Shalom everyone,
This special Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter is devoted to a consideration of the recently released video produced by author Jonathan Safran Foer at HumaneKosher.com on Jewish teachings about compassion for animals and the Postville slaughterhouse controversy, and how we might best use the video and the publicity about it to get vegetarianism and related issues onto the Jewish agenda.
This newsletter contains the following items:
1. Announcement of New Video “If This Is Kosher …”
2. JVNA’s Objectives Re Jewish Teachings on Compassion to Animals, the Postville Controversy, and the Newly Released Video
3. Sample Letters Related to the Postville Slaughterhouse and Related Issues
4. JVNA Press Release/Suggestions Very Welcome
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.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. Announcement of New Video "If This Is Kosher..."
[The material below is from: HumaneKosher.com (the web site where you can see the new video and much other information). The next section presents material on the JVNA’s perspective on the overall issues.
Please use the material in this newsletter as the basis of letters to editors, phone calls to talk shows, and as talking points to call for an immediate improvement of conditions at the Postville slaughterhouse and to promote getting vegetarianism onto the Jewish agenda. I feel strongly that the video “If This Is kosher …” provides us with an unprecedented opportunity. It can open people’s eyes to the horrors behind the foods that they take for granted. It is essential that we build on the excellent material and statements in the video to help people understand that this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the many moral issues related to our diets.]
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HumaneKosher.com material:
Whether we look at modern Jewish social justice work or ancient rabbinic rulings, Jews have always insisted on the importance of having compassion for animals and reducing unnecessary animal suffering—tsa'ar ba'alei chayim in Hebrew.
Increasingly, this fundamental reverence for life has led Jewish leaders to advocate vegetarianism. From the first chief rabbi of pre-state Israel, Rav Abraham Isaac Kook, to giants of Jewish culture such as Albert Einstein and Nobel Prize for literature winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, the vegetarian diet first prescribed in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:28-29) has been held forth as "a kashrut [dietary law] for our age."
We can all agree that animals should be treated humanely. Today's kosher meat [generally] comes from the same abusive factory farms as all other meat. Despite the humane intention and spirit of the Jewish dietary laws, there are no standards to ensure that kosher slaughter is any less cruel than conventional slaughter. In some instances, it's been shown to be much worse. [Shechita was designed to minimize the pain of animals during the slaughtering process. Ideally ritual slaughter is carried out by a pious individual under very strict conditions, and death occurs in seconds. The book “Slaughterhouse” by Gail Eisnitz points out some of the horrors at non-kosher slaughterhouses.]
In the face of horrifically cruel and ecologically devastating factory farms and a kosher industry that has sanctioned even the most grisly abuse of animals, it's difficult to see how eating animals is compatible with Jewish values.
Order a free copy of "A Case for Jewish Vegetarianism" today to learn more. Additional information about Judaism and vegetarianism can be found at JewishVeg.com [the web site of JVNA].
* Chickens and turkeys killed for their flesh in kosher slaughterhouses often suffer broken legs and wings as a result of rough handling and malfunctioning equipment. When they are slaughtered incorrectly, these sensitive animals survive for several minutes as they hang upside-down from metal shackles and can only writhe in pain as they slowly bleed to death. Watch video footage. [You can click on this at the web site HumaneKosher.com.]
* Hens used for eggs live with up to six other birds in battery cages that are the size of file drawers, thousands of which are stacked tier upon tier in huge, filthy warehouses. Male chicks are of no use to the egg industry and are often thrown into garbage bags and left to suffocate. Watch video footage.
* Cows used for their milk are drugged and bred to produce unnatural amounts of milk. Their babies are stolen from them shortly after birth to be sent to notoriously cruel veal farms. Watch video footage.
* Cattle raised for kosher meat are castrated, their horns are ripped from their heads, and third-degree burns (branding) are inflicted on them—all without any painkillers . The cruelty discovered during PETA's investigation into AgriProcessors was shocking, but according to kosher authorities, it is not unique to this particular slaughterhouse. Watch video footage.
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On November 30, 2004, The New York Times broke the story of what it called "grisly" animal abuse at the world's largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse, AgriProcessors Inc. The story, based on a disturbing undercover investigation, received wide coverage in the mainstream media and remains the biggest scandal in the kosher meat industry in recent memory. For many in the Jewish community, the seriousness of these abuses and kosher authorities' failure to denounce them have raised fundamental questions about the consumption of meat. This video takes on those questions.
Narrator Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of Everything Is Illuminated, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and The Guardian's First Book Award and is the basis for a feature film starring Elijah Wood. His second novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, has been hailed by Salman Rushdie as "ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling, and above all … extremely moving," and Warner Bros. and Paramount have jointly acquired movie rights to it. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages worldwide. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
“If This Is Kosher …” is narrated by Jonathan Safran Foer and features Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg and Rabbi David Wolpe.
Order a DVD copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s "If This Is Kosher …". Additional information about Judaism and vegetarianism can be found at JewishVeg.com.
Special thanks to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animal Liberation Israel for supplying undercover video footage for this project.
HumaneKosher.com is a joint project of independent Jewish leaders and several Jewish staff members at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It is hosted by GoVeg.com.
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2. JVNA’s Objectives Re Jewish Teachings on Compassion to Animals, the Postville Controversy, and the Newly Released Video
JVNA objectives include the following:
* Make sure that people are aware of Judaism’s strong teachings on compassion to animals, that shechita, if properly done, is a superior method of slaughter, and that the horrible scenes videotaped at the Postville slaughterhouse are not typical of Jewish ritual slaughter practices. Judaism’s very powerful teachings on the proper treatment of animals can be found at the JVNA web site (www.JewishVeg,com), including the section on animals at JewishVeg.com/schwartz. One of JVNA’s main objectives is to see that these teachings are properly applied.
* Join others in advocating that the methods used in the Postville plant be changed and that the OU and other groups set up rigorous standards that will be strictly enforced so that there never be another situation like the Postville case. There have been recent positive moves by the OU and others toward improving conditions at the Postville plant and setting up better standards. To assure the public that shechita is being properly carried out, it is very important that independent experts be permitted to make unannounced inspections and report on their findings.
* Make people aware that the Postville case should awaken us to the many ways that animal-based diets and agriculture threaten human health and the planet’s sustainability, and how they violate basic Jewish mandates re preserving human health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people. Once the Postville situation is properly resolved, assuming that it will be completely resolved, it is essential that people not think that everything is now fine and they can continue their consumption of animal products with a clear conscience. Jews have a choice re their diets, but they should make that choice based on a knowledge of the realities of the production and consumption of animal products and how they impinge on Jewish teachings.
* Make it clear that, while JVNA advocates that everyone consider switching to plant-based diets and we advocate the elimination of all types of slaughter, we oppose efforts to single out shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter) for special criticism. We believe that shechita, when properly carried out, is a superior method of slaughter. PETA, the group that revealed the problems at the Postville facility, has kept its focus on the abuses at the Postville plant and has acknowledged at its web site and in other statements that properly carried out ritual slaughter (shechita) is a superior method.
* We do not want the situation at the Postville slaughterhouse and the discussions about it to result, G-d forbid, in attacks on Jewish teachings, on kashrut, on shechita in general, and on individual Jews, because of a possible increase in anti-Semitism. Hence, it is important that it be clearly indicated that the horrible scenes at the Postville slaughterhouse shown on PETA’s video are not typical of shechita, and to stress Judaism’s teachings on compassion to animals.
* While strongly promoting vegetarianism and an end to abuses of animals, we should be careful not to attack the Jewish community or the Orthodox Jewish community, while we work to change conditions at Postville and to get vegetarianism onto the Jewish agenda. I have lived in an Orthodox community and worshipped in an Orthodox synagogue for many years, and, while I differ strongly with most members on some issues such as vegetarianism, I have found them to be generally good people who are very charitable and involved actively in many programs to help others. In general, it is important to seek common ground and not to demonize people. Also, as I tried to bring out in my books and articles, the application of Jewish values can help address the many crises facing the world today.
* As JVNA founder and first president Jonathan Wolf has pointed out, since we are involved in both the Jewish community and the animal rights community, JVNA has the potential of playing a very positive role in this controversy. We are ready to consult with people of different views and eating habits, in seeking common ground and the best possible solution.
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3. Sample Letters Related to the Postville Slaughterhouse and Related Issues
To reinforce your understanding of the issues, please read the articles and statements by rabbis, veterinarians, and other experts at
http://www.goveg.com/feat/agriprocessors/experts.asp
The letters below were written some time ago but they provide ideas that you may want to build on in your own letters and talking points.
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March 19, 2006
Editor, Jewish Week
editor@jewishweek.org
Dear Editor:
Re: “Unkosher Goings-On At Meat Plant: Inhumane slaughter was unchecked by inspectors, federal probe of Iowa kosher slaughterhouse finds” (March 17, 2006 article);
As president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I believe that this article should be a wake up call to the Jewish community. Even if improvements at the slaughterhouse are made and Jewish ritual slaughter is carried out perfectly with a minimum of pain, can we ignore the many ways that the widespread production and consumption of animal products contradict basic Jewish teachings.
When Judaism mandates that we treat animals with compassion, animals are raised under cruel conditions on factory farms, where they suffer greatly in cramped, confined spaces without sunlight, fresh air, or opportunities to fulfil their natural instincts. When Judaism stresses that we must diligently protect our health, animal-based diets are major contributors to the epidemic of heart disease, many forms of cancer, and other killer diseases and ailments afflicting the Jewish community and others. When Judaism mandates that we be partners with God in protecting the environment, modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes significantly to air, water, and land pollution, species extinction, deforestation, global climate change, water shortages, and many other environmental threats.
In summary: since Judaism mandates that we diligently guard our health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and help hungry people, and animal-based diets and agriculture have negative effects in each of these areas, shouldn’t Jews (and others) seriously consider a switch toward meatless diets?
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
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Dear Editor:
It is commendable that “OU Orders A Kinder Cut – changes practice at Iowa slaughterhouse following rabbinical visit spurred by PETA video” (December 10, 2004 issue). But what about the many other moral issues related to animal-based diets and agriculture?
Can we ignore the many violations of Jewish teachings about compassion to animals on factory farms where animals are raised in cramped, confined spaces without sunlight, fresh air, or opportunities to fulfil their natural instincts. When Judaism stresses that we must diligently protect our health, can we ignore the epidemic of heart disease, many forms of cancer, and other killer diseases and ailments afflicting the Jewish community and others? When Judaism mandates that we be partners with God in protecting the environment, can we ignore the significant contributions of animal-centered agriculture to air, water, and land pollution, species extinction, deforestation, global climate change, water shortages, and many more environmental threats?
For the sake of our health, the sustainability of our imperiled planet, Jewish values, as well as for the animals, it is essential that we consider shifting toward plant-based diets.
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Dear Editor:
Thank you for your article in last week’s edition, “Is It Kosher?”, concerning the cruel slaughtering methods at a Kosher plant in Iowa.
The AgriProcessors case is only one example of the many cruelties suffered by animals destined to become dinner. The video footage of this plant shows overt violations of Kashrut laws; the cows are clearly still alive and in intense pain and distress following Shechita. It is quite unbelievable that this meat can even be considered for Kosher. Why did it take PETA, a group that thrives on controversy, to expose this obvious violation?
What is not addressed in your article are the numerous violations of the Jewish laws of Tsa’ar Baa’lei Chayim (you shall not cause suffering to a living being) that are common in the meat industry: separating calves from their mothers, branding; use of electric cattle prods; terrifying shipping conditions, and a general disregard for the welfare of animals.
Not only do most farm animals suffer a horrible death, they spend their entire lives in terrible conditions that cause intense suffering and unhappiness. How can food products from such animals be considered Koshe; no matter how they are killed?
Animals that become “Kosher” meat are not exempt from any of this inhumane treatment. …
Maybe your article will inspire people to find out more about the source of the food that they are eating and the suffering caused by purchasing meat products, and make a choice that is consistent with their spiritual beliefs. The sources of information are numerous; a good place to start is with the writings of the highly respected Professor Richard Schwartz, head of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, at
http://jewishveg.com/schwartz
Finally, the attacks by Orthodox organizations on PETA are akin to shooting the messenger. There is nothing anti-Semitic about the desire to reduce suffering of animals. Indeed, it was the Jews who invented the concept of kindness to animals, codified it in numerous Jewish laws including the Bible and even the Ten Commandments, which forbids working animals on the Sabbath.
It is distressing to see the news media full of stories about
officially-approved Jewish slaughterers mistreating animals in violation of Jewish law; it is even worse that they are not being called to account by our religious authorities.
Sincerely yours,
Debra Berger
The Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature
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4. JVNA Press Release/Suggestions Very Welcome
PRESS RELEASE
April 5, 2006
For Immediate Release
Contact person: Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) (rschw12345@aol.com; Phone (718) 761-5876; Fax: (718) 982-3631; web site: jewishveg.com).
JEWISH VEGETARIAN GROUP WELCOMES NEW VIDEO CONTRASTING JEWISH TEACHINGS WITH HORRENDOUS ABUSES AT IOWA KOSHER SLAUGHTERHOUSE
The Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) announced today that it welcomes the new video “If This Is Kosher …” which contrasts Judaism’s powerful teachings on compassion to animals with the horrendous animal abuses on factory farms and those exposed at the Postville, Iowa slaughterhouse as a positive step in alerting Jews about the inconsistencies between Jewish teachings and the realities of animal-based diets and modern intensive livestock agriculture.
“If This Is Kosher …” is narrated by the noted author Jonathan Safran Foer and features statements about Jewish teachings on the proper treatment of animals by Orthodox Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg and Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Animal Liberation Israel supplied undercover video footage for the project.
The video was produced by HumaneKosher.com, a joint project of independent Jewish leaders and several Jewish staff members at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The video can be viewed at HumaneKosher.com, along with background material related to the video.
Richard H. Schwartz, president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) stated: "The eloquent statements by Rabbis Greenberg and Wolpe on Judaism’s splendid teachings on compassion to animals, contrasted with the graphic depictions of the horrifying mistreatment of animals on factory farms and at the Postville, Iowa slaughterhouse should cause the entire Jewish community to examine the ways animals are currently being raised, treated, prepared, and slaughtered, to see if the laws and principles of the Torah are actually being properly practiced. And we hope that closer study of the values in Jewish tradition -- concern for the pain of fellow creatures, maintaining health, protecting God's world, conserving resources, feeding the hungry -- will ultimately lead Jews and others to adopt a diet that is more humane, healthier, more environmentally sustainable, and more capable of feeding hungry people -- vegetarianism."
Schwartz added, "These horrific factory farm and slaughterhouse scenes completely contradict our mandate to be ‘rachmanim b’nei rachmanim’ (compassionate children of compassionate ancestors). Even if ritual slaughter is performed flawlessly, consistent with halacha, we should not ignore the severe violations of Jewish law occurring daily on factory farms. We should fulfil our charge to be ‘a light unto the nations’ by helping to lead the world away from a diet that is so harmful to people, the environment, and animals, to one that is far more consistent with basic religious values."
For a long time, JVNA has argued that Jews should consider how animal-based diets and agriculture violate basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, preserve the environment, conserve natural resources, and help hungry people.
JVNA hopes that the challenging video will impel the Jewish community to consider the ramifications of typical Jewish diets, and those of most Americans. JVNA urges Jews and others to consider not only how animals are mistreated on factory farms, but also the devastating health consequences of animal-based diets, and how animal-based agriculture -- because of its grossly disproportionate use of land, water, fuel and other natural resources --contributes substantially to global climate change, species extinction, pollution of land, air, and water, destruction of tropical rain forests, coral reefs, and other valuable habitats, shortages of water and other resources, and other threats to the survival of humanity. Putting these issues squarely on the Jewish agenda would save many lives, move our imperiled planet to a more sustainable path, and show the relevance of Judaism’s eternal teachings in addressing current critical issues, and thus help revitalize Judaism.
Further information about the JVNA and its campaign to get vegetarianism onto the Jewish and other agendas may be obtained by contacting Dr. Schwartz or the JVNA (JewishVeg.com; mail@JewishVeg.com). The web site also has many Jewish vegetarian recipes. A complimentary copy of Richard Schwartz’s book Judaism and Vegetarianism and a related CD will be sent to members of the media who request them and to others who indicate how they would use the material to help get vegetarianism and related issues onto the Jewish agenda.
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This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
April 5, 2006
April 3, 2006
4/3/06 JVNA Online Newsletter
Shalom everyone,
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
1. Happy Passover/Material for “Greening” Passover
2. Seeking Information About Public Vegetarian Seders
3. Update on “Environmental Shabbat” Campaign
4. Jerusalem Post Article on the Postville Slaughterhouse/My Letter/Please Write
5. Connections Between Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Esperanto
6. Using the Global Warming Crisis to Promote Vegetarianism/Please Comment on Proposed Press Release
7. What We Are Up Against in Promoting Vegetarianism/Some Responses
9. Potential Counseling On a Vegan Lifestyle
10. You Can Hear Me Discuss Passover and Vegetarianism and the “Environmental Shabbat” on April 9
16. Comment On the Last Shabbat’s Torah Portion on Sacrifices
17. The Meatrix, Part II, Now On Line
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 kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observance, 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.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. Happy Passover/Material for “Greening” Passover
Best wishes for a chag kasher v’sameach -- a kosher and happy Passover. Please see JewishVeg.com/holidays.html for articles relating Passover to vegetarianism and to environmental activism. Also, please see JewishVeg.com/recipes#Passover for vegetarian Passover recipes.
Message from the “Coalition on the Environmental and Jewish Life” (COEJL) on “Greening” Passover:
March 28, 2006 / 28 Adar 5766
Dear COEJL Friends,
To help with the greening of Passover and to encourage the Jewish community to observe Earth Day 2006 as an "Environmental Shabbat," COEJL has created resource pages with links to readings and activities from our web site:
www.coejl.org/celebrate/passover.php (For “greening Passover”)
www.coejl.org/celebrate/shabbat.php (For an “Environmental Shabbat”)
If you have any information for our upcoming e-bulletin
including environmentally-themed seders or other Jewish or
interreligious environmental news and events, please send them
to: info@coejl.org.
