Arnie Get Your Gun
Great
Jewish
hunters
and
other
tall
( tales.
c)
DAVID ZEMAN STAFF WRITER
30
ing, but I certainly felt no sense
hey've heard the often met with a mix of suspi- collar rural Jews; it was just not of exhilaration, either."
something
indigenous
to
our
cion and incomprehension in
snickers.
Still, Mr. Bodack was
,A They've endured the Jewish community. Be- background," he said. "When
hooked.
we
came
over
from
the
'old
the taunts of childhood cause in truth, most Jews don't
"It was pleasantly refresh-
buddies, the surprise in hunt, and don't have friends country,' those things we left ing," he said of the weekend.
the voices of co-workers, who do. Perhaps it's a dearth of behind."
"There were no women there,
For Mr. Bodack, hunting
and — perhaps most role models.
no television, there was no
fever
struck
in
his
mid-30s,
While
Jews
haven't
exactly
daunting — the finger-
phone ... It's a common refrain,
wagging denunciations dominated the sports world, at when a friend brought him this lure of nature.
least in some fields a treasured along to northern Michigan.
from their own mothers.
"The appeal is an escape
"I had mixed feelings," he re-
-,-, "Jews don't hunt!" one few have won fame: Sandy Ko-
from
everyday life," said Paul
called.
"I
did
not
know
I
was
ac-
mother scolded her son as ufax and Hank Greenberg in
Ross,
a 36-year-old real-state
deer season loomed. 'They baseball; Sid Luckman in foot- tually going to shoot a deer. My developer from Bloomfield
ball; Max Baer in boxing, and friends have told me I am a
shop."
Hills. "It's not so important that
Undeterred, a small but (OK, we're stretching here) Joe pretty good photographer, so I you kill an animal; it's just be-
thought,
'Why
not
make
it
into
resolute band of Jewish men Lapchick in basketball.
ing outdoors."
Not so in hunting, as this a photo expedition?"
has fallen hard for the survival.
Another man, a bow hunter
But
once
the
men
reached
gear, bait piles and high- new breed of marksmen readi-
in
his mid-20s who asked that
the
leafy,
deer-rich
fields
near
powered rifles favored by Michi- ly concedes.
his
name not be used, put it this
Alpena,
the
thrill
of
the
hunt
"The whole subject of guns
gan's better-equipped recre-
way:
and hunting to most Jews proved too seductive.
ational hunters.
"I really love getting up at
"Lo and behold, I ended up
"When I was growing up," re- comes under the topic of some-
4:30
in the morning, slamming
shooting
one
and
killing
it,"
Mr.
called Steve Kendler, 35, of thing that is very goyish at
down cups ofjoe, eat-
Rochester Hills, "I al-
ing my egg-white
ways had to listen to,
omelette, throwing
`Jews don't do this;
on my 'camo' (cam-
Jews don't do that.' I
ouflage clothes),
always tell them,
walking in the
`There are 750,000
woods, hearing the
people who are deer
crunch of the leaves
hunters. They must
under my feet and
be having some kind
sneaking up upwind
of fun.' "
from the deer.
And so these men
"It goes way, way,
quietly suffer the
way above and be-
slings and arrows of
yond the kill. It's get-
kibitzers who want to
ting out to the tree
know when they
stand before day-
bagged their first pas-
break, strapping
trami, or if they wear
yourself in, and you
camouflage galoshes,
can brainstorm
or whether their
every problem in
names appear in The
your life while you're
Big Book of Jewish
up in that tree.
Hunters.
"I've never been
Jeff Dubin, of Sur-
the bloodthirsty
plus City, a hunting
type," the bow
and camping outfitter
hunter continued.
Above:
Steve
Kendler
started
in Berkley, joked about the sin- best," said Bob Bodack, a 47- Bodack said, bow hunting last year after a
"The kill just hap-
gular image of Jewish out- year-old insurance sales- "very cleanly decade of shooting guns.
pens to be the ending
and
accurately."
doorsmen: "They don't like to man/deer hunter from
to what you're doing
"I
remember
Steve
Opposite
page:
get too wet; they don't like a lot Farmington Hills. "Heaven
up there. Being out
Kendler: "It's so tranquil out
of noise; they don't like to see a help you if you say you're a life when I shot the there."
in the woods, that's
fire outside their window ... ." member of the NRA (National deer. It dropped
sacred to me."
immediately
Perhaps it's a fear of stray- Rifle Association), which I am."
And
yet,
like hunters of all
and
it
did
not
get
up,"
he
said.
Mr. Bodack, for one, recalls
ing too far from town, a kind of
stripes,
these
men make no
Woody Allenesque paranoia no Jewish sharpshooters from "I kind of poked at it with a ri- apologies for their sport, and
that the countryside is filled his New York City childhood. fle and I thought to myself, 'Oh, are quick to label their meat-
"Jews engaged in finance, or my God, what have I done?'
with members of the Manson
"I'm not sure it was a terri- eating critics as hypocrites.
in law, or in accounting. That's
family.
"Hunting is one of the most
bly
remorseful or regretful feel-
Suffice it to say, hunting is not to say there were no blue-