Jewish? Hunting in the Mid-Atlantic States?
James S. Oppenheim
Folks:
A friend of mine publishes one of the Jewish community newspapers
covering the mid-Atlantic states, and he asked me (and believe me, this
is not for profit) to think about writing about hunting from a Jewish
perspective. Now we went through something like this last year (thread
title, "Jews Anti-Hunting?"), and whie I am generally averse to
expressions of unusual and unwarranted curiosity about any of the
cultural, religous, or language groups that comprise the American
multicultural mosaic, and especially sensitive to the placement of Jews
under the microscope (or is it in the mirror?), I am going to float this
simple request: if you are Jewish and you hunt in the mid-Atlantic
region and feel that your hunting experience and Jewish cultural
experience (however you define it), are entwined, I would enjoy hearing
from you.
Heck, we may have a thread.
As for me, raised in the 1960's on British rock-and-roll, German
romanticism, and American literary impressionism, and now two-stepping
through middle age at the local cowboy bar, I have no such perspective.
//Jim
com...@smart.net
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John Kelly
"Jews Anti-Hunting?"), and whie I am generally averse to
> expressions of unusual and unwarranted curiosity about any of the
> cultural, religous, or language groups that comprise the American
> multicultural mosaic, and especially sensitive to the placement of Jews
> under the microscope (or is it in the mirror?),
Whew! Prolix prose! What about your own "unwarrented curiosity," the
poseur practices you detail below?
I am going to float this
> simple request: if you are Jewish and you hunt in the mid-Atlantic
> region and feel that your hunting experience and Jewish cultural
> experience (however you define it), are entwined, I would enjoy hearing
> from you.
> As for me, raised in the 1960's on British rock-and-roll, German
> romanticism, and American literary impressionism, and now two-stepping
> through middle age at the local cowboy bar, I have no such perspective.
>
"As for me," a native to "cowboy bars," maybe I should also "be averse"
to dabblers in MY culture by outsider microscopists. If I aped your
practices, I'd be hanging out in dairy bars, studying old Woody Allen
videos for moves. Jews is jist as cute as cowboys, Pilgrim.
I suggest that you either buy into your stated prejudices wholeheartedly
(after some naval gazing about the implications for racism), or you buy
wholeheartedly into the higher egalitarian standards practiced daily and
historically by "average Americans."
You might even talk with a Rabbi, as there's no doubt among them as to
where hunting stands for religious Jews, per my conversations with them.
Or is actual query into the rabbinic law verboten (sorry, no Yiddish)?
Can it be that I'm more friendly to Judaism than you?
John Kelly: The goy who started that thread last year, evidently
inspiring your current "idea."
James S. Oppenheim
John,
For some reason, Jews + hunting fascinates you.
I was asked by a friend, and he is more that to me than the editor of a
small Jewish weekly, to at least think about the Jewish experience of
hunting in America. As you know, I personally haven't found the
slightest connection between my being Jewish and my hunting, with the
exception now, possibly, of this inordinate curiosity and intellectual
treatment of Jews as a special sect in the American hunting community.
And let me rephrase this in a positive way: As a Jew, I have not been
singled out or treated in any special way by my local hunting
association, any vendor, or any state agency; as a hunter, the codes of
the hunt come from the local laws, my fellow hunters, the outdoor
writing community, and, perhaps, the filter of literature in general.
This is not to say that hunting is off the radar where Judaism is
concerned. However, most of us are more likely to get our guidance,
along with everyone else, from the gun-and-hook publications than
rabbinical commentary. So far, the response here supports that view.
In the several days since posting, I've received but two e-mails on the
subject, the first referring me to last year's thread, the latter from a
hunter in New Mexico with whom I hope to correspond.
//Jim
John Kelly
James, yours is a pretty tired response. Here I am ridiculing you (I'm
not "curious") for your cornball notions of Jewry, lifted directly from
Woody Allen movies, and your only response is to imply that I'm
anti-Semitic. Yet you dismiss the heart of that culture, its religion
and history.
I suggested that you ask your rabbi about hunting. You've dodged the
bullet. I know what his answer would be. I'll bet you do too.
John Kelly