Chag Sameach,
Barbara Lerman-Golomb
Acting Executive Director
Donate now to help COEJL create these and other environmental
holiday resources: www.coejl.org/donate
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Passover and Earth Day
By Richard Schwartz
Several years ago, the first day of Passover and the annual Earth Day both occurred on April 22nd. Hence, this [was] a good time to consider environmental messages related to Passover and the events and concepts related to the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt:
1. Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues:
* When we consider the threats to our land, water, and air, we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues". For example: (1) acid rain (2) depletion of the ozone layer (3) destruction of tropical rain forests (4) global warming (5) soil erosion and depletion (6) loss of biological-diversity (7) water pollution (8) air pollution (9) an increase of severity of storms and floods (10) increased use of pesticides, chemical fertilizer, and other toxic chemicals.
* The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us simultaneously.
* The Jews in Goshen were spared most of the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues.
* Instead of an ancient Pharoah's heart being hardened, our hearts today have been hardened by the greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root of current environmental threats.
* God provided the Biblical plagues to free the Israelites, while today we must apply God's teachings in order to save ourselves and our precious but endangered planet.
Because of the above factors, there has been the beginning of a tradition to spill an additional ten drops of wine or grape juice at the seder to recognize the significance of the modern plagues.
2. The seder is a time for questions, including the traditional "four questions". Additional questions can be asked related to modern environmental threats. For example: Why is this period different than all other periods? (At all other periods only local regions faced environmental threats; today, the entire world is threatened.) Why is there so much silence in the Jewish community about current environmental threats? Why aren't Jewish values applied toward the alleviation of environmental problems?
3. Rabbi Jay Marcus, Spiritual Leader of the Young Israel of Staten Island, saw a connection between simpler diets and helping hungry people. He commented on the fact that "karpas" (eating of greens) comes immediately before "yahatz" (the breaking of the middle matzah for later use as the "afikomen" (desert) in the seder service. He concluded that those who live on simpler foods (greens, for example) will more readily divide their possesions and share with others. The consumption of animal-centered diets involves the feeding of 70% of the grain grown in the United States to animals destined for slaughter and the importing of beef from other countries, while 20 million of the world's people die of hunger and its effects. This simpler diet would also have positive environmental effects since modern intensive livestock agriculture uses vast amounts of water, fuel, chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and other resources, and contributes to the destruction of habitats and many other environmental problems.
4. A popular song at the seder is "dayenu" (it would have been enough). The message of this song would be very useful today when so many people seek to constantly increase their wealth and amass more possessions, with little thought of the negative environmental consequences.
5. An ancient Jewish legend indicates that Job's severe punishment occurred because when he was an advisor to Pharoah he refused to take a stand when Pharoah asked him what should be done with regard to the Israelites. This story can be discussed as a reminder that if we remain neutral and do not get involved in working for a better environment, severe consequences may follow.
6. The main Passover theme is freedom. While relating the story of our ancestors' slavery in Egypt and their redemption through God's power and beneficence, Jews might also want to consider the "slavery" of animals on modern "factory farms". Contrary to Jewish teachings of "tsa'ar ba'alei chayim" (the Torah mandate not to cause unnecessary "pain to a living creature"), animals are raised for food today under cruel conditions in crowded confined spaces, where they are denied fresh air, sunlight, a chance to exercise, and the fulfillment of their natural instincts. In this connection, it is significant to consider that according to the Jewish tradition, Moses, Judaism's greatest leader, teacher, and prophet, was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt because as a shepherd he showed great compassion to a lamb (Exodus Rabbah 2:2).
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2. Seeking Information About Public Vegetarian Seders
Before Passover, we sometimes get messages, like the one below, from people seeking public vegetarian seders. If you have any information about a public vegetarian seder in your area that we can share, please let us know. Thanks.
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Dear Dr. Schwartz,
I came across your articles online while trying to find a vegetarian seder open to the public either in New York (where I live) or Philadelphia (where my parents live). I am hoping you may know of one.
Thank you.
Richard Ervais
raervais-AT-debevoise.com
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3. Update on “Environmental Shabbat” Campaign
a. Here is an example of progress/message from the Earth Day Network:
Hi Richard,
Just to let you know what is happening for Earth Day with your requests. In our Religious Earth Day in a Box section we have put a link to your web site Jewish Vegetarians of North America with a blurb. We have also added on to the COEJL blurb regarding A Jewish Earthday and the Passover/Earthday connection. I don't know if there will be anything else at this time, but since the Climate Change Solutions Campaign runs for three years, there is the possibility that a fact sheet could be written up regarding the connection of industrial agriculture to climate change.
Sincerely,
Barb Harrison (Earth Day Network staff member)
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b. Another example of progress:
Richard: Please note the current edition of the Social Action on-line Newsletter (below) , specifically the part headed, "Save the Date - Earth Day is April 22, 2006." Hopefully, this will encourage many of our congregational worship leaders to devote some of their Shabbat programming to issues of environmental ethics on that date. I plan to forward this document to the rabbis in our region, in the hope that they will likewise focus on this issue. Best regards, Paul
Paul Kaufman
Assistant Regional Director
UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM
New Jersey-West Hudson Valley Council
Phone: 201.722.9090 - Ext. 201
From: Feldman, Rabbi Marla (Social Action)
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 4:56 PM
To: Regional Directors, Assoc & Assts.
Subject: News from the Commission on Social Action
Friends: Attached is the most recent Monthly Social Action Message. This has been sent to social action chairs in the iMIS database. It will also be sent shortly to the Commission on Social Action, including your regional social action chairs. If appropriate, please forward to appropriate lists that will not be duplicative.
Shabbat Shalom,
Marla
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
633 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10017
212.650.4160
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SAVE THE DATE! EARTH DAY IS APRIL 22, 2006
This year, Earth Day falls on Shabbat! Consider planning anenvironmental-themed Shabbat service at your temple for the weekend of April 22nd. Materials to help you prepare for an Earth Day Shabbat-Jewish texts, activities, and resources for greening your synagogue-are available on the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life's (COEJL) website, www.coejl.org.
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4. Jerusalem Post Article on the Postville Slaughterhouse/My Letter/Please Write
The following article is by JVNA advisor Rabbi Adam Frank. I had the pleasure of working with Adam during my speaking tour in Israel several years ago. He showed and discussed videos about animal abuses in Israel. He is currently active in promoting better conditions for animals in Israel. Lionel Friedberg and I videotaped an interview with Adam when we were in Israel last November.
The First Word: When 'kosher' slaughter is not Jewish
Mar. 31, 2006 Jerusalem Post
By ADAM FRANK
A Jerusalem Post headline on March 14, "Rabbinate OKs meat despite cruelty to animals" was deeply disturbing but, unfortunately, it seems, true. The rabbi quoted in the report demonstrates how Halacha, viewed myopically and without the assistance of Judaism's own moral compass, can contradict the core values our religion is supposed to represent.
The public aspect of this story began in November 2004, when a video expose revealed abusive animal handling procedures at the largest glatt-kosher slaughter facility in the US. The slaughterhouse, AgriProcessors, Inc. in Postville, Iowa, was shown using electric prods to shock the faces of cows in order to guide them into the slaughter pen.
The pictures also showed an uncommon practice of speeding post-shehita blood flow by using large hooks to rip out the animals' trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (food pipe) while the animals are still conscious. Immediately after the procedure cows are seen standing and attempting to bellow and leave the killing-floor area.
It is important to note that the ideal kosher cut would sever the trachea, esophagus and carotid artery, thus immediately eliminating blood flow to the brain and rendering an animal unconscious in as quickly as 10 seconds. Contrary to widespread perceptions, however, a valid kosher slaughter requires only the cut of the trachea and esophagus. The post-cut scenes on the videos of staggering, mutilated animals seem to be cases in which the carotid arteries were not severed, thus leaving the animal conscious and able to suffer pain.
Two weeks ago, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the findings of its investigation of AgriProcessors. The report declared that the abattoir repeatedly violated provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act. American animal cruelty laws do not permit "carcass dressing," such as the ripping of the throat, while the animal is still conscious.
This horrible act, which has now been declared in violation of US animal cruelty laws, is not a necessary part of the shehita process. Importantly, the USDA did not criticize the process of shehita - on the contrary, kosher slaughter is affirmed by the USDA as being a humane form of slaughter. However, the investigation documented case after case of animal cruelty in the forms of pre- and post-slaughter handling of conscious animals.
Reacting to these published findings, the head of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's international ritual slaughter division, Rabbi Ezra Raful, said that he would permit the import of meat to Israel from the slaughterhouse in question, saying that "in the case of AgriProcessors, there is no halachic problem."
Rabbi Raful's statement is alarming and halachically problematic on a number of levels. First, he ignores the halachic category of dina d'malchuta dina whereby Jews are required to follow the laws of their host country as long as the law does not intrude upon Jewish law. The consequence of this statement is that the Israeli rabbinate publicly gives its approval that Jewish-owned business ignore US law because it prohibits a practice that is ostensibly permitted by Jewish law.
Second, the Israeli rabbinate characterizes Jewish law as holding a lesser standard of compassion to animals than even a secular government, creating the impression of moral failure in the eyes of both other nations and our own people. Third, by commenting that "there is no halachic problem," the rabbinate represents that the mitzva of tsa'ar ba'alei haim (prohibition against the unnecessary infliction of pain on an animal) as somehow non-applicable in the pre- and post-shehita process.
Rabbi Raful further says, "The Torah is not subjective and the same Torah that prohibits cruelty to animals allows shehita." This statement is a nonsensical red herring. The USDA report does not criticize shehita; it criticizes the causing of unnecessary suffering to animals before the shehita occurs and the torturous carcass dressing of conscious animals after the shehita takes place.
The Torah allows shehita, but the Torah does not allow cruel acts to be appended to the prescribed process of kosher slaughter.
RABBI RAFUL'S statements express the view espoused by the senior haredi posek Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who opines that Halacha permits causing animals any amount of suffering if, as a result, there is some tangible human benefit. That is, the mitzva of tsa'ar ba'alei haim exists exclusively to prohibit sadistic behavior toward animals.
Thankfully, many poskim, including Maimonides, believe that the prohibition against cruelty to animals informs our interactions with animals far beyond sadism.
Starting with the Israeli rabbinate and including the Orthodox Union (OU) which is responsible for supervision at AgriProcessors plant, we have an irresponsible representation of Jewish law and Jewish values. The Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism voiced consternation at the time of the expose, thereby continuing the concern for animal welfare exhibited by its 2000 ruling requiring upright holding pens during shehita. Sadly, the assembly has not initiated any action toward the implementation of the ruling nor the reforming of current kosher slaughterhouse abuses - rather, the organization has depended on Orthodox agencies to correct themselves.
Indeed, eventually, after the scandal broke and in cooperation with the OU and the USDA, AgriProcessors reportedly ceased the trachea-rip procedure and introduced a stun gun that immediately kills animals not rendered unconscious after the first cut. These animals are processed for nonkosher sale.
Yet the cessation of cruel practices at one plant does not address the problem of rabbis who continue to defend such practices. The rabbis whom we have entrusted to interpret Halacha and represent the honor of Jewish character have been derelict in their duties.
It is fair for the Jewish community to expect people of integrity, vision and courage to represent it. We have a right to expect our leadership to raise the alarm at the ethically atrocious, even in the face of popular criticism.
Fortunately, Judaism has a self-correcting mechanism that does not rely solely on rabbis discerning truth. The Jewish community is empowered to voice opinion, to hold its leadership accountable and to demand reforms of abusive industries.
The writer, a Conservative rabbi, is spiritual leader of Congregation Moreshet Yisrael and teaches at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, both in Jerusalem.
---------------------------
March 31, 2006
Editor, Jerusalem Post
letters@jpost.com
Dear Editor:
Re Rabbi Adam Frank's article, "When 'kosher' slaughter is not Jewish" (March 31, 2006 issue), in which he points out the inconsistencies between practices at the Postville, Iowa glatt kosher slaughterhouse and Jewish teachings on compassion to animals:
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I believe, respectfully, that Rabbi Frank’s challenging article discusses only one of the many ways that animal-based diets and modern intensive livestock agriculture are inconsistent with basic Jewish teachings.
Even if shechita is carried out perfectly, can we ignore the severe cruelty that animals are subjected to on factory farms, where they are raised in cramped, confined spaces, without sunlight, fresh air, or opportunities to fulfil their instinctual needs. When Judaism stresses that we must diligently protect our health, can we ignore that animal-based diets are major contributors to the epidemic of heart disease, many forms of cancer, and other killer diseases and ailments afflicting the Jewish community and others? When Judaism mandates that we be partners with God in protecting the environment, can we fail to consider that animal-centered agriculture contributes significantly to global warming, air, water, and land pollution, species extinction, deforestation, water shortages, and many other environmental threats.
Rabbi Frank’s article should be a wake-up call that results in the Jewish community addressing the fundamental question: since Judaism mandates that we should diligently guard our health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and help hungry people, and animal-based diets and agriculture have negative effects in each of these areas, shouldn’t Jews (and others) seriously consider a switch toward meatless diets?
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
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5. Connections Between Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Esperanto
THE TRIANGLE: JUDAISM, VEGETARIANISM, ESPERANTO
By Aliza Carol
I feel there is no need for me to comment about the relationship between Judaism and Vegetarianism for the Jewish Vegetarians of North America Newsletter. I do feel there is a need to comment here about the other two sides of the triangle: the relation between Esperanto and Vegetarianism, as well as the relation between Esperanto and Judaism.
Esperanto and Vegetarianism
Esperanto is more than a language, it is also a "movado", a social movement that aims to improve the quality of life on the earth, the same as Vegetarianism does. Discussions round the use of Esperanto do not involve only linguistic problems; there are also talks about the "language ecology" of the planet, the necessity to protect endangered languages and cultures that may be destroyed by the pressure of dominant languages and cultures. As the communication systems develop, the need for an easy-to-learn, quick-to-learn, cheap-to-learn, neutral international language grows and Dr. Zamenhof's dream becomes more and more topical. So does the dream about a vegetarian world. People who care about the quality of life on the earth have a tendency to go enthusiastic about both movements. The World Esperantist Vegetarian Association (TUTMONDA ESPERANTISTA VEGETARANA ASOCIO) was founded in 1908 and its first honorary president was Leo Tolstoy. The aim of the association was (still is!) to spread vegetarianism among Esperanto-speaking people and to spread Esperanto among vegetarians. The association publishes a review called "Esperantista Vegetarano". Here is the address of the association:
http://www.ivu.org/history/societies/esperanto.html
I must add that for me, as an Israeli Jewish writer, both Esperanto and Vegetarianism are sources of poetic inspiration. Food becomes more than food when you contemplate it as divine gifts of the earth; words become more than words when you contemplate a language as an instrument of increasing peace and harmony on the earth.
Esperanto and Judaism.
Dr. Zamenhof's native languages were Russian and Yiddish and he began to learn Hebrew and the Torah at the age of 5. As a result of these biographical circumstances, Yiddish and Hebrew are among the languages that he used when he created Esperanto. His knowledge of Hebrew and of the Torah was so deep, that he succeeded to translate the whole Tanach [Torah, Nevi’im (prophets)., and ketuvim (writings, including the books of psalms and proverbs)] into Esperanto in an exquisite poetic way.
The fact that Dr. Ludovikus Lazarus (Eliezer) Zamenhof, the creator of the international language Esperanto, was a Jew and the fact that a great percentage of the early supporters of the language were Jews were not hazardous facts. It was at the end of the 19th century that the Esperanto phenomenon appeared in Europe, as a result of the anguish and deep dilemmas haunting the Jewish hearts and minds. Esperanto was the beautiful dream of a Jewish poet and physician, that is why Esperanto has the beauty of a poem and at the same time aims to cure some of the deep wounds of mankind. Esperanto means "the hoping one" in Esperanto language. It was the pen-name used by Dr. Zamenhof and gradually his pen-name became the very name of the international language he created.
Esperanto meant hope for some of the Jews who had to live in Nazi camps. Here is one of the most moving stories about the use of Esperanto in the Nazi camps:
In 2003, when the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon embarked in his cosmic journey, he took with him as a symbol of the Shoah, a copy of a painting entitled "Moon Landscape", which may be found in the Yad VaShem Museum. That painting had been made in 1945 by a Jewish teenager of Prague, who was to be killed in Auschwitz soon after. The name of the boy was Petr Ginz; he belonged to a Jewish Esperantist family; Esperanto together with Czech were his native languages. During his stay in the Theresienstadt camp, the boy began to compile an Esperanto – Czech dictionary and a few pages from it are still kept in the archives of Yad VaShem.
Esperanto as an international dream belongs to international culture of course, but at the same time, for many reasons, one can see it also as a significant part of Jewish history.
Notes:
[I took the information about Petr Ginz from Doron Modan's article "The Esperantist Who Journeyed From The Getto To The Cosmos" ("La esperantisto, kiu vojag^is el la getto al la kosmo") in the Esperanto review "Israela Esperantisto", Dec. 2004. This review is published by ELI (Esperanto-Ligo en Israelo).
http://ttt.esperanto.org.il/eli/
For those who want to read a serious study about Esperanto and Judaism, I can recommend the book "Zamenhof and Judaism" ("Zamenhof kaj judismo", 1997 Memeldono) by Andre Cherpillod. Besides the Esperanto edition, there is also a French edition available.]
Luiza CAROL
http://www.GeoCities.com/poemusicart/
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6. Using the Global Warming Crisis to Promote Vegetarianism/ Please Comment on Proposed Press Release
a. Article: The best way we could battle global warming is stop consuming animals
[opinion from Asheville Citizen-Times]
Thousands of peer-reviewed climate scientists agree that global warming is a very real threat to our existence, yet the concept is still being challenged. Wealthy and powerful business interests have put a stranglehold on meaningful federal legislation that would help reverse the warming of our planet. In the last presidential election, the environment was barely mentioned. Local governments have been taking the lead, resulting in some progressive laws. Industry is slowly responding to consumer demand by producing hybrid cars, energy efficient appliances, wind and solar power systems, green building products, etc. These advances are important, but still fall far short of the changes needed to reverse the damage that has been done.
...
Actually, there is something everyone can do which doesn't take any extra money or an act of Congress, and will significantly effect climate change. What is ironic is that "environmentalists" steer clear of the idea and rarely mention it, probably not wanting to make the change themselves, or appearing too out of the mainstream. I read about this important environmental action in a London newspaper; it has been ignored in the United States, even though the research was done here.
