the group's annual Valentine's Day event, the Sweetheart Breakfast, and potential members are welcome.

The event will be held at 10 a.m. Feb. 10 at the Suburban Orthodox Congregation, 7504 7-Mile Lane, Pikesville.

"I encourage people to come and be a part of a hard-working group of veterans. We are the only ones that give back to veterans themselves," said Dolores Snyder, group founder. The group is named after her late son.

Post No. 117 volunteers throughout the year at the Perry Point Veterans Administration Medical Center in Perryville, MD.

There they hold cookouts, picnics and parties. They go to the hospital every third Wednesday of the month, and again every three months on a Sunday, to hold Bingo games for veterans there.

Its volunteer members often raise money for projects to help at the hospital. Recently the group helped raise money for a wheelchair lift, and for building a gazebo, as well, according to a group spokeswoman Cheryl Wapner Cohen, whose mother, Dorothy Wapner is a member of the group.

Kosher food for the event will be from Milk & Honey Bistro in Pikesville, and will include bagels and lox, whitefish salad, egg and tuna salads, coffee and desserts, she said.

Entertainment for the breakfast will be by Seth Kibel, a klezmer musician, who will perform on clarinet, saxophone and flute, according to an event flier. He also plans to bring an accompanist.

Kibel is known for playing klezmer and other Jewish music, American swing and jazz, such as works by Gershwin and Irving Berlin. He may also play a few tunes appropriate for Valentine's day, according to a note to the group from Kibel.

He is the winner of 22 Washington Area Music Awards, including Best World Music Instrumentalist 2003-11, and Best Jazz Instrumentalist" in 2005, 2007-08 and 2011.

Cost to attend the breakfast $12 per person.

Reservations are required, by calling Mark Mentz, quartermaster, at 410-484-8215.