3/8/2009 JVNA Online Newsletter

Shalom everyone,

This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:

1. Happy Purim

2. Passover and Vegetarianism

3. A Sacred Duty Reviewed in the Association of Jewish Librarians Newsletter/My Letter in Response

4. Veggie Pride Parade Scheduled for Manhattan on May 17, 2009/Volunteers Sought

5. HBO to Air Documentary that Exposes Factory Farm Abuses

6. Kosher Ethical, Vegan Restaurant to Open in Manhattan

7. Help Maintain Academic Freedom for Teaching a Nutrition Course

8. JVNA Message Spreading to Other Countries

9. Please Sign Petition to the UN to Promote Vegetarianism to Reduce World Hunger

10. Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates

11. Correction

12. New Book Provides Tips to Increase Effectiveness of Activists

13. JVNA Advisor/Author to Speak at NY Public Library

14. New Book Discusses How Vegetarianism and Other Simple Living Approaches Make Peace More Likely

15. An Insightful Short Film on Veganism

Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.

[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]

Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,

Richard

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1. Happy Purim

Purim begins this year at Sundown on Monday, March 9. Please consider using the points in my article “Vegetarianism and Purim,” which is at the holidays section at JewishVeg.com/Schwartz. You might point out something that most people do not know: according to the Talmud, Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, was a vegetarian while in the palace of King Achashveros, so that you could keep the kosher laws and still not reveal that she was Jewish.

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2. Passover and Vegetarianism

With Purim almost here, Passover is just 30 days later. So, I plan to send out my article “Passover and Vegetarianism” to the Jewish media soon. So please take a look in the holidays section at JewishVeg.com/Schwartz and please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks.

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3. A Sacred Duty Reviewed in the Association of Jewish Librarians Newsletter/My Letter in Response

A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World. Directed by Lionel Friedberg. DVD. Jewish Vegetarians of North America, 2007. (Color, 59 minutes.)

The contrast between beautiful views of nature and disturbing footage of the handling of livestock stand out in this documentary inspired by the writings of vegetarian activist Professor Richard H. Schwartz, who comments frequently throughout the film. Lionel Friedberg narrates, and Theodore Bikel reads biblical quotes that highlight concerns for human health, animals and the environment. Other commentators include a Hasidic rabbi who lives on a farm in Minnesota, members of environmental advocacy groups in the United States and Israel, and several other rabbis of various denominations.

The “film aims to motivate positive action by applying Jewish teachings to how we use natural resources, take care of our health, obtain our food, and live in peace among our fellow beings.” The information is presented in 18 chapters, including "Israel--Microcosm of the World," "Ideal Diet," and "Looming Human Shadow." The viewer will learn that eighteen percent of greenhouse gases are coming from livestock agriculture, and that Israel contains a variety of ecosystems - coastal plain, desert, mountains - packed into a very small geographic area. The scenes in slaughterhouses and hatcheries are horrific, in obvious violation of the mandate not to hurt animals (Tsa'ar ba'alei chayim). While one rabbi asserts that his synagogue has solar panels and has redesigned the bima to look like a banyan tree to remind the congregation of nature, there is little in the way of concrete suggestions of how to help heal the world. An interesting social commentary, this one-sided presentation will appeal to libraries whose congregants are interested in health and environmental issues.

Kathe Pinchuck, Congregation Beth Sholom, Teaneck, New Jersey
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Daniel Scheide
Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter
newsletter_reviews@jewishlibraries.org

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My letter in response:

As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America and Associate Producer of “A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World," I appreciate your including a review of the documentary in the November-December newsletter. However, in an otherwise fine review, I think Kathe Pinchuck missed our essential message when she states “there is little in the way of concrete suggestions of how to help heal the world.” While many articles and films discuss ways to reduce global warming, A Sacred Duty stresses a message that is generally being ignored, even by experts like Al Gore: that a major societal shift toward plant-based diets is an essential step to avoid the unprecedented catastrophe that the world is rapidly approaching. As Ms. Pinchuk mentions, the film indicates that “eighteen percent of greenhouse gases [in CO2 equivalents] are coming from livestock agriculture.” Incredibly, this is 30 percent more than all the cars, ships, planes and other means of transportation combined. And making the situation even worse, experts project that the consumption of animal products will double in the next 50 years. Hence, without a major shift away from present animal-based diets, there is no way that our imperiled world can be shifted to a sustainable path.