What is this human activity that is more important than driving an eco-friendly car? It's what you put into your mouth. Jonathon Porritt stated in an article in the Guardian on Jan. 4 that, "Researchers Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a U.S.-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger [eating] man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state-of-the-art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year." (http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/ papers/nutri/nutri.html)
Eliminating animal products from your diet significantly helps the planet, not to mention your health and the animals.
...
The science is clear. A vegan diet is more effective in reducing CO2 emissions than driving a hybrid car. A vegan diet can also eliminate a major source of methane, which, according to EarthSave, is "responsible for almost half of the global warming impacting the planet today." It's time that environmental groups and the government, at all levels, embrace what is a highly effective strategy for reducing global warming, advocating a vegan diet.
Most environmental groups can barely spit out the words, "eat lower on the food chain," but they would better serve the earth if they made veganism the cornerstone of their global warming campaigns. They should be shouting about it, but, instead, won't even have the conversation.
Adopting a vegan diet is as easy as shopping in a different aisle at the grocery store or ordering from a different section of the menu (www.GoVeg.com).
Terri David is an 18-year vegan living in Asheville. She has a B.S. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Northwestern University. She can be reached at terri_david@bellsouth.net.
b. Proposed resolution on global warming
NEWS RELEASE
BROAD COALITION URGES SHIFT TOWARD VEGETARIANISM TO AVERT WIDESPREAD ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES AND DISEASE EPIDEMICS
For Immediate Release:
April ______, 2006
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
Rschw12345@aol.com Phone: (718) 761-5876
[others?]
New York: A broad coalition of groups and prominent individuals (list, in formation, at the end of this release) announced today the start of a broad campaign to make people aware that a major shift toward vegetarianism is essential to avoid many environmental, health, and other severe threats that face humanity today.
The coalition cited the following facts as examples of the urgency of major dietary shifts and other positive lifestyle changes if disaster is to be averted:
* The negative effects of global warming are increasingly apparent, in terms of record heat waves, the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, increasing numbers and severity of hurricanes and other storms, widespread droughts and flooding, unprecedented migration of species, and increases of sea levels.
* Several climate experts, including James Hansen, NASA’s leading expert on global warming have indicated that the world may face a "tipping point" in ten years, after which global warming effects may spiral out of control. Even mainstream Time Magazine, in a cover story, indicates that people should be "very worried" as it details the many negative results of climate disruption.
* While recent increased concern about global warming very welcome, the many connections between typical American (and other Western) diets and global warming have generally been overlooked. Current modern intensive livestock agriculture and the consumption of animal products greatly contribute to the four major gases associated with the greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons. The burning of tropical forests releases tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and eliminates the ability of these trees to absorb carbon dioxide. Also, the highly mechanized agricultural sector uses enormous amounts of fossil fuel to produce pesticides, chemical fertilizer, and other agricultural resources, and this also contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. Cattle emit methane as part of their digestive process, as do termites who feast on the charred remains of trees that were burned to create grazing land and land to grow feed crops for farmed animals. The large amounts of petrochemical fertilizers used to produce feed crops create significant quantities of nitrous oxides. Likewise, the increased refrigeration necessary to prevent animal products from spoiling adds chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere
"People who eliminate all animal products from their diet," said Gidon Eshel of the University of Chicago, "reduce greenhouse gases by the equivalent of 1.5 tons of CO2 per year. That's a 50% greater impact on climate change than switching from a typical gas guzzling car to a hybrid."
* It is estimated that at least half of the world’s people will live in areas chronically short of water by the middle of this century. Here too, the effects of the widespread production of animal products is generally overlooked -- It takes up to 14 times as much water (and far more land, energy and other resources) on an animal-based diet than it does on a vegan diet.
* The combination of widening global warming effects and chronic water shortages threatens to reduce food productivity and thus to threaten major future food shortages. Once again, there are strong connections to the widespread production and consumption of animal products: The world is not only trying to feed 6.5 billion people, but also the over 50 billion farmed animals that are raised worldwide for slaughter annually; Seventy percent of the grain produced in the US (and over a third produced worldwide) is fed to animals destined for slaughter, as an estimated 20 million people already die worldwide of hunger and its effects worldwide.
* Due to increased flooding and droughts, water shortages and hunger, there is an increasing chance for violence, terrorism, and regional wars over scarce resources. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer" -- and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely."
* Additional current environmental threats that are worsened by animal-based diets and agriculture include the rapid loss of biological diversity, as species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, and destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats.
The coalition also stressed that a shift toward plant-based diets would greatly reduce the current epidemic of heart disease, several forms of cancer, and other chronic degenerative diseases, and also reduce threats from avian flu, mad-cow disease, and other diseases that have been associated with modern intensive livestock agriculture.
"In summary, the world is threatened as perhaps never before," stated __________, "and it is essential that the major impact that animal-based agriculture is having be recognized and changed. A shift to plant-based diets would also reduce the epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases afflicting so many people and the widespread mistreatment of billions of farmed animals on factory farms." [I hope to get someone well known to make this or a similar statement.]
The coalition is urging its members to contact media, political, educational, and religious leaders, and neighbors, friends, and relatives, in efforts to make people aware that a shift to vegetarianism is not only an important individual choice, but that it is also a societal imperative, necessary to shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable course.
* * * * *
SUPPORTING GROUPS INCLUDE:
[So far, this is just a small sample of groups that I think would support this initiative. I have not obtained permission yet to include these groups, but I believe that they and many additional vegetarian, animal rights, environmental, health, and other groups will endorse this press release.]
Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)
Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI)
Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM)
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature (ICPAN)
Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
OrganicAthlete
People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA)
Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV)
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7. What We Are Up Against in Promoting Vegetarianism/Some Responses
Below are my letter to the editor of a magazine for teen age Orthodox girls, responding to a generally negative response from the editor to a question on vegetarianism, the editor’s response, in which she indicated that “many of the issues you raised, such as health, protecting the environment, helping the hungry, etc., are indeed very important, but they are only tangentially related to vegetarianism,” and responses from two JVNA advisors to the editor’s response.
---------------------------------------------
March 29, 2006
Editor, Shoshanim
Editor@shoshanim.net
Dear Rebbitzin Rochel,
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) and author of the book, "Judaism and Vegetarianism," I would like to comment respectfully on your response to the girl whose sister is a vegetarian. I agree that the Torah does not demand that Jews be vegetarians. As you indicate, we have a choice of diets, but shouldn’t our choice consider the negative effects of animal-based diets on human health and that of our imperiled planet, and how the consumption and production of animal-foods violate basic Jewish teachings on taking care of our health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.
There are many ways to elevate sparks of holiness, but it seems hard to do this by eating animals, when the animals are treated so cruelly on factory farms, when the consumption of animal products is causing an epidemic of diseases in the Jewish community and other communities, and when the raising of animals contributes significantly to global warming, rapid extinction of species, widening water shortages, destruction of tropical rain forests, and other environmental threats.
How about a respectful dialogue/debate in the pages of Shoshanim on "Should Jews Be Vegetarians?" I believe that it would be a kiddush Hashem.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
---------------------------------------------
The editor’s response:
BS"D [with the help of Hashem]
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. I admire your passion about vegetarianism. However, I view it as a personal choice and not as a passionate issue from the perspective of Judaism. Also, many of the issues you raised, such as health, protecting the environment, helping the hungry, etc., are indeed very important, but they are only tangentially related to vegetarianism.
If you are not already a subscriber to Shoshanim, please consider subscribing, either for yourself or for your children or grandchildren.
Best wishes for a chag kosher v'sameach,
Rebbetzin Rochel
Shoshanim
--------------------------------------------
Responses from two JVNA advisors:
What we have going for us is that Rebbetzin Rochel is into passionate Judaism. This is appropriate for someone who works with teens. She also states that health, environment and helping the hungry are very important.
The only thing missing is that Rebbetzin Rochel is not aware of the direct link between the issues she says are important and vegetarianism. I think we should commend her for her caring, and her sensitivity to issues of the hungry, health and the environment which are of vital interest from the perspective of the Torah. We can also refer her to vegetarianism as being a cause of idealism that would be very attractive to a significant number of teens. Even for those who are not ready to go all the way, a vegetarian-oriented diet, that is reduced meat eating, even if not purely vegetarian would help us do promote Torah values: protect our lives, help us adhere to the Torah's admonition to take care of the widow, the orphan and the stranger, facilitate the keeping of the prohibition of wantonly cutting down trees, help preserve the rainforests of Brazil including 20% of the oxygen supply of the world, and many species of flora and fauna there for which future medicationsmight depend.
Here is something that every young girl can do to help make herself healthier, the world a better place, help all people and help the Jews be a light unto the nations. Each person can make a difference irrespective of age, educational level, or income.
Steve Kelter
--------------------------
Response 2 (from JVNA founder and present advisor Jonathan Wolf):
Did you tell her that you (and your daughters and sons in law and grandchildren) are Orthodox? Unfortunately, it can make a big difference in your credibility to such people.
Also, she is gravely (though not atypically) misinformed in not understanding how meat production and consumption are central, not peripheral, to issues of health, pollution, hunger, and destruction of resources. Does she realize that (--what are the current figures?) more grain is fed to animals for meat than to people in the USA? That solid waste from animals is much greater than from humans? That the important international studies of hunger identify greatly increased meat production in poorer countries as the most significant reason that they will not be able to sufficiently reduce hunger over the next decade or two?
All the best-- -Jon
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9. Potential Counseling On a Vegan Lifestyle
Forwarded message:
Hello Richard,
I am a vegan life coach, specializing in coaching animal advocates and vegans and vegetarians who want to be effective at talking with non-veg people about their choices. Often it can be difficult for new veg*n people to navigate relationships or traditional meals after they have made the switch. Sometimes people can be very distressed when they realize how much suffering happens on factory farms and can feel helpless when it comes to making a difference, or misdirect their anger at loved ones who don't see things their way.
My company is called Living With Purpose, I coach on the phone and cover the long distance charges for any client within the United States. I've been vegan for over 10 years, and am a certified coach with a background in management and non-profit campaign coordination. I do personal coaching, as well as facilitate group coaching sessions, etc.
I wanted to let you know that I exist and what I do, in the event that you may know some people who would be interested in coaching. I've found that the animal advocacy and vegetarian community has been excited to know that there is a coach that specializes in the areas of most importance to them.
Thank you for writing in to the MN Daily - it's been fantastic to read so many supportive letters on response to the cage-free egg campaign and Peter Singer's visit to Minnesota.
Peace,
Dallas Rising
Certified Professional Coach, CTACC
Living With Purpose, LLC
3024 Harriet Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-824-2072 | http://www.DallasRising.com
"Developing Effective Advocates for Social Justice"
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10. You Can Hear Me Discuss Passover and Vegetarianism and the “Environmental Shabbat” on April 9
In a message dated 3/22/06 8:29:06 AM, sjd@monmouth.com writes:
April 9 from 1:30-2pm is solid with me.
You can hear the interview at www.wctcam.com
People can call in at:
732-545-9282 or 1-888-545-9282. Talk with you then. Thanks.
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15. It’s Time to Celebrate Kindness
Forwarded message from NAHEE:
67 Norwich Essex Turnpike, East Haddam, CT 06423-1736
It's Time to Celebrate Kindness!
Are you ready for Be Kind to Animals Week (May 7-13)? NAHEE has some fun, hands-on ways for children to participate.
* Kids will get hooked on helping when they visit the Project Pond and Activity Tree at www.kindnews.org.
* From a relay race for pet supplies to making treats for backyard birds, each Critters with Character Lesson Plans book features 30 engaging, educational group activities.
* Hold a "story time" event at your library, elementary school, or animal shelter. For good stories with humane themes, check out our Troubadour’s Tales Storybook and CD and “Best Books” picks.
* The super-sized 100 Ways to Be Kind to Animals Megaposter illustrates simple ways kids can show kindness all year long.
* Just for preschoolers: Teach the basics of kindness with songs, puppets, games, and movement activities in the Let's Be Kind to Animals! Activity Kit.
* For middle- and high-school students: www.HumaneTeen.org includes plans for starting an animal protection club, step-by-step projects, downloadable study and activity guides on important issues affecting animals, and more.
Deadline approaching! Be sure to place your KIND News orders by July 1 so that teachers and students receive the September 2006 issue.
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16. Comment On the Last Shabbat’s Torah Portion on Sacrifices
Forwarded message from JVNA advisor Steve Kelter:
This Shabbat we begin reading the 3rd book of the Torah, Leviticus - Vayikra. In this weeks portion, we read of the sacrifices to God. The purpose of the sacrifices was to help a person draw closer to God. Most of them were animal, some were vegetarian. This presents an issue for me as a vegetarian. There are some who pray even now for a return of animal sacrifices at the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, in the land of Israel, who lived in the pre-State period, taught that in the messianic period in the first stage animal sacrifices would still be offered and in the second stage all sacrifices would be vegetarian. That would be the period when the lion would lie down with the lamb and even the animals would be vegetarian. No one would hurt anyone else.
I was taught by my teacher Rabbi Shlomo Riskin that the ideal of kashrut is not to kill at all. Does God really want us to kill animals in order to draw closer to Him? When the sacrificial laws were presented in the Torah, the culture of all peoples, at least in that part of the world included animal sacrifice. The pagan sacrificial cult included idolatry, immorality and corruption. I see the Torah sacrificial system as a means to wean His people away from immorality and towards holiness.
Ultimately, I believe, His objective is to bring us to the point of not hurting anyone or any living being. If animal sacrifices are what the people need at least do it morally. If people are not ready to give up eating meat, at least do it in a way that will cause the least hurt.
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17. The Meatrix, Part II, Now On Line
"The Meatrix II: Revolting" is now live at:
http://www.themeatrix2.com
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** Fair Use Notice **
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
1. Happy Passover/Material for “Greening” Passover
2. Seeking Information About Public Vegetarian Seders
3. Update on “Environmental Shabbat” Campaign
4. Jerusalem Post Article on the Postville Slaughterhouse/My Letter/Please Write
5. Connections Between Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Esperanto
6. Using the Global Warming Crisis to Promote Vegetarianism/Please Comment on Proposed Press Release
7. What We Are Up Against in Promoting Vegetarianism/Some Responses
9. Potential Counseling On a Vegan Lifestyle
10. You Can Hear Me Discuss Passover and Vegetarianism and the “Environmental Shabbat” on April 9
16. Comment On the Last Shabbat’s Torah Portion on Sacrifices
17. The Meatrix, Part II, Now On Line
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 kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observance, 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.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. Happy Passover/Material for “Greening” Passover
Best wishes for a chag kasher v’sameach -- a kosher and happy Passover. Please see JewishVeg.com/holidays.html for articles relating Passover to vegetarianism and to environmental activism. Also, please see JewishVeg.com/recipes#Passover for vegetarian Passover recipes.
Message from the “Coalition on the Environmental and Jewish Life” (COEJL) on “Greening” Passover:
March 28, 2006 / 28 Adar 5766
Dear COEJL Friends,
To help with the greening of Passover and to encourage the Jewish community to observe Earth Day 2006 as an "Environmental Shabbat," COEJL has created resource pages with links to readings and activities from our web site:
www.coejl.org/celebrate/passover.php (For “greening Passover”)
www.coejl.org/celebrate/shabbat.php (For an “Environmental Shabbat”)
If you have any information for our upcoming e-bulletin
including environmentally-themed seders or other Jewish or
interreligious environmental news and events, please send them
to: info@coejl.org.
Chag Sameach,
Barbara Lerman-Golomb
Acting Executive Director
Donate now to help COEJL create these and other environmental
holiday resources: www.coejl.org/donate
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Passover and Earth Day
By Richard Schwartz
Several years ago, the first day of Passover and the annual Earth Day both occurred on April 22nd. Hence, this [was] a good time to consider environmental messages related to Passover and the events and concepts related to the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt:
1. Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues:
* When we consider the threats to our land, water, and air, we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues". For example: (1) acid rain (2) depletion of the ozone layer (3) destruction of tropical rain forests (4) global warming (5) soil erosion and depletion (6) loss of biological-diversity (7) water pollution (8) air pollution (9) an increase of severity of storms and floods (10) increased use of pesticides, chemical fertilizer, and other toxic chemicals.
* The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us simultaneously.
* The Jews in Goshen were spared most of the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues.
* Instead of an ancient Pharoah's heart being hardened, our hearts today have been hardened by the greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root of current environmental threats.
* God provided the Biblical plagues to free the Israelites, while today we must apply God's teachings in order to save ourselves and our precious but endangered planet.
Because of the above factors, there has been the beginning of a tradition to spill an additional ten drops of wine or grape juice at the seder to recognize the significance of the modern plagues.
2. The seder is a time for questions, including the traditional "four questions". Additional questions can be asked related to modern environmental threats. For example: Why is this period different than all other periods? (At all other periods only local regions faced environmental threats; today, the entire world is threatened.) Why is there so much silence in the Jewish community about current environmental threats? Why aren't Jewish values applied toward the alleviation of environmental problems?
3. Rabbi Jay Marcus, Spiritual Leader of the Young Israel of Staten Island, saw a connection between simpler diets and helping hungry people. He commented on the fact that "karpas" (eating of greens) comes immediately before "yahatz" (the breaking of the middle matzah for later use as the "afikomen" (desert) in the seder service. He concluded that those who live on simpler foods (greens, for example) will more readily divide their possesions and share with others. The consumption of animal-centered diets involves the feeding of 70% of the grain grown in the United States to animals destined for slaughter and the importing of beef from other countries, while 20 million of the world's people die of hunger and its effects. This simpler diet would also have positive environmental effects since modern intensive livestock agriculture uses vast amounts of water, fuel, chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and other resources, and contributes to the destruction of habitats and many other environmental problems.
4. A popular song at the seder is "dayenu" (it would have been enough). The message of this song would be very useful today when so many people seek to constantly increase their wealth and amass more possessions, with little thought of the negative environmental consequences.
5. An ancient Jewish legend indicates that Job's severe punishment occurred because when he was an advisor to Pharoah he refused to take a stand when Pharoah asked him what should be done with regard to the Israelites. This story can be discussed as a reminder that if we remain neutral and do not get involved in working for a better environment, severe consequences may follow.
6. The main Passover theme is freedom. While relating the story of our ancestors' slavery in Egypt and their redemption through God's power and beneficence, Jews might also want to consider the "slavery" of animals on modern "factory farms". Contrary to Jewish teachings of "tsa'ar ba'alei chayim" (the Torah mandate not to cause unnecessary "pain to a living creature"), animals are raised for food today under cruel conditions in crowded confined spaces, where they are denied fresh air, sunlight, a chance to exercise, and the fulfillment of their natural instincts. In this connection, it is significant to consider that according to the Jewish tradition, Moses, Judaism's greatest leader, teacher, and prophet, was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt because as a shepherd he showed great compassion to a lamb (Exodus Rabbah 2:2).
