September 21, 2011

09/21/2011 JVNA Online Newsletter

September 21, 2011

1. Rosh Hashanah Recipes
2. Relating the High Holy Day and Sukkot to Vegetarianism
3. List of Famous Jewish Vegetarians
4. International Vegetarian Society Appoints First Director
5. NYC Demos Scheduled Against Chickens for Kaporos, and Benefit Dinner
6. Excellent "Why I am Vegan" Video
7. Farmed Animal Prescriptions Urged to Cut Drug Resistance
8. Schnitzel is Bad for the Environment
9. Islam and Animal Rights
10. Article on Vegetarianism in the United Arab Emirates
11. Food Day Oct. 24
12. EVANA Newsletter
13. Update on the World Week for the Abolition of Meat
14. Culinary Tour of Israel


Shana Tova – Happy New Year


On behalf of all the Officers of JVNA, on the occasion of the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashana We wish all of you and your loved ones:

A year of success in all of your endeavors

A year of good health

A year of prosperity

A year of happiness

A year of fulfilling your dreams

A year of optimism and hope

A year when our leaders will lead us to peace

A year of much nachas from your family

A year of environmental sustainability

Shanah Tovah U'metukah, (A good and sweet year)


1. Rosh Hashanah Recipes

VegKitchen provides a lot of great-looking vegetarian recipes for Rosh Hashanah, to start a sweet new year for you and for all creation.

Don't forget that our own website lists lots of Jewish recipes at JewishVeg.com/recipes.


2. Relating the High Holy Days and Sukkot to Vegetarianism

The Jewish Tribune published JVNA President Richard Schwartz's article "Rosh Hashana and Vegetarianism". Please share this and his articles on Yom Kippur and Sukkot, which can be found in the "Jewish Festivals" section at JewishVeg.com/schwartz, with others, including editors of your local Jewish weekly, and feel free to use these articles as a basis of your own articles, letters to editors, calls to talk shows, and talking points with family and friends.


3. JVNA's List of Famous Jewish Vegetarians

From Natalie Portman to Albert Einstein to Spock, we've compiled a list of dozens of famous Jewish vegetarians:

JewishVeg.wikispaces.com/Famous+Jewish+Vegetarians

Also available in Hebrew! Think of any we missed? Let us know!

Thanks to JVNA Vice President Noam Mohr for creating the list.


4. International Vegetarian Society Appoints First Director


Jewish Vegetarian Society Appoints Its First Director
The Society Plans to Increase Membership and Help Make it Easier for People to Become Vegetarian

London – The Jewish Vegetarian Society has appointed a director for the first time in its 47-year history, in order to further promote the benefits of a vegetarian diet. This is a huge step forward for the Society, which now aims to increase its outreach and encourage more people to consider turning away from eating animals.

The Society was founded in the 1960s as a result of a letter from Vivien Pick to the Jewish Chronicle asking if there were other like-minded vegetarians who wanted to meet. Vivien’s father Philip, who became the President of the Society, aimed to spread the word of a kinder society, free of pain and cruelty to other sentient creatures. This fits in well with the tenets of the Torah where we are told “the herbs of the field” have been given to us as food.”

Today many animals spend their whole lives in small enclosures never seeing grass or trees and being denied everything that is natural to them, never even being able to nourish their young. The world also faces a fresh crisis of climate change and many leading environmental organisations report that raising animals for food damages the environment more than anything else we do.

New director, Suzanne Barnard, turned vegetarian at the age of eight. With a passion for vegetarian cooking – from latkas to lasagna and bhajis to borekas - Suzanne has been pro animal causes for many years. She comes to the society fresh from working at the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation.

"More and more people are choosing a vegetarian diet", says Suzanne, "In addition to being kinder to animals and better for the environment, plant-based food has a positive effect on our health and vegetarians are less likely to develop heart disease or diabetes and are less likely to be obese.”

To join the Jewish Vegetarian Society, and through this help world ecology, or for recipes, information and tips for going veggie, please call 020 8455 0692.


5. NYC Demos Scheduled Against Chickens for Kaporos, and Benefit Dinner

For details on demos Oct. 4-6 click here

For info on the benefit dinner Oct. 3, click here.


6. Excellent "Why I am Vegan" Video


This is really worth watching. Please spread the link to others. Thanks. Watch the video.


7. Farmed Animal Prescriptions Urged to Cut Drug Resistance

Did you know 70% of antibiotics in the US are fed to farmed animals? American farmers would be forced to get prescriptions for livestock antibiotics, under a plan developed in Denmark and promoted by infectious disease doctors as a way to stem a rising tide of drug-resistant infections. Read article

For more info on Jewish views on preserving health, visit here.


8. Schnitzel is bad for the Environment

If you want to protect the environment, you should first of all think about eating less meat. A study done at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) unveils the remarkable ecological advantages of a well-balanced diet. Switching to organic food is less effective than eating more veg. Read more.


9. Islam and Animal Rights

Islam and Animal Rights, by Maneka Gandhi.

Thanks to Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, American Jewish Committee, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, and JVNA advisor for sending us this link.