The message in A Sacred Duty is so important that we will send a complimentary DVD to any librarian or other educator who contacts me at president@JewishVeg.com. The documentary can also be seen at ASacredDuty.com.

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I also sent the group a message for their listserv, and that resulted in at least 4 requests for DVDs.

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4. Veggie Pride Parade Scheduled for Manhattan on May 17, 2009/Volunteers Sought

JVNA will have a table at the gathering after the parade. I am scheduled to speak. If you are able to attend the parade and would like to help distribute JVNA material, please let me know. The parade on May 17 is in lower Manhattan and is a relatively short parade, with talks and exhibits at the end of the parade.

Forwarded message from the parade organizer Pamela Rice:

Have you publicized the upcoming VEGGIE PRIDE PARADE on all of your online social network groups? -- MySpace, Facebook, Listserves, chat rooms, bulletin boards...

The following links to just one but a very good example:
http://www.yelp.com/events/new-york-veggie-pride-parade

For reference, click the following:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vivavegie/message/836

For bios of speakers:
http://www.veggieprideparade.org/dept/bios.htm

Thank you,
Pamela Rice, organizer
VEGGIE PRIDE PARADE

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5. HBO to Air Documentary that Exposes Factory Farm Abuses

Thanks to author and JVNA advisor Dan Brook for sending us this message:

"Death at a Factory Farm," an 87-minute documentary, will air on Home Box Office (HBO) on March 16th, 19th, 26th and 31st. The documentary features an Ohio pig farmer who was acquitted of animal cruelty charges stemming from the hanging of a pig on his farm (see: http://tinyurl.com/avpxck). Ken Wiles and his employee, Dusty Stroud, were found not guilty of animal cruelty charges. Wiles' son Joe was found guilty of one charge of animal cruelty for carrying an animal in a cruel or inhumane manner. (A veterinarian testified in court that hanging pigs was a humane way to kill them.)

The documentary includes undercover video taken at the farm and also covers the hearing. An investigator for the Humane Farming Association documented such scenes as: piglets being hurled across a room into a crate where they crash into each other or onto the floor; an unhealthy piglet being taken by the feet and slammed against a wall; impregnated pigs crammed into pens for up to 116 days, and a sick pig being hung from a forklift by a chain and convulsing for five minutes, according to a public-relations representative for the documentary.

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6. Kosher Ethical, Vegan Restaurant to Open in Manhattan

Forwarded message from Jewish social justice activist Shmuley Yanklowitz, co-founder of Uri L'Tzedek:

I just awarded the kosher certification at this strictly vegan restaurant.

New Ethical Vegan Kosher Restaurant!

Little Lad's, a strictly vegan restaurant committed to just work practices on many levels, has received kosher certification. We will be having a celebratory lunch-and-learn there on Wednesday March 25th from 1:30pm-2:15pm.

Please join us at their location at 120 Broadway. Take the 1 train from uptown and get off at Rechtor Street. Walk over 2 blocks to Broadway (1 block north of Wall Street). It is on the lower level of the building (down one flight of stairs). Here is a link to their restaurant: http://www.littlelads.net/

The food is delicious, very cheap, and supporting just work practices! If you have any questions please email Shmuly Yanklowitz at: Shmuly22@yahoo.com See you there!

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7. Help Maintain Academic Freedom for Teaching a Nutrition Course

This was posted to AR-NYS by a Hudson Valley activist:

GET INVOLVED - Maintain Academic Freedom for Plant-Based Nutrition:

Some of you may know that a course T. Colin Dr. Campbell formerly taught to Cornell Undergraduates was pulled from the course catalog in 2005, without explanation or the opportunity for discussion. That course was NS200 - Vegetarian Nutrition, and had been taught by Dr. Campbell for a number of years with very good feedback from the students. The faculty member who made the decision to pull the course has strong ties to the dairy industry, and has never offered any explanation for his decision or opportunity for discussion. Dr. Campbell has tried to resolve this internally at Cornell for the last year, with little to no success.