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2. Seeking Information About Public Vegetarian Seders
Before Passover, we sometimes get messages, like the one below, from people seeking public vegetarian seders. If you have any information about a public vegetarian seder in your area that we can share, please let us know. Thanks.
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Dear Dr. Schwartz,
I came across your articles online while trying to find a vegetarian seder open to the public either in New York (where I live) or Philadelphia (where my parents live). I am hoping you may know of one.
Thank you.
Richard Ervais
raervais-AT-debevoise.com
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3. Update on “Environmental Shabbat” Campaign
a. Here is an example of progress/message from the Earth Day Network:
Hi Richard,
Just to let you know what is happening for Earth Day with your requests. In our Religious Earth Day in a Box section we have put a link to your web site Jewish Vegetarians of North America with a blurb. We have also added on to the COEJL blurb regarding A Jewish Earthday and the Passover/Earthday connection. I don't know if there will be anything else at this time, but since the Climate Change Solutions Campaign runs for three years, there is the possibility that a fact sheet could be written up regarding the connection of industrial agriculture to climate change.
Sincerely,
Barb Harrison (Earth Day Network staff member)
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b. Another example of progress:
Richard: Please note the current edition of the Social Action on-line Newsletter (below) , specifically the part headed, "Save the Date - Earth Day is April 22, 2006." Hopefully, this will encourage many of our congregational worship leaders to devote some of their Shabbat programming to issues of environmental ethics on that date. I plan to forward this document to the rabbis in our region, in the hope that they will likewise focus on this issue. Best regards, Paul
Paul Kaufman
Assistant Regional Director
UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM
New Jersey-West Hudson Valley Council
Phone: 201.722.9090 - Ext. 201
From: Feldman, Rabbi Marla (Social Action)
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 4:56 PM
To: Regional Directors, Assoc & Assts.
Subject: News from the Commission on Social Action
Friends: Attached is the most recent Monthly Social Action Message. This has been sent to social action chairs in the iMIS database. It will also be sent shortly to the Commission on Social Action, including your regional social action chairs. If appropriate, please forward to appropriate lists that will not be duplicative.
Shabbat Shalom,
Marla
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
633 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10017
212.650.4160
________________________________
SAVE THE DATE! EARTH DAY IS APRIL 22, 2006
This year, Earth Day falls on Shabbat! Consider planning anenvironmental-themed Shabbat service at your temple for the weekend of April 22nd. Materials to help you prepare for an Earth Day Shabbat-Jewish texts, activities, and resources for greening your synagogue-are available on the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life's (COEJL) website, www.coejl.org
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4. Jerusalem Post Article on the Postville Slaughterhouse/My Letter/Please Write
The following article is by JVNA advisor Rabbi Adam Frank. I had the pleasure of working with Adam during my speaking tour in Israel several years ago. He showed and discussed videos about animal abuses in Israel. He is currently active in promoting better conditions for animals in Israel. Lionel Friedberg and I videotaped an interview with Adam when we were in Israel last November.
By ADAM FRANK
A Jerusalem Post headline on March 14, "Rabbinate OKs meat despite cruelty to animals" was deeply disturbing but, unfortunately, it seems, true. The rabbi quoted in the report demonstrates how Halacha, viewed myopically and without the assistance of Judaism's own moral compass, can contradict the core values our religion is supposed to represent.
The public aspect of this story began in November 2004, when a video expose revealed abusive animal handling procedures at the largest glatt-kosher slaughter facility in the US. The slaughterhouse, AgriProcessors, Inc. in Postville, Iowa, was shown using electric prods to shock the faces of cows in order to guide them into the slaughter pen.
The pictures also showed an uncommon practice of speeding post-shehita blood flow by using large hooks to rip out the animals' trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (food pipe) while the animals are still conscious. Immediately after the procedure cows are seen standing and attempting to bellow and leave the killing-floor area.
It is important to note that the ideal kosher cut would sever the trachea, esophagus and carotid artery, thus immediately eliminating blood flow to the brain and rendering an animal unconscious in as quickly as 10 seconds. Contrary to widespread perceptions, however, a valid kosher slaughter requires only the cut of the trachea and esophagus. The post-cut scenes on the videos of staggering, mutilated animals seem to be cases in which the carotid arteries were not severed, thus leaving the animal conscious and able to suffer pain.
Two weeks ago, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the findings of its investigation of AgriProcessors. The report declared that the abattoir repeatedly violated provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act. American animal cruelty laws do not permit "carcass dressing," such as the ripping of the throat, while the animal is still conscious.
This horrible act, which has now been declared in violation of US animal cruelty laws, is not a necessary part of the shehita process. Importantly, the USDA did not criticize the process of shehita - on the contrary, kosher slaughter is affirmed by the USDA as being a humane form of slaughter. However, the investigation documented case after case of animal cruelty in the forms of pre- and post-slaughter handling of conscious animals.
Reacting to these published findings, the head of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's international ritual slaughter division, Rabbi Ezra Raful, said that he would permit the import of meat to Israel from the slaughterhouse in question, saying that "in the case of AgriProcessors, there is no halachic problem."
Rabbi Raful's statement is alarming and halachically problematic on a number of levels. First, he ignores the halachic category of dina d'malchuta dina whereby Jews are required to follow the laws of their host country as long as the law does not intrude upon Jewish law. The consequence of this statement is that the Israeli rabbinate publicly gives its approval that Jewish-owned business ignore US law because it prohibits a practice that is ostensibly permitted by Jewish law.
Second, the Israeli rabbinate characterizes Jewish law as holding a lesser standard of compassion to animals than even a secular government, creating the impression of moral failure in the eyes of both other nations and our own people. Third, by commenting that "there is no halachic problem," the rabbinate represents that the mitzva of tsa'ar ba'alei haim (prohibition against the unnecessary infliction of pain on an animal) as somehow non-applicable in the pre- and post-shehita process.
Rabbi Raful further says, "The Torah is not subjective and the same Torah that prohibits cruelty to animals allows shehita." This statement is a nonsensical red herring. The USDA report does not criticize shehita; it criticizes the causing of unnecessary suffering to animals before the shehita occurs and the torturous carcass dressing of conscious animals after the shehita takes place.
The Torah allows shehita, but the Torah does not allow cruel acts to be appended to the prescribed process of kosher slaughter.
RABBI RAFUL'S statements express the view espoused by the senior haredi posek Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who opines that Halacha permits causing animals any amount of suffering if, as a result, there is some tangible human benefit. That is, the mitzva of tsa'ar ba'alei haim exists exclusively to prohibit sadistic behavior toward animals.
Thankfully, many poskim, including Maimonides, believe that the prohibition against cruelty to animals informs our interactions with animals far beyond sadism.
Starting with the Israeli rabbinate and including the Orthodox Union (OU) which is responsible for supervision at AgriProcessors plant, we have an irresponsible representation of Jewish law and Jewish values. The Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism voiced consternation at the time of the expose, thereby continuing the concern for animal welfare exhibited by its 2000 ruling requiring upright holding pens during shehita. Sadly, the assembly has not initiated any action toward the implementation of the ruling nor the reforming of current kosher slaughterhouse abuses - rather, the organization has depended on Orthodox agencies to correct themselves.
Indeed, eventually, after the scandal broke and in cooperation with the OU and the USDA, AgriProcessors reportedly ceased the trachea-rip procedure and introduced a stun gun that immediately kills animals not rendered unconscious after the first cut. These animals are processed for nonkosher sale.
Yet the cessation of cruel practices at one plant does not address the problem of rabbis who continue to defend such practices. The rabbis whom we have entrusted to interpret Halacha and represent the honor of Jewish character have been derelict in their duties.
It is fair for the Jewish community to expect people of integrity, vision and courage to represent it. We have a right to expect our leadership to raise the alarm at the ethically atrocious, even in the face of popular criticism.
Fortunately, Judaism has a self-correcting mechanism that does not rely solely on rabbis discerning truth. The Jewish community is empowered to voice opinion, to hold its leadership accountable and to demand reforms of abusive industries.
The writer, a Conservative rabbi, is spiritual leader of Congregation Moreshet Yisrael and teaches at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, both in Jerusalem.
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March 31, 2006
Editor, Jerusalem Post
letters@jpost.com
Dear Editor:
Re Rabbi Adam Frank's article, "When 'kosher' slaughter is not Jewish" (March 31, 2006 issue), in which he points out the inconsistencies between practices at the Postville, Iowa glatt kosher slaughterhouse and Jewish teachings on compassion to animals:
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I believe, respectfully, that Rabbi Frank’s challenging article discusses only one of the many ways that animal-based diets and modern intensive livestock agriculture are inconsistent with basic Jewish teachings.
Even if shechita is carried out perfectly, can we ignore the severe cruelty that animals are subjected to on factory farms, where they are raised in cramped, confined spaces, without sunlight, fresh air, or opportunities to fulfil their instinctual needs. When Judaism stresses that we must diligently protect our health, can we ignore that animal-based diets are major contributors to the epidemic of heart disease, many forms of cancer, and other killer diseases and ailments afflicting the Jewish community and others? When Judaism mandates that we be partners with God in protecting the environment, can we fail to consider that animal-centered agriculture contributes significantly to global warming, air, water, and land pollution, species extinction, deforestation, water shortages, and many other environmental threats.
Rabbi Frank’s article should be a wake-up call that results in the Jewish community addressing the fundamental question: since Judaism mandates that we should diligently guard our health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and help hungry people, and animal-based diets and agriculture have negative effects in each of these areas, shouldn’t Jews (and others) seriously consider a switch toward meatless diets?
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
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5. Connections Between Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Esperanto
THE TRIANGLE: JUDAISM, VEGETARIANISM, ESPERANTO
By Aliza Carol
I feel there is no need for me to comment about the relationship between Judaism and Vegetarianism for the Jewish Vegetarians of North America Newsletter. I do feel there is a need to comment here about the other two sides of the triangle: the relation between Esperanto and Vegetarianism, as well as the relation between Esperanto and Judaism.
Esperanto and Vegetarianism
Esperanto is more than a language, it is also a "movado", a social movement that aims to improve the quality of life on the earth, the same as Vegetarianism does. Discussions round the use of Esperanto do not involve only linguistic problems; there are also talks about the "language ecology" of the planet, the necessity to protect endangered languages and cultures that may be destroyed by the pressure of dominant languages and cultures. As the communication systems develop, the need for an easy-to-learn, quick-to-learn, cheap-to-learn, neutral international language grows and Dr. Zamenhof's dream becomes more and more topical. So does the dream about a vegetarian world. People who care about the quality of life on the earth have a tendency to go enthusiastic about both movements. The World Esperantist Vegetarian Association (TUTMONDA ESPERANTISTA VEGETARANA ASOCIO) was founded in 1908 and its first honorary president was Leo Tolstoy. The aim of the association was (still is!) to spread vegetarianism among Esperanto-speaking people and to spread Esperanto among vegetarians. The association publishes a review called "Esperantista Vegetarano". Here is the address of the association:
http://www.ivu.org/history/societies/esperanto.html
I must add that for me, as an Israeli Jewish writer, both Esperanto and Vegetarianism are sources of poetic inspiration. Food becomes more than food when you contemplate it as divine gifts of the earth; words become more than words when you contemplate a language as an instrument of increasing peace and harmony on the earth.
Esperanto and Judaism.
Dr. Zamenhof's native languages were Russian and Yiddish and he began to learn Hebrew and the Torah at the age of 5. As a result of these biographical circumstances, Yiddish and Hebrew are among the languages that he used when he created Esperanto. His knowledge of Hebrew and of the Torah was so deep, that he succeeded to translate the whole Tanach [Torah, Nevi’im (prophets)., and ketuvim (writings, including the books of psalms and proverbs)] into Esperanto in an exquisite poetic way.
The fact that Dr. Ludovikus Lazarus (Eliezer) Zamenhof, the creator of the international language Esperanto, was a Jew and the fact that a great percentage of the early supporters of the language were Jews were not hazardous facts. It was at the end of the 19th century that the Esperanto phenomenon appeared in Europe, as a result of the anguish and deep dilemmas haunting the Jewish hearts and minds. Esperanto was the beautiful dream of a Jewish poet and physician, that is why Esperanto has the beauty of a poem and at the same time aims to cure some of the deep wounds of mankind. Esperanto means "the hoping one" in Esperanto language. It was the pen-name used by Dr. Zamenhof and gradually his pen-name became the very name of the international language he created.
Esperanto meant hope for some of the Jews who had to live in Nazi camps. Here is one of the most moving stories about the use of Esperanto in the Nazi camps:
In 2003, when the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon embarked in his cosmic journey, he took with him as a symbol of the Shoah, a copy of a painting entitled "Moon Landscape", which may be found in the Yad VaShem Museum. That painting had been made in 1945 by a Jewish teenager of Prague, who was to be killed in Auschwitz soon after. The name of the boy was Petr Ginz; he belonged to a Jewish Esperantist family; Esperanto together with Czech were his native languages. During his stay in the Theresienstadt camp, the boy began to compile an Esperanto – Czech dictionary and a few pages from it are still kept in the archives of Yad VaShem.
Esperanto as an international dream belongs to international culture of course, but at the same time, for many reasons, one can see it also as a significant part of Jewish history.
Notes:
[I took the information about Petr Ginz from Doron Modan's article "The Esperantist Who Journeyed From The Getto To The Cosmos" ("La esperantisto, kiu vojag^is el la getto al la kosmo") in the Esperanto review "Israela Esperantisto", Dec. 2004. This review is published by ELI (Esperanto-Ligo en Israelo).
http://ttt.esperanto.org.il/eli/
For those who want to read a serious study about Esperanto and Judaism, I can recommend the book "Zamenhof and Judaism" ("Zamenhof kaj judismo", 1997 Memeldono) by Andre Cherpillod. Besides the Esperanto edition, there is also a French edition available.]
Luiza CAROL
http://www.GeoCities.com/poemusicart/
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6. Using the Global Warming Crisis to Promote Vegetarianism/ Please Comment on Proposed Press Release
a. Article: The best way we could battle global warming is stop consuming animals
Thousands of peer-reviewed climate scientists agree that global warming is a very real threat to our existence, yet the concept is still being challenged. Wealthy and powerful business interests have put a stranglehold on meaningful federal legislation that would help reverse the warming of our planet. In the last presidential election, the environment was barely mentioned. Local governments have been taking the lead, resulting in some progressive laws. Industry is slowly responding to consumer demand by producing hybrid cars, energy efficient appliances, wind and solar power systems, green building products, etc. These advances are important, but still fall far short of the changes needed to reverse the damage that has been done.
...
Actually, there is something everyone can do which doesn't take any extra money or an act of Congress, and will significantly effect climate change. What is ironic is that "environmentalists" steer clear of the idea and rarely mention it, probably not wanting to make the change themselves, or appearing too out of the mainstream. I read about this important environmental action in a London newspaper; it has been ignored in the United States, even though the research was done here.
What is this human activity that is more important than driving an eco-friendly car? It's what you put into your mouth. Jonathon Porritt stated in an article in the Guardian on Jan. 4 that, "Researchers Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a U.S.-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger [eating] man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state-of-the-art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year." (http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/ papers/nutri/nutri.html)
Eliminating animal products from your diet significantly helps the planet, not to mention your health and the animals.
...
The science is clear. A vegan diet is more effective in reducing CO2 emissions than driving a hybrid car. A vegan diet can also eliminate a major source of methane, which, according to EarthSave, is "responsible for almost half of the global warming impacting the planet today." It's time that environmental groups and the government, at all levels, embrace what is a highly effective strategy for reducing global warming, advocating a vegan diet.
Most environmental groups can barely spit out the words, "eat lower on the food chain," but they would better serve the earth if they made veganism the cornerstone of their global warming campaigns. They should be shouting about it, but, instead, won't even have the conversation.
Adopting a vegan diet is as easy as shopping in a different aisle at the grocery store or ordering from a different section of the menu (www.GoVeg.com).
Terri David is an 18-year vegan living in Asheville. She has a B.S. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Northwestern University. She can be reached at terri_david@bellsouth.net.
b. Proposed resolution on global warming
NEWS RELEASE
BROAD COALITION URGES SHIFT TOWARD VEGETARIANISM TO AVERT WIDESPREAD ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES AND DISEASE EPIDEMICS
For Immediate Release:
April ______, 2006
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
Rschw12345@aol.com Phone: (718) 761-5876
[others?]
New York: A broad coalition of groups and prominent individuals (list, in formation, at the end of this release) announced today the start of a broad campaign to make people aware that a major shift toward vegetarianism is essential to avoid many environmental, health, and other severe threats that face humanity today.
The coalition cited the following facts as examples of the urgency of major dietary shifts and other positive lifestyle changes if disaster is to be averted:
* The negative effects of global warming are increasingly apparent, in terms of record heat waves, the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, increasing numbers and severity of hurricanes and other storms, widespread droughts and flooding, unprecedented migration of species, and increases of sea levels.
* Several climate experts, including James Hansen, NASA’s leading expert on global warming have indicated that the world may face a "tipping point" in ten years, after which global warming effects may spiral out of control. Even mainstream Time Magazine, in a cover story, indicates that people should be "very worried" as it details the many negative results of climate disruption.
* While recent increased concern about global warming very welcome, the many connections between typical American (and other Western) diets and global warming have generally been overlooked. Current modern intensive livestock agriculture and the consumption of animal products greatly contribute to the four major gases associated with the greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons. The burning of tropical forests releases tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and eliminates the ability of these trees to absorb carbon dioxide. Also, the highly mechanized agricultural sector uses enormous amounts of fossil fuel to produce pesticides, chemical fertilizer, and other agricultural resources, and this also contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. Cattle emit methane as part of their digestive process, as do termites who feast on the charred remains of trees that were burned to create grazing land and land to grow feed crops for farmed animals. The large amounts of petrochemical fertilizers used to produce feed crops create significant quantities of nitrous oxides. Likewise, the increased refrigeration necessary to prevent animal products from spoiling adds chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere
"People who eliminate all animal products from their diet," said Gidon Eshel of the University of Chicago, "reduce greenhouse gases by the equivalent of 1.5 tons of CO2 per year. That's a 50% greater impact on climate change than switching from a typical gas guzzling car to a hybrid."