10. Article on Vegetarians in the United Arab Emirates

Nice coverage in the national newspaper of the UAE:

The Middle East continues to overindulge in a predominantly carnivorous diet - but the UAE is pointing its residents to a new veggie direction. Read more.


11. Food Day Scheduled for October 24th

Forwarded message from Food day leaders:

Get ready for Food Day! On October 24th — and on the days and weeks before and after — thousands of Americans will gather at schools, college campuses, farmers markets, City Halls, and state capitals to talk about what's right and wrong with our diets and whole food system and how to fix them.

Food Day is sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit watchdog group that has led successful fights for food labeling, better nutrition, and safer food since 1971.

How can you participate? Spread the word about a healthy, compassionate vegan diet in honor of Food Day! Request our postcard-sized handouts offering Meatout Mondays and distribute them to friends, family, or at an event taking place in your area.

Request Meatout Mondays handouts for distribution on Food Day here.

Thanks to JVNA advisor Ron Landskroner for forwarding this information to us.


12. European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA) Newsletter/August 2011


Forwarded message from EVANA:

In this edition you can read about
1. Vegetarianism - the compassionate step into a better future
2. It's time to slaughter slaughter!
3. News from Euroland
4. Spot on Animals
5. Public Consultations – Contests
6. Books, Videos, Films
7. EVANA August Hits
---------------------------------------------

1.Vegetarianism - the compassionate step into a better future -- An August platter of the latest veg* news:
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67137

2. It's time to slaughter slaughter!
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67135

3. News from Euroland
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67130

4. Spot on Animals - Here are some of the latest news about animals
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67134

5. Public Consultations - Contests

-Consultation UK: Transposition of European directive 2010/63/EU - protection of animals used for scientific purposes -- Deadline 5 September 2011.
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67039

-EFSA launches public consultation on draft guidance for the risk assessment of food and feed derived from GM animals and related animal health and welfare aspects -- All stakeholders and interested parties are invited to provide their comments through an online public consultation that runs until 30 September…
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66797

-EFSA Public consultation on the draft guidance on the environmental risk assessment of plant pests -- Deadline: 9 October 2011
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67132

-FAO: New online consultation on food security and nutrition launched. – Deadline 15 October 2011
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66416

-International Vegetarian Week contest: another opportunity to have a say – and win prizes… Deadline 10 September 2011
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66818

6. Books, Films

BOOKS
-Ruby Roth: That's Why We Don't Eat Animals http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66882
-Jennifer Holland: 'Unlikely Friendships' http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67052
-Nicklin/Kostyal: "Among Giants: A Life with Whales" http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66996
-Lisa Kemmerer: In Search of Consistency: Ethics And Animals http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66768
-Will Potter: Green is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege
- http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66569

FILMS
-Rise of the Planet of the Apes
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66655
-India/Documentary: 'The Truth about Tigers' http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66772

7. EVANA August Hits
-Most popular article: Results of a new study in The Netherlands: 'Meat-eaters are selfish ' - 'Eating meat brings out the worst in people'/Study NL http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=66967

-Favoured August Recipe: French Onion Soup http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67047

And finally: There is now a “Via dei Vegetariani” in Gorizia/Italy. What a lovely example to follow… http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=67126
Please let us know if there is also a ‘Vegetarian Street’ in your area.

Best wishes
Your International EVANA Team
www.evana.org
Also on Facebook


13. Update on the World Week for the Abolition of Meat


As you know, the past World Weeks for the Abolition of Meat were very successful throughout the world.
The next WWAM will take place between 23 September and 30 September 2011.

The aim is to promote again and again the idea that the production and consumption of animal flesh must be abolished.

We will take action as long as the demand remains necessary.Our societies have to pronounce on the unjustifiable character of meat consumption from an ethical viewpoint: it involves sacrificing the basic interests of innumerable sentient beings whereas eating meat is unnecessary.

The refusal to eat meat can be seen as a political boycott and as the expression of one’s support for the demand for abolition similar to the campaign for the abolition of slavery in Britain at the end the 18th century where 300,000 people boycotted the sugar produced from slave plantations.The movement for the abolition of meat is a political act: its aim is to get the public to adhere to the idea that meat should be banned. Its objective is that human societies, one after another, decide to ban the production, sale, and consumption of meat. The idea is to claim loud and clear that it is not only the duty of each individual to stop supporting the murderous exploitation required by the consumption of animal flesh and "by-products", but that it is also, therefore, the duty of societies as a whole to declare themselves for the banning of farming, fishing and hunting.

This form is at your disposal: please publish announcements as soon as possible (even if dates and events are still tentative).

You can find material here.

For widespread visibility, it is also up to us to:
- post this call, circulate it widely and publish it on the indymedia (please let us know about your publications at contact (at)meat-abolition.org);- contact the media about the demand for the abolition of meat and about the events that will be organized around it;- print and distribute leaflets, brochures and/or posters that are available on the "resources" page;If it is not yet published, please send in your logo (maximum 150 pixels for length and width) so that it can be posted on the "groups" page.; All the best with your events!

Contact: contact(at)meat-abolition.org
WWAM organization: http://meat-abolition.org


14. Culinary Tour of Israel

Forwarded by Tova Saul:

Taste the Sustainable Flavors of Israel