The time has come to appeal to the Cornell Administration with outside involvement. The T. Colin Campbell Foundation has created an internet petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/academicfreedom/

We ask you to sign this petition and to send it to as many supporters of plant-based nutrition and academic freedom that you can think of. We cannot allow such a flagrant breach of integrity to determine what information is permitted and what is censored for students, especially at an institution such as Cornell.

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8. JVNA Message Spreading to Other Countries

Subject: Re: your site about Judaism and vegetarianism available in German?

Dear Dr Schwartz,

I really like your site about judaism and vegetarianism (http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz/index.html), especially the page about human rights and judaism (http://www.jewishveg.com/schwartz/humanrights.html). My question is whether you have it available in German and if not, maybe I could help with translating the resource, specifically the page about human rights. We do not have anything comparable on this topic on German internet and I have a feeling there is a growing demand for it. Unfortunately all those quotes and ideas remain largely unknown in my country and being Jewish I find myself constantly answering questions (mosty to my fellow students at the university), which are all answered in much detail on your pages - it would definitely help if I could quote a resource like yours in German and could also be quite useful for general public education on the topic..

If there is no translation available yet, I would be very happy to do the translation if you grant your permission for this.

yours sincerelly,

Maria Fedyukova

Follow-up message:

Thank you so much for your warm answer.

I was really delighted to find it in my postbox tonight.

I am so happy we are going to have all this wonderful material in German now.

Once the translation is ready I will send it to you. Thank you again for making this site.

I would also post it on the site of my town synagogue and on German student net (Facebooks counterpart) if you do not mind, of course.

I suppose the more information the better, so that would be very kind of you, if it is not too much trouble.

All the best :)

Maria

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9. Please Sign Petition to the UN to Promote Vegetarianism to Reduce World Hunger

The petition is online here: http://www.evana.org/UN/index.php?lang=en.

There are now over 17,000 signatures, including more than 1000 organisations from all over the world.

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10. Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates

Sunday 15 February 2009

by: Kari Lydersen, The Washington Post

http://www.truthout.org/021609M

Chicago - The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday.

"We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Field, a member of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel's 2007 reports. The higher emissions are largely the result of the increased burning of coal in developing countries, he said.

Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of "feedback loops" that are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, said several scientists on a panel at the meeting.

The permafrost holds 1 trillion tons of carbon, and as much as 10 percent of that could be released this century, Field said. Along with carbon dioxide melting permafrost releases methane, which is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

"It's a vicious cycle of feedback where warming causes the release of carbon from permafrost, which causes more warming, which causes more release from permafrost," Field said.

Evidence is also accumulating that terrestrial and marine ecosystems cannot remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as earlier estimates suggested, Field said.

In the oceans, warmer weather is driving stronger winds that are exposing deeper layers of water, which are already saturated with carbon and not as able to absorb as much from the atmosphere. The carbon is making the oceans more acidic, which also reduces their ability to absorb carbon.

On land, rising carbon dioxide levels had been expected to boost plant growth and result in greater sequestration of carbon dioxide. As plants undergo photosynthesis to draw energy from the sun, carbon is drawn out of the atmosphere and trapped in the plant matter. But especially in northern latitudes, this effect may be offset significantly by the fact that vegetation-covered land absorbs much more of the sun's heat than snow-covered terrain, said scientists on the panel.

Earlier snowmelt, the shrinking arctic ice cover and the northward spread of vegetation are causing the Northern Hemisphere to absorb, rather than reflect, more of the sun's energy and reinforce the warming trend.

SNIP

© 2009 truthout

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11. Correction

In the last JVNA newsletter, the statement:

A New Study from Canfei Nesharim [An environmental group run by Orthodox Jewish vegetarians]

Should have been:

A New Study from Canfei Nesharim [An environmental group run by Orthodox Jewish environmentalists].

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12. New Book Provides Tips to Increase Effectiveness of Activists

Forwarded message:

Hi Richard,

I am writing to tell you about a new book that hit the bookstores yesterday, and is already #3 on Amazon's bestselling nonprofit books:

http://www.idealist.org/handbook

Published by Penguin, the Idealist Handbook to Building a Better World was written for anyone who wants to make a difference in the world but doesn't know where to start.