* It is estimated that at least half of the world’s people will live in areas chronically short of water by the middle of this century. Here too, the effects of the widespread production of animal products is generally overlooked -- It takes up to 14 times as much water (and far more land, energy and other resources) on an animal-based diet than it does on a vegan diet.
* The combination of widening global warming effects and chronic water shortages threatens to reduce food productivity and thus to threaten major future food shortages. Once again, there are strong connections to the widespread production and consumption of animal products: The world is not only trying to feed 6.5 billion people, but also the over 50 billion farmed animals that are raised worldwide for slaughter annually; Seventy percent of the grain produced in the US (and over a third produced worldwide) is fed to animals destined for slaughter, as an estimated 20 million people already die worldwide of hunger and its effects worldwide.
* Due to increased flooding and droughts, water shortages and hunger, there is an increasing chance for violence, terrorism, and regional wars over scarce resources. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer" -- and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely."
* Additional current environmental threats that are worsened by animal-based diets and agriculture include the rapid loss of biological diversity, as species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, and destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats.
The coalition also stressed that a shift toward plant-based diets would greatly reduce the current epidemic of heart disease, several forms of cancer, and other chronic degenerative diseases, and also reduce threats from avian flu, mad-cow disease, and other diseases that have been associated with modern intensive livestock agriculture.
"In summary, the world is threatened as perhaps never before," stated __________, "and it is essential that the major impact that animal-based agriculture is having be recognized and changed. A shift to plant-based diets would also reduce the epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases afflicting so many people and the widespread mistreatment of billions of farmed animals on factory farms." [I hope to get someone well known to make this or a similar statement.]
The coalition is urging its members to contact media, political, educational, and religious leaders, and neighbors, friends, and relatives, in efforts to make people aware that a shift to vegetarianism is not only an important individual choice, but that it is also a societal imperative, necessary to shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable course.
* * * * *
SUPPORTING GROUPS INCLUDE:
[So far, this is just a small sample of groups that I think would support this initiative. I have not obtained permission yet to include these groups, but I believe that they and many additional vegetarian, animal rights, environmental, health, and other groups will endorse this press release.]
Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)
Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI)
Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM)
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature (ICPAN)
Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
OrganicAthlete
People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA)
Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV)
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7. What We Are Up Against in Promoting Vegetarianism/Some Responses
Below are my letter to the editor of a magazine for teen age Orthodox girls, responding to a generally negative response from the editor to a question on vegetarianism, the editor’s response, in which she indicated that “many of the issues you raised, such as health, protecting the environment, helping the hungry, etc., are indeed very important, but they are only tangentially related to vegetarianism,” and responses from two JVNA advisors to the editor’s response.
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March 29, 2006
Editor, Shoshanim
Editor@shoshanim.net
Dear Rebbitzin Rochel,
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) and author of the book, "Judaism and Vegetarianism," I would like to comment respectfully on your response to the girl whose sister is a vegetarian. I agree that the Torah does not demand that Jews be vegetarians. As you indicate, we have a choice of diets, but shouldn’t our choice consider the negative effects of animal-based diets on human health and that of our imperiled planet, and how the consumption and production of animal-foods violate basic Jewish teachings on taking care of our health, treating animals with compassion, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.
There are many ways to elevate sparks of holiness, but it seems hard to do this by eating animals, when the animals are treated so cruelly on factory farms, when the consumption of animal products is causing an epidemic of diseases in the Jewish community and other communities, and when the raising of animals contributes significantly to global warming, rapid extinction of species, widening water shortages, destruction of tropical rain forests, and other environmental threats.
How about a respectful dialogue/debate in the pages of Shoshanim on "Should Jews Be Vegetarians?" I believe that it would be a kiddush Hashem.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
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The editor’s response:
BS"D [with the help of Hashem]
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. I admire your passion about vegetarianism. However, I view it as a personal choice and not as a passionate issue from the perspective of Judaism. Also, many of the issues you raised, such as health, protecting the environment, helping the hungry, etc., are indeed very important, but they are only tangentially related to vegetarianism.
If you are not already a subscriber to Shoshanim, please consider subscribing, either for yourself or for your children or grandchildren.
Best wishes for a chag kosher v'sameach,
Rebbetzin Rochel
Shoshanim
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Responses from two JVNA advisors:
What we have going for us is that Rebbetzin Rochel is into passionate Judaism. This is appropriate for someone who works with teens. She also states that health, environment and helping the hungry are very important.
The only thing missing is that Rebbetzin Rochel is not aware of the direct link between the issues she says are important and vegetarianism. I think we should commend her for her caring, and her sensitivity to issues of the hungry, health and the environment which are of vital interest from the perspective of the Torah. We can also refer her to vegetarianism as being a cause of idealism that would be very attractive to a significant number of teens. Even for those who are not ready to go all the way, a vegetarian-oriented diet, that is reduced meat eating, even if not purely vegetarian would help us do promote Torah values: protect our lives, help us adhere to the Torah's admonition to take care of the widow, the orphan and the stranger, facilitate the keeping of the prohibition of wantonly cutting down trees, help preserve the rainforests of Brazil including 20% of the oxygen supply of the world, and many species of flora and fauna there for which future medicationsmight depend.
Here is something that every young girl can do to help make herself healthier, the world a better place, help all people and help the Jews be a light unto the nations. Each person can make a difference irrespective of age, educational level, or income.
Steve Kelter
--------------------------
Response 2 (from JVNA founder and present advisor Jonathan Wolf):
Did you tell her that you (and your daughters and sons in law and grandchildren) are Orthodox? Unfortunately, it can make a big difference in your credibility to such people.
Also, she is gravely (though not atypically) misinformed in not understanding how meat production and consumption are central, not peripheral, to issues of health, pollution, hunger, and destruction of resources. Does she realize that (--what are the current figures?) more grain is fed to animals for meat than to people in the USA? That solid waste from animals is much greater than from humans? That the important international studies of hunger identify greatly increased meat production in poorer countries as the most significant reason that they will not be able to sufficiently reduce hunger over the next decade or two?
All the best-- -Jon
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9. Potential Counseling On a Vegan Lifestyle
Forwarded message:
Hello Richard,
I am a vegan life coach, specializing in coaching animal advocates and vegans and vegetarians who want to be effective at talking with non-veg people about their choices. Often it can be difficult for new veg*n people to navigate relationships or traditional meals after they have made the switch. Sometimes people can be very distressed when they realize how much suffering happens on factory farms and can feel helpless when it comes to making a difference, or misdirect their anger at loved ones who don't see things their way.
My company is called Living With Purpose, I coach on the phone and cover the long distance charges for any client within the United States. I've been vegan for over 10 years, and am a certified coach with a background in management and non-profit campaign coordination. I do personal coaching, as well as facilitate group coaching sessions, etc.
I wanted to let you know that I exist and what I do, in the event that you may know some people who would be interested in coaching. I've found that the animal advocacy and vegetarian community has been excited to know that there is a coach that specializes in the areas of most importance to them.
Thank you for writing in to the MN Daily - it's been fantastic to read so many supportive letters on response to the cage-free egg campaign and Peter Singer's visit to Minnesota.
Peace,
Dallas Rising
Certified Professional Coach, CTACC
Living With Purpose, LLC
3024 Harriet Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-824-2072 | http://www.DallasRising.com
"Developing Effective Advocates for Social Justice"
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10. You Can Hear Me Discuss Passover and Vegetarianism and the “Environmental Shabbat” on April 9
In a message dated 3/22/06 8:29:06 AM, sjd@monmouth.com writes:
April 9 from 1:30-2pm is solid with me.
You can hear the interview at www.wctcam.com
People can call in at:
732-545-9282 or 1-888-545-9282. Talk with you then. Thanks.
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15. It’s Time to Celebrate Kindness
Forwarded message from NAHEE:
67 Norwich Essex Turnpike, East Haddam, CT 06423-1736
It's Time to Celebrate Kindness!
Are you ready for Be Kind to Animals Week (May 7-13)? NAHEE has some fun, hands-on ways for children to participate.
* Kids will get hooked on helping when they visit the Project Pond and Activity Tree at www.kindnews.org.
* From a relay race for pet supplies to making treats for backyard birds, each Critters with Character Lesson Plans book features 30 engaging, educational group activities.
* Hold a "story time" event at your library, elementary school, or animal shelter. For good stories with humane themes, check out our Troubadour’s Tales Storybook and CD and “Best Books” picks.
* The super-sized 100 Ways to Be Kind to Animals Megaposter illustrates simple ways kids can show kindness all year long.
* Just for preschoolers: Teach the basics of kindness with songs, puppets, games, and movement activities in the Let's Be Kind to Animals! Activity Kit.
* For middle- and high-school students: www.HumaneTeen.org includes plans for starting an animal protection club, step-by-step projects, downloadable study and activity guides on important issues affecting animals, and more.
Deadline approaching! Be sure to place your KIND News orders by July 1 so that teachers and students receive the September 2006 issue.
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16. Comment On the Last Shabbat’s Torah Portion on Sacrifices
Forwarded message from JVNA advisor Steve Kelter:
This Shabbat we begin reading the 3rd book of the Torah, Leviticus - Vayikra. In this weeks portion, we read of the sacrifices to God. The purpose of the sacrifices was to help a person draw closer to God. Most of them were animal, some were vegetarian. This presents an issue for me as a vegetarian. There are some who pray even now for a return of animal sacrifices at the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, in the land of Israel, who lived in the pre-State period, taught that in the messianic period in the first stage animal sacrifices would still be offered and in the second stage all sacrifices would be vegetarian. That would be the period when the lion would lie down with the lamb and even the animals would be vegetarian. No one would hurt anyone else.
I was taught by my teacher Rabbi Shlomo Riskin that the ideal of kashrut is not to kill at all. Does God really want us to kill animals in order to draw closer to Him? When the sacrificial laws were presented in the Torah, the culture of all peoples, at least in that part of the world included animal sacrifice. The pagan sacrificial cult included idolatry, immorality and corruption. I see the Torah sacrificial system as a means to wean His people away from immorality and towards holiness.
Ultimately, I believe, His objective is to bring us to the point of not hurting anyone or any living being. If animal sacrifices are what the people need at least do it morally. If people are not ready to give up eating meat, at least do it in a way that will cause the least hurt.
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17. The Meatrix, Part II, Now On Line
"The Meatrix II: Revolting" is now live at:
http://www.themeatrix2.com
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** Fair Use Notice **
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
March 27, 2006
3/27/06 JVNA Online Newsletter
Shalom everyone,
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
[Note: For vegetarian Passover recipes, please visit: http://jewishveg.com/recipes#Passover]
1. Progress on Campaign to Celebrate Earth Day 2006 as an “Environmental Shabbat”/Please Help
2. Science Fiction: Will Global Warming Wipe Out Humanity?
3. New “Kosher and Humane” Web Site Blasts Factory Farming Practices as Contrary to Jewish Teachings
4. Article on Factory Farming Abuses/My Letter and a Response to it
5. Israeli Haredim (Fervently Orthodox Jews) Working Toward a Cleaner Environment
7. Animal Rights Activist/JVNA Advisor Interviewed
9. Bird Flu Update
10. Meatout 2006 Observance Breaks US and World Records
Some material has been deferred to a later 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 kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observance, 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.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. Progress on Campaign to Celebrate Earth Day 2006 as an “Environmental Shabbat”/Please Help
As indicated below, we are making great progress in our “Environmental Shabbat” campaign. But much more needs to be done to make this a truly groundbreaking initiative. Please help spread the word to as many groups and individuals as you can. Please ask local rabbis to observe Earth Day 2006 as an “Environmental Shabbat.” Ask your friends to also contact local rabbis and ask them to have an “Environmental Shabbat” on April 22. Volunteer to help organize such events. Inform rabbis and other Jewish leaders that valuable information can be found on COEJL’s web site (www.coejl.org) and the Earth Day Network’s web site (www.earthday.net).
Here are the positives so far re the campaign to celebrate Earth Day 2006 as an Environmental Shabbat”:
* The campaign has been endorsed by the following groups:
COEJL (The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life);
The TEVA (Environmental) Learning Center;
JVNA;
The Shalom Center;
The Heschel Environmental Center (Israel);
* COEJL is going to have a special section at its web site (www.coejl.org) devoted to the “Environmental Shabbat.”
* Earth Day Network is going to have a special section at its web site (www.earthday.net) devoted to the “Environmental Shabbat.”
* The Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center is working with COEJL to submit “Environmental Shabbat” – related material to over 900 reform Temples.
* My article below is going to be sent out by the Jewish telegraphic Agency (JTA) to its many Jewish weekly subscribers. Please look for this and other articles related to Earth Day 2006 and/or an “Environmental Shabbat” and please consider sending letters to the editor. If you see such articles in your local papers, please let us know s that we can respond and try to get others to respond.
Turning Earth Day 2006 Into an Environmental Shabbat
Richard H. Schwartz
This year, Earth Day (April 22, 2006) falls on a Saturday, providing a perfect opportunity to turn the day into an “Environmental Shabbat.”
Shabbat is a reminder of creation, as it is said, "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, God rested." (Genesis 2:1.2) When God created the world, he was able to say, "It is very good." (Genesis 1:31) Everything was in harmony as God had planned; the waters were clean, the air was pure. But what must God think about the world today? What must God think when the rain he sends to nourish our crops is often acid rain due to the many chemicals poured into the air by our industries? When the abundance of species of plants and animals that God created are becoming extinct in tropical rain forests and other threatened habitats? When the fertile soil that God provided is rapidly being depleted and eroded? When the climatic conditions that God designed to meet our needs are threatened by global warming?
Earth Day also falls almost immediately after Passover this year, and today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues, which are considered at the Passover seder:
* When we consider the threats to our land, waters, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants, resource scarcities, threats
to our climate, etc., we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues".
*The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us all at once.
* The Israelites in Goshen were spared most of the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues.
* Instead of an ancient Pharaoh's heart being hardened, our hearts today have been hardened by the greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root of current environmental threats.
*God provided the Biblical plagues to free the Israelites, while today we must apply God's teachings in order to save ourselves and our precious but imperiled planet.
The first Earth Day was in 1970, so this year’s event will be the 36th anniversary of Earth Day. The number 36 has special significance in Judaism, as it represents the number of tzaddikim, the lamed-vavniks who uphold the world. It also represents twice CHAI. CHAI (life) is composed of the Hebrew letters chet and yud, whose numerical values are 8 and 10, thus adding up to 18. Hence, we can relate Earth Day this year to improving two lives, that of our endangered planet and that of Judaism.
Our planet is arguably threatened as never before. Just to take one problem, global warming, we have recently experienced record heat waves, increasing numbers and severity of hurricanes and other storms, rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, major floods, and severe droughts. This has all occurred due to a one degree Fahrenheit average increase in the global temperature. This is very frightening since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group composed of the world’s leading climate scientists has projected an average global temperature increase of 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, and that would have catastrophic effects in many areas worldwide.
An ancient midrash (rabbinic teaching) has become all too relevant today:
“In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, God showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him:
‘See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.’ "
(Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)
Environmental problems today are due to the fact that the ways of the world are completely contrary to Jewish values:
*Judaism teaches that the earth is the Lord's and that we are to be partners and co-workers with God in protecting the environment. But today's philosophy is that the earth is to be exploited for maximum profit, regardless of the long-range ecological consequences.
*Judaism stresses bal tashchit, that we are not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value. By contrast, wastefulness in the United States is so great that, with about 4% of the world's people we use about a third of the world's resources, and this has a major impact on pollution and resource scarcities.
* Judaism asserts that a wise person considers the long-range consequences of his/her actions and that we must plan for future generations; but the way of the world today is often to consider only immediate gains.
It is urgent that Torah values be applied toward the solution of current environmental problems. This means, for example: an energy policy based not on dangerous energy sources, but on CARE (conservation and renewable energy), consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving the environment, conserving resources, creating jobs, protecting human lives, and considering future generations.
The book of Jonah, which is read as the prophetic portion during the afternoon service of Yom Kippur, has a powerful lesson with regard to current ecothreats. Jonah was sent by God to Nineveh to urge the people to repent and change their unjust ways in order to avoid destruction. Today, in a sense, the whole world is Nineveh, in danger of annihilation and in need of repentance and redemption, and each one of us must be a Jonah, with a mission to warn the world that it must turn from waste, materialism, greed, and injustice, in order to shift the world from its present perilous path.
Hence, making Earth Day 2006 an Environmental Shabbat, with sermons, classes, environmentally-conscious meals and other environmentally-related activities can be an important step toward moving our imperiled planet to a sustainable path and revitalizing Judaism.
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2. Science Fiction: Will Global Warming Wipe Out Humanity?
[JVNA does not generally have science fiction articles, but the one below by JVNA advisor John Diamond reflects many previous items in JVNA newsletters. It can be a valuable wake-up call. Responses welcome, as always. Thanks. And thanks to John for his valuable work on this.]
Global Warming Induced Human Extinction, An Avoidable Catastrophe
by John K. Diamond
Rosh Hashanah, 5850 (2090): The last human being alive on earth starves to death.
During the first decade of this century, conclusive scientific data from NASA Atmospheric Research proved that global warming is primarily caused by greenhouse gases (primarily methane) being emitted directly and indirectly by the over 50 billion animals raised annually worldwide for human consumption of beef, poultry, dairy and eggs.
The Summer 2005 Issue of “Earth Save Magazine” had a report by Noam Mohr, coordinator for the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), entitled "A New Global Warming Strategy: How Environmentalists are Overlooking Vegetarianism as the Most Effective Tool Against Climate Change in our Lifetimes."
Based on the NASA Atmospheric data, other reputable sources and Noam Mohr’s report, some of the world’s leading climate scientists and vegetarian/environmental organizations combined to issue a warning to humanity that unless consumption of animal based foods is severely reduced or eliminated in the current generation, the human species would be threatened by extinction by the end of the century or sooner.
In 2006, Dr. Richard Schwartz, President of the JVNA, with the cooperation of several environmental groups and the leaders of the annual "Earth Day," held on Saturday, April 22nd, actively promoted the idea of religious communities celebrating that “Earth Day” weekend as an "Environmental Sabbath." Many copies of Noam Mohr’s report were distributed during that weekend, which also marked the beginning of a concentrated campaign to make people aware of the importance of eliminating animal foods for human consumption within the current generation in order to prevent the predicted impending catastrophe.
From that time, the group urged Christian, Jewish, Islamic and other religious groups to strongly recommend that their members eliminate animal products from their diets and take additional steps to respond to global warming and other environmental threats. This met with great success in many cases, as people became increasingly aware of the severe threats that humanity was facing. However, the momentum of population growth, the continued demand for more and more consumer goods in the United States and newly developing countries, and the increasing demand for animal products in China, Japan, and other countries where affluence was increasing proved too great to overcome.
By 2030, the global warming "tipping point" had been reached. Global temperatures began increasing at an accelerating and uncontrollable rate, although at that point, much of the world’s energy was coming from renewable non-polluting sources and hydrogen-fueled transportation had been almost universally adopted.
By 2050, half of the ice at both of the Earth’s poles had melted, raising sea levels 10 feet, and caused some coastal cities to become uninhabitable. Many of the world’s primary aquifers became dry after many decades of being overused to grow crops for farmed animal consumption. Severe fresh water shortages became worse as the rising seawater ruined water supplies in coastal areas. Mini-wars began to break out in many parts of the world over fresh water supplies.
By 2075, almost all of the ice at both of the Earth’s poles had melted, and sea levels had risen an additional 13 feet. All of the coastal cities became uninhabitable, and severe food shortages were occurring worldwide due to lack of clean water and the desertification of almost all of the world’s previous agriculturally productive land. One billion people each year around the world were starving to death with little hope in sight. To avoid starvation and flooding, people began a mass migration toward the Earth’s Polar Regions, where there was still some fresh water and agriculturally productive land.
By 2080, all of the remaining human population was concentrated in both polar areas and for the next five years, they were able to exist on a vegan diet that their ancestors in the first decades of the century rejected. Many still died from starvation, as the limited area they were living on could not sustain everyone.
But the uncontrolled global warming started to take its final toll. Rising temperatures over the next five years made the Polar Regions too hot to raise any food.
On Rosh Hashanah, 5850 (2090) the last human being alive on earth starves to death.
Simultaneously, on a planet in a distant galaxy, a newly-created Adam and Eve in their Garden of Eden are commanded by Hashem:
"Behold, I have given to you all herbage yielding seed that is upon the surface of the entire earth, and every tree, that has seed-yielding fruit; it shall be yours for food."
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3. New “Kosher and Humane” Web Site Blasts Factory Farming Practices as Contrary to Jewish Teachings
JVNA is thinking of exchanging links with the new blog. Please take a look at it and let us know what you think. Thanks.
Forwarded message from info@kosherandhumane.com:
Hi. We've launched a new website/blog, KosherAndHumane.com, to discuss issues of tzaar baalei hayyim and our kosher food chain:
http://www.kosherandhumane.com
We very much want your input, and would also appreciate a link to our site and any shout outs you can give us. We'll be glad to link to your site as well.
Thank you for your help.
Kol Tuv,
The Team at KosherAndHumane.com
---------------------------------------------
Below is some background material from the new website/blog:
New JBlog: Kosher And Humane
KosherAndHumane.com is a new website/blog exploring the issues of "tzaar baalei hayyim and our kosher food chain." Here's a sample of the writing:
Does Jewish law – which commands owners to feed their animals before eating, and mandates humane treatment of animals – support what appears to be barbaric cruelty? If it does not, why are we eating these products, and why are rabbis endorsing them? … Does human desire (note: I wrote "desire," not "need") automatically trump tzaar baalei hayyim law? …
Should we care about animal welfare? Or is the comfort of our stomachs more important than the laws of our Torah?
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4. Article on Factory Farming Abuses/My Letter and a Response to it
American consumers abuse animals
By Matthew Brophy
March 22, 2006
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/03/21/67619
One day animal cruelty shall be held in the same regard as slavery in our nation's past.
John Doe, a local Minnesotan homeowner, was arrested Friday for the torture of animals. Inside his home, investigators found cats dangling upside down, some of them dead, some still painfully writhing with life. Dogs were jammed inside cages so tight that turning around or even lying down was impossible.
Interrogators learned that Doe conducted inhumane practices: castrating cats without anesthesia, searing the beaks off of canaries before locking them in overcrowded cages and imprisoning dogs in dark, crowded pens.
Psychologists would characterize Doe as a sociopath, capable of extreme cruelty and callous to animal suffering.
Truth be told, there is no actual one John Doe; there are many. The above abusive practices are commonplace in factory farms, which slaughter animals for meat on a massive scale. Instead of cats, dogs and canaries, the practice involves cows, pigs and chickens: animals of equal if not superior intellect and sentience.
We are supporting these legal yet unethical practices. If you go to McDonald's, Burger King, KFC or any other fast-food restaurant, you are eating meat that comes from factory farms. The vast majority of our meat comes from these industrial factories.
If you eat meat, you're asking meat suppliers to torture animals on your behalf. They're not torturing animals just for fun - they're doing it for the dollar in your outstretched hand. Who's more at fault, those who torture animals to make a buck or those who torture animals to save a buck?
As consumers, it's easy to deny moral responsibility. We feel we can spend our money however we choose. We can buy a burger with moral impunity; after all, we're not the ones torturing animals. We can buy cheap clothing from Wal-Mart; after all, we're not the ones enslaving children in sweatshops. We are innocent consumers; we are not the torturers, and we are not the slave masters.
We can rationalize all we want. In fact, human beings are ingenious when it comes to deflecting blame. In a famous psychology experiment, Stanley Milgram revealed that a significant majority of human beings will torture other human beings if an authority figure is present applying verbal pressure and assuming moral responsibility.
Consumer society is the authority that absolves us of all moral responsibility: Meat-eating is the norm. In fact, if you don't eat meat, you're un-American, a sissy, a hippie, a commie.
The societal pressure to eat meat overwhelms us. How easy it is to forget about the animals in industrial factories enduring torture in order to feed our hungry mouths. Our trivial lust for meat does not justify our inflicting severe suffering of animals. At the very least, we are complicit; it is for us [that] meat suppliers torture animals.
One day in the not-too-distant future, the animal cruelty of the meat industry shall be held in the same regard as slavery in our American past. Future generations will look back upon our present society's endorsement of animal torture as dark times of mass immorality. Perhaps it will be our great-grandchildren who will look at us with shocked expressions, wondering how we could have been a part of the widespread torture of animals.
The animal liberation movement is not extreme, just as the anti-slavery movement was not extreme. It is part of our moral ascension as beings with an ethical conscience. Ignorance toward animal cruelty is not an excuse. And callousness is not a justification.
The founder of the modern-day animal liberation movement, Peter Singer, will be speaking on our campus about our ethical responsibility toward animals. Singer is widely heralded as a philosopher, writer and activist. Time Magazine deemed him one of the top 100 most influential people on the planet.
Matthew Brophy is a University student. Please send comments to letters@mndaily.com.
---------------------------------------------
My letter:
March 22, 2006
Editor, Minnesota Daily
letters@mndaily.com
Dear Editor,
As president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I want to strongly commend Matthew Brophy for his excellent article, "American consumers abuse animals," in which he discussed the many abuses of billions of animals on "factory farms." What makes the situation even more scandalous is that these animals are mistreated to produce foods that are causing an epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases, and whose production significantly contributes to global warming, rapid loss of biological diversity, widening water shortages, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other important ecosystems, and other environmental threats. In addition, seventy percent of the grain produced in the United States and over a third of the grain produced worldwide is fed to animals destined for slaughter while an estimated 20 million people die annually worldwide due to hunger and its effects.
So, for a more humane, healthy, just, non-violent, and environmentally sustainable world, it is essential that there be a major shift towards plant-based diets.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
--------------------------
Hey Richard,
Thanks so much for writing in to the MN Daily promoting plant-based
diets! As you may already know, the letter got published and will
hopefully raise awareness among the thousands of young readers of the
paper. You can view it at
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/03/23/67645. Thanks and stay in touch!
-Gil Schwartz
Gilbert Schwartz
Campaign Coordinator, Compassionate Action for Animals
300 Washington Ave SE, Rm. 126
Minneapolis, MN 55455
www.ExploreVeg.org
gil@ca4a.org
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5. Israeli Haredim (Fervently Orthodox Jews) Working Toward a Cleaner Environment
Forwarded article by Yosef Hakohen, preceded by his introductory comments:
Introduction: The following is an article from the Jerusalem Post about the Haredi (fervently Orthodox) community in Israel and the environment. The Haredi community includes Chassidim, members of the Lithuanian yeshiva world, Sephardim and Yemenite Jews. Some of the Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem which are mentioned in the article are actually very old neighborhoods which were built by Haredi Jews before the rise of the modern Zionist movement.
The attached article attempts to present a fair and balanced perspective on the relationship of the Haredi community to the environment, and for the most part, it succeeds in this attempt; however, it failed to mention Haredi Torah scholars - such as Rabbi Aryeh Carmell and Rabbi Yehudah Levi - who have written extensively on Torah and environmental issues. It also failed to mention that "Betar" - a Haredi city south of Jerusalem - has won awards from the Israeli government for urban planning which is sensitive to the environment. In addition, the article contains a couple of comments which are not entirely accurate, and the corrections or clarifications are to be found in brackets:
Sanctifying the environment
gail lichtman, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 16, 2006
If you think that the crowding, lack of greenery and garbage problems in Mea She'arim and the older haredi neighborhoods prove that haredim don't care about the environment, think again.
Shomera, an environmental group founded in Jerusalem's predominantly haredi neighborhood of Har Nof, is now one of the leaders in the fight to preserve the Jerusalem Forest and in promoting other environmental issues in the city. Ma'ayan Hahinuch, the Shas [Sephardi Haredi] school system, is developing an innovative school curriculum to teach environmental awareness in haredi schools. Beit Ya'acov, the Agudat Israel educational system for girls and women, has introduced continuing education courses on the environment for its teachers. And both Shomera and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) have responded to a growing interest in community gardens and clean-up campaigns in haredi neighborhoods around the city.
In part, this growing environmental awareness can be attributed to a trickle-down effect caused by the general increase in environmental awareness on the part of the overall Israeli public over the last 20 years It can also be attributed to the growing influence of Western haredim, mainly from English-speaking countries, who have brought higher levels of awareness and expectations of environmental cleanliness and aesthetics to Israel with them.
And the third factor is an emphasis on environmental issues spearheaded by Mayor Uri Lupolianski, the city's first haredi mayor and his haredi-led administration - an emphasis that has led to the availability of city funding for environmental projects in the haredi community.
Even though the haredi population in 2005 constituted only 11.7 percent of the overall population of Israel, the community comprises some 30% of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents.
In a groundbreaking study, "Haredi Community and Environmental Quality," published in 2003 by The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, authors Prof. Yosseph Shilhav of Bar-Ilan University's Geography Department, and environmental planner Moti Kaplan examined the haredi communities' attitudes towards the environment.
The study dispelled the stereotypical premise that there is a correlation between the religious character of certain Jerusalem neighborhoods and their levels of greenery, amount of open space and/or cleanliness. The only correlation, the authors found, is the socioeconomic one. "If we look at neighborhoods on the same socioeconomic level, we will see similar levels of greenery, open spaces and cleanliness," states Shilhav.
Those haredi neighborhoods whose population is of a low socioeconomic status have correspondingly low levels of greenery, lack of open spaces and problems of cleanliness corresponding to other low socioeconomic neighborhoods in the city.
Newer haredi neighborhoods, with higher socioeconomic populations, correspond to similar more upscale "secular" neighborhoods.
As for the less-than-clean appearance of city streets in some haredi neighborhoods, the report states that, "Experience shows that if the municipality cleans and renovates the streets… the residents continue to maintain cleanliness… The high population density and demographic structure of the haredi population generate large amounts of refuse, which must be removed frequently. If the municipality invests in cleaning and garbage disposal, the residents show their appreciation by assisting the effort."
"There is nothing particular about the haredi population that leads to neighborhood neglect," states Akiva Wolff, head of the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility's Environmental Response Unit at the Jerusalem College of Technology - Machon Lev, and one of the researchers for the Jerusalem Institute study.
"It is mostly a factor of poverty and densely populated neighborhoods with lots of kids."
That said; the study also found that there are certain features that distinguish the haredi attitude to the environment from that of the general public and these have contributed to a slower awakening to the issue.
Despite numerous Jewish sources relating to humans' relationship to the environment, Diaspora Jewish life showed a certain disregard towards the environment.
The fact that, in exile, the Jewish people lacked a territory was one reason for this disregard. The other was that after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish people turned inward to Torah study, which elevates the spiritual over the material. [Torah study was also emphasized before the destruction of the Second Temple.] In addition, the haredi community, which has its roots in a densely populated, Eastern European, urban environment, devoid of greenery, simply followed the same pattern of living in Israel. [There were some haredim, however, who came from villages in rural areas.]
As the environmental movement in Israel developed, the haredi community came to see it as liberal and left wing. Many environmental events take place on Shabbat, when haredim cannot participate. Secular environmentalists also tend to have what the report terms a naturocentric conception in which nature is viewed as an entity in its own right, with a dimension equal to that of mankind. The traditional Jewish approach, the report argues, is an anthropocentric approach, in which mankind is the be-all and end-all. Therefore, some religious Jews view the secular approach as a form of paganism, a kind of "worship of the land."
"Haredim do not treat the environment as a value per se or in a quasi-religious manner as environmentalists do," the report notes. "Their attitude is strictly instrumental." [The practical approach of Haredi environmental activists is influenced by Torah teachings and mitzvos regarding the environment. For example, the Torah teaches that the earth and its resources belong to the Creator, and that human beings are only the custodians. In this spirit, Haredi farmers do not work the land on the Sabbath and during the Sabbatical year.]
And it is exactly this practical attitude that speaks to the community.
Eight years ago, Tamar Gindis, an American immigrant living in Har Nof, co-founded the non-profit organization Shomera Lesviva Tova (Guardians for a Good Environment), in response to a specific threat to the neighborhood - the planned Route 16 road that would run through the Jerusalem Forest.
"I put an ad in the neighborhood newspaper asking for those concerned to contact me," she recalls. "That's how it all started."
She was joined by her neighbor, Moshe Kempinski, another English speaker, who was concerned about the building of an old-age home on the edge of the Jerusalem Forest that would destroy the local view and intrude on the forest.
They started to work on these two issues, which were later joined by others. "The fact that our quality of life was threatened allowed us to bridge unbridgeable gaps," Kempinski explains. "Suddenly, the environment came into the community's awareness. And this awareness gave birth to all kinds of projects."
"When I first started, I was made to feel that what I was doing was nice but not essential," Gindis says. "People would tell me that it was hitzoni [external] and not ruhani [spiritual], not the focus of their lives.
Slowly but surely the community began to wake up to environmental issues. Now, our community administration [minhal kehilati] even has a special position to deal with the environment."
Shomera also sponsors tours conducted by haredi tour leaders.
"I got interested in the environment because of the filth," explains Tehilla Cohen, a former student at the Beit Ya'acov Institute for Teachers and a tour guide. "This is our country and if we don't want to live in a jungle, we have to act. The environment is a one-way ticket. If we ruin it, there is no way back."
Four years ago, Cohen decided to direct her energies and teaching skills to conducting tours, mainly for families and school groups.
"When I give my tours, I include environmental issues such as ecological balance and keeping the environment clean. Sometimes I feel no one is listening. But more and more, there is awareness. I feel the seeds are being planted and something will come out of this in the future."
Shlomo Buskilha, a former teacher, has been conducting haredi tours for the past five years, many for Shomera. "Awareness of preserving the environment is very low in the haredi community. I have to explain even the simplest concepts. I am even asked why it is important that the forest not be paved over… This is really a shame. The haredi community could make the environment its flagship issue. This is a universal issue that would be good for us to promote, especially since we are often perceived as only being concerned with issues particular to our community."
Yael, a mother from Har Nof, regularly takes part in Shomera tours, often bringing seven of her children with her. "It is important to connect the children to Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and [these tours] do it in a way they really enjoy."
Today, Shomera is a leading player, along with the municipality, in environmental programs for the haredi community. These efforts include development and preservation of the Jerusalem Forest, nature tours, educational programs for schoolchildren, teacher training, adult gardening courses, community gardens, horticulture therapy, community clean-ups, workshops, lectures, support for publication of books and articles on Judaism and the environment and information campaigns on environmental issues such as water conservation, recycling, etc.
Shomera has even a proposed project for recycling mikve (ritual bath) waters to be used for watering the forest and public parks.
The organization has also moved beyond the haredi community into the general public and has a mixed staff ranging from haredim to secular, "so we can be more responsive to different communities," Gindis says.
In 2004, working with the municipality's haredi education department, Shomera helped implement an environmental gardening and beautification pilot project in 10 haredi schools, involving some 8,000 students.
"We worked on developing a curriculum accompanied by a practical project that would have ramifications not just on the school but also on the surrounding neighborhood and connect the school with the community and the local community administration," says Gershon Binet, acting director of the haredi education department.
Lekach - The Haredi Learning Center in Jerusalem, the haredi branch of the Jerusalem Association of Community Councils and Centers Ltd., designed a curriculum that draws on the Jewish sources and can be used in both boys' and girls' schools.
Binet also takes a practical approach, seeing environmental studies as a tool towards furthering studies. He uses the words cleanliness, aesthetics and beautification far more often than environment.
"We see aesthetics and cleanliness as religious mitzvot," Binet continues. "The talmid hacham [scholar] has to look neat and clean. More aesthetic surroundings contribute to better learning. So this is not just education for cleanliness but also for a better learning atmosphere."
Binet chose large schools in different socioeconomic neighborhoods. The program includes preparation of a booklet with the Jewish sources because "this is what speaks to our population," plus lesson plans for the teachers.
On the practical side, there are clean-ups, improving the appearance of school buildings, gardening and composting.
This year, the project was expanded to 35 haredi schools, with some 15,000 students.
In another project with the Beit Ya'acov Institute for Teachers, Shomera helped put together a program for teachers in Beit Ya'acov schools.
"Shomera came to us and suggested a program," says Chaya Kiel, director of continuing education at the Beit Ya'acov Institute. "We started last year with some 40 teachers and this year we anticipate 80 general teachers, and 15 students in our institute."
The program provides courses for teachers designed to strengthen their awareness of the environment and give them the tools to teach this subject in their schools. The individual schools decide whether to teach environmental studies as a stand-alone subject or integrated into another subject.