In the book you'll find ideas and resources for:

* Focusing on what you want to do, and on what skills you bring to the table

* Volunteering locally and abroad

* Transitioning into a nonprofit career

* Changing the world through your workplace

* Supporting a nonprofit by serving on its board

And much more. For more details about the book, to read the Introduction, and to order a copy, please click on this link:

http://www.idealist.org/handbook

If you can, please share this link on relevant mailing lists, as well as on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Thank you, and all the best!

Ami Dar and the Idealist team
http://www.idealist.org

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13. JVNA Advisor/Author to Speak at NY Public Library

Please cross post in the New York area

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
6:30 p.m.

Mid-Manhattan Library
The New York Public Library
40th Street and 5th Avenue, 6th floor

(elevators access the 6th floor after 6 p.m.)
New York, NY 10016
212-340-0837

Charles Patterson Discussing

Eternal Treblinka
Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust

Eternal Treblinka shows the common roots of Nazi genocide and modern society's enslavement and slaughter of animals. The title comes from Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, who wrote, "For the animals it is an eternal Treblinka." The book concludes with profiles of Jewish and German animal activists with links to the Holocaust.

Epigraph

In his thoughts, Herman spoke a eulogy for the mouse who had shared a portion of her life with him and who because of him, had left this earth. "What do they know--all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world--about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Letter Writer

I urge you to read Eternal Treblinka and think deeply about its important message.

--Dr. Jane Goodall

Compelling, controversial, iconoclastic...strongly recommended...a unique contribution.

--Midwest Book Review

Eternal Treblinka should be on every list of essential reading for an informed citizenry...for the compelling comprehensiveness of the life-and-death story it tells.

--National Jewish Post & Opinion

Charles Patterson, a social historian, Holocaust educator, editor, therapist, and author, is a graduate of Amherst College, Columbia University (Ph.D.), and the Yad Vashem Institute for Holocaust Education in Jerusalem. For many years he has reviewed books and films for Martyrdom and Resistance, published by the International Society of Yad Vashem. He reviewed major histories of the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer and Martin Gilbert and films such as The Partisans of Vilna and The Wannsee Conference.

Dr. Patterson's review essay--Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka--was included in A Legacy Recorded: An Anthology of Martyrdom and Resistance (Harvey Rosenfeld and Eli Zborowski, editors), which was dedicated to "the survivors of the Holocaust, whose Spirit and Soul are embodied in this book."

Dr. Patterson, who grew up in New Britain, Connecticut, now lives in New York City. He is a member of PEN, The Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union.

All programs are FREE and subject to last minute change or cancellation.

[My review of Eternal Treblinka and my interview of Charles Patterson are both at the reviews section at JewishVeg.com/Schwartz

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14. New Book Discusses How Vegetarianism and Other Simple Living Approaches Make Peace More Likely

The Practical Peacemaker
How Simple Living Makes Peace Possible
by Kate Lawrence

"The Practical Peacemaker is courageous, insightful, and spot-on. If enough of us take Lawrence's suggestions, we'll change the world-and any of us who follow her lead will have lives of greater meaning and satisfaction."-Victoria Moran, author of The Love-Powered Diet and Living a Charmed Life

"A practical approach to peace must first acknowledge the main reasons for conflict-and resource disputes are at the top of the list. If we want peace, we must reduce demand for resources (such as oil and water) and share more equitably what we use. Kate Lawrence's work bypasses failed good intentions to get to the heart of both conflict and resolution."-Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute and author of The Oil Depletion Protocol

"This lovely little book is a thoughtful exploration of the barriers to living a life of contentment and satisfaction. Kate Lawrence offers a rich palette of practical peacemaking suggestions based on principles of non-harming, care for others, and commitment to an ethical path. Drawing from her own personal efforts, she shows how practicing peace and compassion can be the true basis for healthy people and communities, and thus a healthy world. Though obstacles are endless, Kate Lawrence convincingly invites us to take up the path of peace in the midst of everyday life, to generate harmony within ourselves as well as among our friends and family."-Stephanie Kaza, author of Mindfully Green, Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Vermont

Read the Table of Contents, Preface, and Introduction.

http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?id=9781590561409

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15. An Insightful Short Film on Veganism

Forwarded message
WATCH VEGAN VIDEO AND SHARE

http://veganvideo.org/

Defend Animals Coalition
Alfredo Kuba, President
650-965-8705
defendanimals@gmail.com

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