"There is no doubt that the program is having an impact," Kiel continues. "It is still too early to see the full effect but we are hearing from our teachers how they are introducing it into their schools and have already had clean-ups."
Last year, S., a high-school teacher in the Beit Ya'acov network, finished the course, which involved classes twice a week over a period of three months.
"The course taught me awareness of the environment," she says. "The material was presented in concentrated form, including facts and figures. Even though I had read about the issues before, I did not have the kind of knowledge I now have. This enabled me to introduce the subject into my lessons. I connect the material to the Jewish sources."
S. continues, "I also gained a greater awareness of the environment on a personal level, especially with respect to my use of disposable products. I would like to see greater awareness of green issues in my neighborhood. We need to keep the neighborhood cleaner - although I also think the city has to do more."
Two years ago, the Romema local community administration approached the SPNI to help establish a community garden. At first, the program was developed as a community activity for teenage girls. SPNI taught the girls how to plant and tend an ecological garden, growing herbs, vegetables and flowers.
Today, the project has been taken over by children and pensioners.
"The community is continuing with this project on its own," says Amanda Lind, SPNI Jerusalem branch project coordinator. "We see ourselves as catalysts - we teach, guide, lead and then turn over to the community to run on its own."
By far the most ambitious project, and one spurred by an NIS 100,000 grant from the municipality, is the development of a haredi curriculum on the environment by Ma'ayan Hahinuch's Pedagogic Center, which was implemented this year as a pilot project in 10 Jerusalem schools.
"There are two aspects to this curriculum," explains Gabriel Cohen, director of the Pedagogic Center. "One is the emphasis on practical aesthetics - personal neatness, clean schools and clean communities. And the other is environmental education in the broad sense of the word - ecology, recycling, air and water quality, noise, etc. - concepts that the haredi world doesn't really have.
"There was a definite need to develop a curriculum for the haredi schools," Cohen continues. "We see this curriculum not just for our schools in Jerusalem but for haredi schools throughout the country. Next year, we are looking to go national with the program."
The curriculum is instructional and interactive, integrating practical activities such a recycling, planting gardens and clean-ups with theoretical and Jewish source material.
The center also has developed special workbooks for both teachers and pupils.
Because of the different nature of studies for boys and girls in haredi schools, two different approaches were developed.
"We tie the environment in with Halacha [Torah law]," Cohen explains. "And because we are looking at the environment from a Jewish point of view, was have called our program Derech Ben Melech [the King's Highway]. Our symbol is a crown with the slogan - I cleaned, I made order, I sanctified Hashem [God]." Each pilot school has an ecological corner decorated with attractive placards, noting the various aspects of the program. Different classes are given responsibility for garbage collection, composting, gardening, etc. The center is also working on developing a slide program.
"I was surprised at how well our schools have received this curriculum," Cohen notes. "This is a completely new area for us. All that goes on in the larger secular society concerning the environment filters down to us. So this concept is falling upon fertile ground. And the fact that we link it to the Jewish sources enables our schools to connect to the topic."
"There is an awakening in the haredi community to this issue that started a number of years ago," explains Shilhav. "We could see this already in our 2003 study. The more haredim go out of their ghettos into new communities, the more interest there is in the environment. As the haredi community becomes more involved in politics and administration, it is exposed more to environmental issues."
"There has been a revolution in the community compared to only a few years ago. I am sure that the haredim will be occupying more space on the environmental hard drive in the future," concludes Wolff.
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7. Animal Rights Activist/JVNA Advisor Interviewed
Forwarded message from David Cantor, Director of Responsible Policies for Animals /Please cross-post freely.
Dear Responsible Policies for Animals Members & Friends,
An extensive animal rights interview has just been posted online that I hope will interest you: “The David Cantor and Responsible Policies for Animals Inc. Interview.”
You can access it by going to www.abolitionist-online.com and scrolling down the home page a little ways or by going directly to the interview here.
The Abolitionist Online, a much-needed new publication, shares Responsible Policies for Animals’ (RPA’s) objective of seeing animal activists rededicate themselves to the struggle to establish legal rights for all sentient beings – the goal of the animal rights movement.
Like RPA, The Abolitionist Online helps explain why no amount of activity that merely seeks to improve the animal welfare status quo can ever lead to animal rights and why saving more animals than are doomed under the human boot is only possible when the animals get their legal rights and are no longer property of humans.
The interview describes the RPA dream in more detail than anywhere else to date. Crucial is the mix needed in animal rights education: The basic un-refuted argument suffices ethically – nonhuman animals have moral rights that humans should respect because they are sentient (they experience their lives and can suffer), but their legal rights require fundamental change that will only occur when human beings realize how beneficial the results will be for humanity. People will live much better lives when animal exploitation and abuse end and our species adopts humane ways of life.
You might wish to glance at the interview to see if you’ll want to read it in its entirety. It is extensive! It took months to complete. I hope you will find it unique and original and will wish to share it with others. If you would like RPA to mail you a hard copy, just let me know. Of course, let’s discuss any aspect of the interview that might interest, intrigue, puzzle, or concern you.
And please explore the rest of The Abolitionist Online and tell friends about the zine. It provides important articles and interviews you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you for considering reading the Abolitionist Online interview, for your efforts for the animals and their ecosystems, and for supporting Responsible Policies for Animals. Don’t hesitate to do the impossible: It’s been done before, and it will be done again – if we do it together.
Best wishes,
David Cantor
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9. Bird Flu Update
Bird flu likely in US this year
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER - Tuesday, March 21, 2006
More testing as bird flu expected this year in U.S.
WASHINGTON -- Bird flu is likely to arrive this year in the United States, with the increased testing of tens of thousands of wild birds expected to reveal dozens of suspected cases, the Bush administration said Monday.
Officials will test 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds this year, or nearly six times the number screened since 1998, according to a government plan finalized Monday. The government also plans to quarantine and destroy any poultry flocks where the virus appears.
The wild bird testing could reveal 20 to 100 suspected cases of bird flu, although follow-up testing is likely to reveal "dozens" are false alarms, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said. The emphasis will be on Alaska and other spots along the Pacific flyway, a common route that migratory birds follow into the United States, possibly carrying the virus as they do. Tests will also be run on 50,000 water and bird-dropping samples from waterfowl habitats, the government said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt stressed that people are not yet at risk from the virus, which has ravaged wild and domestic birds alike in Asia, Africa and Europe.
"At this point, if you're a bird, it's a pandemic. If you're a human, it's not a pandemic," Leavitt said.
Norton said that while officials plan to announce any positive tests for bird flu, it will take another five to 10 days for the Agriculture Department's laboratory to confirm the results.
"This is a disease of birds and not humans, at this point. Finding a bird with the disease does not signal a pandemic," Norton said.
Human cases of bird flu have been rare, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form easily spread among people, sparking a worldwide epidemic.
Officials also worry the virus might spread from wild birds to the nearly 10 billion chickens raised each year in the United States. Authorities say cooking kills the virus and it is safe to eat properly handled and cooked poultry.
Commercial poultry companies already test every flock for bird flu. If the deadly virus shows up in a commercial bird, the entire flock would be quarantined and killed, and the area would be disinfected. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the government would compensate farmers for their destroyed flocks.
Unlike in many of the countries affected by bird flu, the United States has a highly consolidated, $29 billion poultry industry that raises the majority of its birds in controlled, indoor facilities. That minimizes contact between wild and domestic birds.
While the deadly strain of the virus has not yet been found in the United States, other strains have. Birds, like humans, have a flu season. Less virulent "low-pathogenic" flu viruses are common. But three times -- in 1924, 1983 and 2004 -- a lethal, "highly pathogenic" strain has emerged in the United States.
In a related development, a federal study says the bird flu virus is mutating into more variations with genetic characteristics that increase the risk of infection in humans.
Researchers are finding more human cases of the disease caused by a variant that had only been seen in birds before 2005, said Rebecca Garten, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who led the study. The research was presented Monday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta.
"As the virus continues its geographic expansion, it is also undergoing genetic diversity expansion," Garten said in an e-mailed statement before the conference. "Change is the only constant."
The virus, called H5N1, has spread from Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. At least 177 people have caught the flu, and 98 of them have died.
This report includes information from The Associated Press and Bloomberg.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Sign for Animal Rights 2006 today!
Visit us at www.ARconference.org
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10. Meatout 2006 Observance Breaks US and World Records
Forwarded message from FARM (Farm Animal reform Movement):
MEATOUT OBSERVANCE SETS NEW RECORDS IN U.S. & ABROAD!
A thousand communities in all 50 states and 28 other countries welcomed spring this week, with colorful educational events ranging from information tables, exhibits, and lectures to cooking demonstrations, receptions, and elaborate “lifestivals.” Visitors were asked to “kick the meat habit on March 20 (first day of spring) and to explore a nonviolent, wholesome diet of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.” The observance had widespread support from celebrity entertainers, health authorities, public officials, and the media.
International Meatout observances have been coordinated since 1985 by FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement), a nonprofit educational organization in the nation’s capital. This year’s observance was co-sponsored by In Defense of Animals and Vegetarian Times, with support from PETA. Community events are arranged by local consumer and animal protection groups.
Lifestivals, featuring live bands, speakers, food samples, exhibits, and literature, were held in San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Portland, Detroit, Boston, Knoxville, Atlanta, and San Juan. More than 10,000 were expected at the Seattle event. Nearly 300 staffers were treated to a vegan lunch and literature at the annual Congressional Meatout Reception in the nation’s capital.
Activists distributed samples of wholesome, nonviolent veggie burgers, soy dogs, and “chicken” nuggets in front of scores of KFC and other fast food outlets. At a Michigan KFC outlet, a “policeman” arrested a knife-wielding "Col. Sanders" for his role in crippling and torturing millions of chickens. Several Meatout walks called public attention to the Meatout message.
Forty U.S. universities arranged information tables, exhibits, lectures, and meat-free dining halls. These included Alabama, American, Arizona, Brigham Young, Colorado, Florida, George Washington, Georgetown, Georgia, Harvard, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence, Stanford, Syracuse, Utah, Utah State, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Elementary and high school teachers held special classes on the benefits of plant-based eating. Humane societies and animal sanctuaries throughout the U.S. offered Veg Starter Kits to visitors.
Hundreds of giant billboards and bus cards in ten major metropolitan areas, along with scores of letters to editor and media interviews, carried the Meatout message to millions.
Seventeen governors and mayors issued Meatout proclamations promoting consumption of vegetables, fruits, and grains. The All-Yours greeting card company designed a set of special Meatout greeting cards. Celebrity headliners included Casey Kasem, Joaquin Phoenix, James Cromwell, Mary Tyler-Moore, Ed Asner, Jennie Garth, and Bill Maher.
A record 28 other countries took part in this year’s Meatout observance. Canada, Croatia, England, Germany, and India held multiple events. Irish activists simulated a bird flu die-in. Spanish activists were displayed in a public square inside meat-like plastic trays. France and Germany built their own Meatout web sites. Other participating countries were Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Tanzania, Thailand, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.
FARM -10101 Ashburton Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817
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** Fair Use Notice **
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
[Note: For vegetarian Passover recipes, please visit: http://jewishveg.com/recipes#Passover]
1. Progress on Campaign to Celebrate Earth Day 2006 as an “Environmental Shabbat”/Please Help
2. Science Fiction: Will Global Warming Wipe Out Humanity?
3. New “Kosher and Humane” Web Site Blasts Factory Farming Practices as Contrary to Jewish Teachings
4. Article on Factory Farming Abuses/My Letter and a Response to it
5. Israeli Haredim (Fervently Orthodox Jews) Working Toward a Cleaner Environment
7. Animal Rights Activist/JVNA Advisor Interviewed
9. Bird Flu Update
10. Meatout 2006 Observance Breaks US and World Records
Some material has been deferred to a later 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 kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observance, 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.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. Progress on Campaign to Celebrate Earth Day 2006 as an “Environmental Shabbat”/Please Help
As indicated below, we are making great progress in our “Environmental Shabbat” campaign. But much more needs to be done to make this a truly groundbreaking initiative. Please help spread the word to as many groups and individuals as you can. Please ask local rabbis to observe Earth Day 2006 as an “Environmental Shabbat.” Ask your friends to also contact local rabbis and ask them to have an “Environmental Shabbat” on April 22. Volunteer to help organize such events. Inform rabbis and other Jewish leaders that valuable information can be found on COEJL’s web site (www.coejl.org) and the Earth Day Network’s web site (www.earthday.net).
Here are the positives so far re the campaign to celebrate Earth Day 2006 as an Environmental Shabbat”:
* The campaign has been endorsed by the following groups:
COEJL (The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life);
The TEVA (Environmental) Learning Center;
JVNA;
The Shalom Center;
The Heschel Environmental Center (Israel);
* COEJL is going to have a special section at its web site (www.coejl.org) devoted to the “Environmental Shabbat.”
* Earth Day Network is going to have a special section at its web site (www.earthday.net) devoted to the “Environmental Shabbat.”
* The Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center is working with COEJL to submit “Environmental Shabbat” – related material to over 900 reform Temples.
* My article below is going to be sent out by the Jewish telegraphic Agency (JTA) to its many Jewish weekly subscribers. Please look for this and other articles related to Earth Day 2006 and/or an “Environmental Shabbat” and please consider sending letters to the editor. If you see such articles in your local papers, please let us know s that we can respond and try to get others to respond.
Turning Earth Day 2006 Into an Environmental Shabbat
Richard H. Schwartz
This year, Earth Day (April 22, 2006) falls on a Saturday, providing a perfect opportunity to turn the day into an “Environmental Shabbat.”
Shabbat is a reminder of creation, as it is said, "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, God rested." (Genesis 2:1.2) When God created the world, he was able to say, "It is very good." (Genesis 1:31) Everything was in harmony as God had planned; the waters were clean, the air was pure. But what must God think about the world today? What must God think when the rain he sends to nourish our crops is often acid rain due to the many chemicals poured into the air by our industries? When the abundance of species of plants and animals that God created are becoming extinct in tropical rain forests and other threatened habitats? When the fertile soil that God provided is rapidly being depleted and eroded? When the climatic conditions that God designed to meet our needs are threatened by global warming?
Earth Day also falls almost immediately after Passover this year, and today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues, which are considered at the Passover seder:
* When we consider the threats to our land, waters, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants, resource scarcities, threats
to our climate, etc., we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues".
*The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us all at once.
* The Israelites in Goshen were spared most of the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues.
* Instead of an ancient Pharaoh's heart being hardened, our hearts today have been hardened by the greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root of current environmental threats.
*God provided the Biblical plagues to free the Israelites, while today we must apply God's teachings in order to save ourselves and our precious but imperiled planet.
The first Earth Day was in 1970, so this year’s event will be the 36th anniversary of Earth Day. The number 36 has special significance in Judaism, as it represents the number of tzaddikim, the lamed-vavniks who uphold the world. It also represents twice CHAI. CHAI (life) is composed of the Hebrew letters chet and yud, whose numerical values are 8 and 10, thus adding up to 18. Hence, we can relate Earth Day this year to improving two lives, that of our endangered planet and that of Judaism.
Our planet is arguably threatened as never before. Just to take one problem, global warming, we have recently experienced record heat waves, increasing numbers and severity of hurricanes and other storms, rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, major floods, and severe droughts. This has all occurred due to a one degree Fahrenheit average increase in the global temperature. This is very frightening since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group composed of the world’s leading climate scientists has projected an average global temperature increase of 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, and that would have catastrophic effects in many areas worldwide.
An ancient midrash (rabbinic teaching) has become all too relevant today:
“In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, God showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him:
‘See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.’ "
(Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)
Environmental problems today are due to the fact that the ways of the world are completely contrary to Jewish values:
*Judaism teaches that the earth is the Lord's and that we are to be partners and co-workers with God in protecting the environment. But today's philosophy is that the earth is to be exploited for maximum profit, regardless of the long-range ecological consequences.
*Judaism stresses bal tashchit, that we are not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value. By contrast, wastefulness in the United States is so great that, with about 4% of the world's people we use about a third of the world's resources, and this has a major impact on pollution and resource scarcities.
* Judaism asserts that a wise person considers the long-range consequences of his/her actions and that we must plan for future generations; but the way of the world today is often to consider only immediate gains.
It is urgent that Torah values be applied toward the solution of current environmental problems. This means, for example: an energy policy based not on dangerous energy sources, but on CARE (conservation and renewable energy), consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving the environment, conserving resources, creating jobs, protecting human lives, and considering future generations.
The book of Jonah, which is read as the prophetic portion during the afternoon service of Yom Kippur, has a powerful lesson with regard to current ecothreats. Jonah was sent by God to Nineveh to urge the people to repent and change their unjust ways in order to avoid destruction. Today, in a sense, the whole world is Nineveh, in danger of annihilation and in need of repentance and redemption, and each one of us must be a Jonah, with a mission to warn the world that it must turn from waste, materialism, greed, and injustice, in order to shift the world from its present perilous path.
Hence, making Earth Day 2006 an Environmental Shabbat, with sermons, classes, environmentally-conscious meals and other environmentally-related activities can be an important step toward moving our imperiled planet to a sustainable path and revitalizing Judaism.
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2. Science Fiction: Will Global Warming Wipe Out Humanity?
[JVNA does not generally have science fiction articles, but the one below by JVNA advisor John Diamond reflects many previous items in JVNA newsletters. It can be a valuable wake-up call. Responses welcome, as always. Thanks. And thanks to John for his valuable work on this.]
Global Warming Induced Human Extinction, An Avoidable Catastrophe
by John K. Diamond
Rosh Hashanah, 5850 (2090): The last human being alive on earth starves to death.
During the first decade of this century, conclusive scientific data from NASA Atmospheric Research proved that global warming is primarily caused by greenhouse gases (primarily methane) being emitted directly and indirectly by the over 50 billion animals raised annually worldwide for human consumption of beef, poultry, dairy and eggs.
The Summer 2005 Issue of “Earth Save Magazine” had a report by Noam Mohr, coordinator for the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), entitled "A New Global Warming Strategy: How Environmentalists are Overlooking Vegetarianism as the Most Effective Tool Against Climate Change in our Lifetimes."
Based on the NASA Atmospheric data, other reputable sources and Noam Mohr’s report, some of the world’s leading climate scientists and vegetarian/environmental organizations combined to issue a warning to humanity that unless consumption of animal based foods is severely reduced or eliminated in the current generation, the human species would be threatened by extinction by the end of the century or sooner.
In 2006, Dr. Richard Schwartz, President of the JVNA, with the cooperation of several environmental groups and the leaders of the annual "Earth Day," held on Saturday, April 22nd, actively promoted the idea of religious communities celebrating that “Earth Day” weekend as an "Environmental Sabbath." Many copies of Noam Mohr’s report were distributed during that weekend, which also marked the beginning of a concentrated campaign to make people aware of the importance of eliminating animal foods for human consumption within the current generation in order to prevent the predicted impending catastrophe.
From that time, the group urged Christian, Jewish, Islamic and other religious groups to strongly recommend that their members eliminate animal products from their diets and take additional steps to respond to global warming and other environmental threats. This met with great success in many cases, as people became increasingly aware of the severe threats that humanity was facing. However, the momentum of population growth, the continued demand for more and more consumer goods in the United States and newly developing countries, and the increasing demand for animal products in China, Japan, and other countries where affluence was increasing proved too great to overcome.
By 2030, the global warming "tipping point" had been reached. Global temperatures began increasing at an accelerating and uncontrollable rate, although at that point, much of the world’s energy was coming from renewable non-polluting sources and hydrogen-fueled transportation had been almost universally adopted.
By 2050, half of the ice at both of the Earth’s poles had melted, raising sea levels 10 feet, and caused some coastal cities to become uninhabitable. Many of the world’s primary aquifers became dry after many decades of being overused to grow crops for farmed animal consumption. Severe fresh water shortages became worse as the rising seawater ruined water supplies in coastal areas. Mini-wars began to break out in many parts of the world over fresh water supplies.
By 2075, almost all of the ice at both of the Earth’s poles had melted, and sea levels had risen an additional 13 feet. All of the coastal cities became uninhabitable, and severe food shortages were occurring worldwide due to lack of clean water and the desertification of almost all of the world’s previous agriculturally productive land. One billion people each year around the world were starving to death with little hope in sight. To avoid starvation and flooding, people began a mass migration toward the Earth’s Polar Regions, where there was still some fresh water and agriculturally productive land.
By 2080, all of the remaining human population was concentrated in both polar areas and for the next five years, they were able to exist on a vegan diet that their ancestors in the first decades of the century rejected. Many still died from starvation, as the limited area they were living on could not sustain everyone.
But the uncontrolled global warming started to take its final toll. Rising temperatures over the next five years made the Polar Regions too hot to raise any food.
On Rosh Hashanah, 5850 (2090) the last human being alive on earth starves to death.
Simultaneously, on a planet in a distant galaxy, a newly-created Adam and Eve in their Garden of Eden are commanded by Hashem:
"Behold, I have given to you all herbage yielding seed that is upon the surface of the entire earth, and every tree, that has seed-yielding fruit; it shall be yours for food."
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3. New “Kosher and Humane” Web Site Blasts Factory Farming Practices as Contrary to Jewish Teachings
JVNA is thinking of exchanging links with the new blog. Please take a look at it and let us know what you think. Thanks.
Forwarded message from info@kosherandhumane.com:
Hi. We've launched a new website/blog, KosherAndHumane.com, to discuss issues of tzaar baalei hayyim and our kosher food chain:
http://www.kosherandhumane.com
We very much want your input, and would also appreciate a link to our site and any shout outs you can give us. We'll be glad to link to your site as well.
Thank you for your help.
Kol Tuv,
The Team at KosherAndHumane.com
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Below is some background material from the new website/blog:
New JBlog: Kosher And Humane
KosherAndHumane.com is a new website/blog exploring the issues of "tzaar baalei hayyim and our kosher food chain." Here's a sample of the writing:
Does Jewish law – which commands owners to feed their animals before eating, and mandates humane treatment of animals – support what appears to be barbaric cruelty? If it does not, why are we eating these products, and why are rabbis endorsing them? … Does human desire (note: I wrote "desire," not "need") automatically trump tzaar baalei hayyim law? …
Should we care about animal welfare? Or is the comfort of our stomachs more important than the laws of our Torah?
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4. Article on Factory Farming Abuses/My Letter and a Response to it
American consumers abuse animals
By Matthew Brophy
March 22, 2006
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/03/21/67619
One day animal cruelty shall be held in the same regard as slavery in our nation's past.
John Doe, a local Minnesotan homeowner, was arrested Friday for the torture of animals. Inside his home, investigators found cats dangling upside down, some of them dead, some still painfully writhing with life. Dogs were jammed inside cages so tight that turning around or even lying down was impossible.
Interrogators learned that Doe conducted inhumane practices: castrating cats without anesthesia, searing the beaks off of canaries before locking them in overcrowded cages and imprisoning dogs in dark, crowded pens.
Psychologists would characterize Doe as a sociopath, capable of extreme cruelty and callous to animal suffering.
Truth be told, there is no actual one John Doe; there are many. The above abusive practices are commonplace in factory farms, which slaughter animals for meat on a massive scale. Instead of cats, dogs and canaries, the practice involves cows, pigs and chickens: animals of equal if not superior intellect and sentience.
We are supporting these legal yet unethical practices. If you go to McDonald's, Burger King, KFC or any other fast-food restaurant, you are eating meat that comes from factory farms. The vast majority of our meat comes from these industrial factories.
If you eat meat, you're asking meat suppliers to torture animals on your behalf. They're not torturing animals just for fun - they're doing it for the dollar in your outstretched hand. Who's more at fault, those who torture animals to make a buck or those who torture animals to save a buck?
As consumers, it's easy to deny moral responsibility. We feel we can spend our money however we choose. We can buy a burger with moral impunity; after all, we're not the ones torturing animals. We can buy cheap clothing from Wal-Mart; after all, we're not the ones enslaving children in sweatshops. We are innocent consumers; we are not the torturers, and we are not the slave masters.
We can rationalize all we want. In fact, human beings are ingenious when it comes to deflecting blame. In a famous psychology experiment, Stanley Milgram revealed that a significant majority of human beings will torture other human beings if an authority figure is present applying verbal pressure and assuming moral responsibility.
Consumer society is the authority that absolves us of all moral responsibility: Meat-eating is the norm. In fact, if you don't eat meat, you're un-American, a sissy, a hippie, a commie.
The societal pressure to eat meat overwhelms us. How easy it is to forget about the animals in industrial factories enduring torture in order to feed our hungry mouths. Our trivial lust for meat does not justify our inflicting severe suffering of animals. At the very least, we are complicit; it is for us [that] meat suppliers torture animals.
One day in the not-too-distant future, the animal cruelty of the meat industry shall be held in the same regard as slavery in our American past. Future generations will look back upon our present society's endorsement of animal torture as dark times of mass immorality. Perhaps it will be our great-grandchildren who will look at us with shocked expressions, wondering how we could have been a part of the widespread torture of animals.
The animal liberation movement is not extreme, just as the anti-slavery movement was not extreme. It is part of our moral ascension as beings with an ethical conscience. Ignorance toward animal cruelty is not an excuse. And callousness is not a justification.
The founder of the modern-day animal liberation movement, Peter Singer, will be speaking on our campus about our ethical responsibility toward animals. Singer is widely heralded as a philosopher, writer and activist. Time Magazine deemed him one of the top 100 most influential people on the planet.
Matthew Brophy is a University student. Please send comments to letters@mndaily.com.
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My letter:
March 22, 2006
Editor, Minnesota Daily
letters@mndaily.com
Dear Editor,
As president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), I want to strongly commend Matthew Brophy for his excellent article, "American consumers abuse animals," in which he discussed the many abuses of billions of animals on "factory farms." What makes the situation even more scandalous is that these animals are mistreated to produce foods that are causing an epidemic of heart disease, cancer, and other degenerative diseases, and whose production significantly contributes to global warming, rapid loss of biological diversity, widening water shortages, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other important ecosystems, and other environmental threats. In addition, seventy percent of the grain produced in the United States and over a third of the grain produced worldwide is fed to animals destined for slaughter while an estimated 20 million people die annually worldwide due to hunger and its effects.
So, for a more humane, healthy, just, non-violent, and environmentally sustainable world, it is essential that there be a major shift towards plant-based diets.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
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Hey Richard,
Thanks so much for writing in to the MN Daily promoting plant-based
diets! As you may already know, the letter got published and will
hopefully raise awareness among the thousands of young readers of the
paper. You can view it at
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/03/23/67645. Thanks and stay in touch!
-Gil Schwartz
Gilbert Schwartz
Campaign Coordinator, Compassionate Action for Animals
300 Washington Ave SE, Rm. 126
Minneapolis, MN 55455
www.ExploreVeg.org
gil@ca4a.org
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5. Israeli Haredim (Fervently Orthodox Jews) Working Toward a Cleaner Environment
Forwarded article by Yosef Hakohen, preceded by his introductory comments:
Introduction: The following is an article from the Jerusalem Post about the Haredi (fervently Orthodox) community in Israel and the environment. The Haredi community includes Chassidim, members of the Lithuanian yeshiva world, Sephardim and Yemenite Jews. Some of the Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem which are mentioned in the article are actually very old neighborhoods which were built by Haredi Jews before the rise of the modern Zionist movement.
The attached article attempts to present a fair and balanced perspective on the relationship of the Haredi community to the environment, and for the most part, it succeeds in this attempt; however, it failed to mention Haredi Torah scholars - such as Rabbi Aryeh Carmell and Rabbi Yehudah Levi - who have written extensively on Torah and environmental issues. It also failed to mention that "Betar" - a Haredi city south of Jerusalem - has won awards from the Israeli government for urban planning which is sensitive to the environment. In addition, the article contains a couple of comments which are not entirely accurate, and the corrections or clarifications are to be found in brackets:
Sanctifying the environment
gail lichtman, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 16, 2006
If you think that the crowding, lack of greenery and garbage problems in Mea She'arim and the older haredi neighborhoods prove that haredim don't care about the environment, think again.
Shomera, an environmental group founded in Jerusalem's predominantly haredi neighborhood of Har Nof, is now one of the leaders in the fight to preserve the Jerusalem Forest and in promoting other environmental issues in the city. Ma'ayan Hahinuch, the Shas [Sephardi Haredi] school system, is developing an innovative school curriculum to teach environmental awareness in haredi schools. Beit Ya'acov, the Agudat Israel educational system for girls and women, has introduced continuing education courses on the environment for its teachers. And both Shomera and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) have responded to a growing interest in community gardens and clean-up campaigns in haredi neighborhoods around the city.
In part, this growing environmental awareness can be attributed to a trickle-down effect caused by the general increase in environmental awareness on the part of the overall Israeli public over the last 20 years It can also be attributed to the growing influence of Western haredim, mainly from English-speaking countries, who have brought higher levels of awareness and expectations of environmental cleanliness and aesthetics to Israel with them.
And the third factor is an emphasis on environmental issues spearheaded by Mayor Uri Lupolianski, the city's first haredi mayor and his haredi-led administration - an emphasis that has led to the availability of city funding for environmental projects in the haredi community.
Even though the haredi population in 2005 constituted only 11.7 percent of the overall population of Israel, the community comprises some 30% of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents.
In a groundbreaking study, "Haredi Community and Environmental Quality," published in 2003 by The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, authors Prof. Yosseph Shilhav of Bar-Ilan University's Geography Department, and environmental planner Moti Kaplan examined the haredi communities' attitudes towards the environment.
The study dispelled the stereotypical premise that there is a correlation between the religious character of certain Jerusalem neighborhoods and their levels of greenery, amount of open space and/or cleanliness. The only correlation, the authors found, is the socioeconomic one. "If we look at neighborhoods on the same socioeconomic level, we will see similar levels of greenery, open spaces and cleanliness," states Shilhav.
Those haredi neighborhoods whose population is of a low socioeconomic status have correspondingly low levels of greenery, lack of open spaces and problems of cleanliness corresponding to other low socioeconomic neighborhoods in the city.
Newer haredi neighborhoods, with higher socioeconomic populations, correspond to similar more upscale "secular" neighborhoods.
As for the less-than-clean appearance of city streets in some haredi neighborhoods, the report states that, "Experience shows that if the municipality cleans and renovates the streets… the residents continue to maintain cleanliness… The high population density and demographic structure of the haredi population generate large amounts of refuse, which must be removed frequently. If the municipality invests in cleaning and garbage disposal, the residents show their appreciation by assisting the effort."
"There is nothing particular about the haredi population that leads to neighborhood neglect," states Akiva Wolff, head of the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility's Environmental Response Unit at the Jerusalem College of Technology - Machon Lev, and one of the researchers for the Jerusalem Institute study.
"It is mostly a factor of poverty and densely populated neighborhoods with lots of kids."
That said; the study also found that there are certain features that distinguish the haredi attitude to the environment from that of the general public and these have contributed to a slower awakening to the issue.
Despite numerous Jewish sources relating to humans' relationship to the environment, Diaspora Jewish life showed a certain disregard towards the environment.
The fact that, in exile, the Jewish people lacked a territory was one reason for this disregard. The other was that after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish people turned inward to Torah study, which elevates the spiritual over the material. [Torah study was also emphasized before the destruction of the Second Temple.] In addition, the haredi community, which has its roots in a densely populated, Eastern European, urban environment, devoid of greenery, simply followed the same pattern of living in Israel. [There were some haredim, however, who came from villages in rural areas.]
As the environmental movement in Israel developed, the haredi community came to see it as liberal and left wing. Many environmental events take place on Shabbat, when haredim cannot participate. Secular environmentalists also tend to have what the report terms a naturocentric conception in which nature is viewed as an entity in its own right, with a dimension equal to that of mankind. The traditional Jewish approach, the report argues, is an anthropocentric approach, in which mankind is the be-all and end-all. Therefore, some religious Jews view the secular approach as a form of paganism, a kind of "worship of the land."
"Haredim do not treat the environment as a value per se or in a quasi-religious manner as environmentalists do," the report notes. "Their attitude is strictly instrumental." [The practical approach of Haredi environmental activists is influenced by Torah teachings and mitzvos regarding the environment. For example, the Torah teaches that the earth and its resources belong to the Creator, and that human beings are only the custodians. In this spirit, Haredi farmers do not work the land on the Sabbath and during the Sabbatical year.]
And it is exactly this practical attitude that speaks to the community.
Eight years ago, Tamar Gindis, an American immigrant living in Har Nof, co-founded the non-profit organization Shomera Lesviva Tova (Guardians for a Good Environment), in response to a specific threat to the neighborhood - the planned Route 16 road that would run through the Jerusalem Forest.
"I put an ad in the neighborhood newspaper asking for those concerned to contact me," she recalls. "That's how it all started."
She was joined by her neighbor, Moshe Kempinski, another English speaker, who was concerned about the building of an old-age home on the edge of the Jerusalem Forest that would destroy the local view and intrude on the forest.
They started to work on these two issues, which were later joined by others. "The fact that our quality of life was threatened allowed us to bridge unbridgeable gaps," Kempinski explains. "Suddenly, the environment came into the community's awareness. And this awareness gave birth to all kinds of projects."
"When I first started, I was made to feel that what I was doing was nice but not essential," Gindis says. "People would tell me that it was hitzoni [external] and not ruhani [spiritual], not the focus of their lives.
Slowly but surely the community began to wake up to environmental issues. Now, our community administration [minhal kehilati] even has a special position to deal with the environment."
Shomera also sponsors tours conducted by haredi tour leaders.
"I got interested in the environment because of the filth," explains Tehilla Cohen, a former student at the Beit Ya'acov Institute for Teachers and a tour guide. "This is our country and if we don't want to live in a jungle, we have to act. The environment is a one-way ticket. If we ruin it, there is no way back."
Four years ago, Cohen decided to direct her energies and teaching skills to conducting tours, mainly for families and school groups.
"When I give my tours, I include environmental issues such as ecological balance and keeping the environment clean. Sometimes I feel no one is listening. But more and more, there is awareness. I feel the seeds are being planted and something will come out of this in the future."
Shlomo Buskilha, a former teacher, has been conducting haredi tours for the past five years, many for Shomera. "Awareness of preserving the environment is very low in the haredi community. I have to explain even the simplest concepts. I am even asked why it is important that the forest not be paved over… This is really a shame. The haredi community could make the environment its flagship issue. This is a universal issue that would be good for us to promote, especially since we are often perceived as only being concerned with issues particular to our community."
Yael, a mother from Har Nof, regularly takes part in Shomera tours, often bringing seven of her children with her. "It is important to connect the children to Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] and [these tours] do it in a way they really enjoy."
Today, Shomera is a leading player, along with the municipality, in environmental programs for the haredi community. These efforts include development and preservation of the Jerusalem Forest, nature tours, educational programs for schoolchildren, teacher training, adult gardening courses, community gardens, horticulture therapy, community clean-ups, workshops, lectures, support for publication of books and articles on Judaism and the environment and information campaigns on environmental issues such as water conservation, recycling, etc.
Shomera has even a proposed project for recycling mikve (ritual bath) waters to be used for watering the forest and public parks.
The organization has also moved beyond the haredi community into the general public and has a mixed staff ranging from haredim to secular, "so we can be more responsive to different communities," Gindis says.
In 2004, working with the municipality's haredi education department, Shomera helped implement an environmental gardening and beautification pilot project in 10 haredi schools, involving some 8,000 students.
"We worked on developing a curriculum accompanied by a practical project that would have ramifications not just on the school but also on the surrounding neighborhood and connect the school with the community and the local community administration," says Gershon Binet, acting director of the haredi education department.
Lekach - The Haredi Learning Center in Jerusalem, the haredi branch of the Jerusalem Association of Community Councils and Centers Ltd., designed a curriculum that draws on the Jewish sources and can be used in both boys' and girls' schools.
Binet also takes a practical approach, seeing environmental studies as a tool towards furthering studies. He uses the words cleanliness, aesthetics and beautification far more often than environment.
"We see aesthetics and cleanliness as religious mitzvot," Binet continues. "The talmid hacham [scholar] has to look neat and clean. More aesthetic surroundings contribute to better learning. So this is not just education for cleanliness but also for a better learning atmosphere."
Binet chose large schools in different socioeconomic neighborhoods. The program includes preparation of a booklet with the Jewish sources because "this is what speaks to our population," plus lesson plans for the teachers.
On the practical side, there are clean-ups, improving the appearance of school buildings, gardening and composting.
This year, the project was expanded to 35 haredi schools, with some 15,000 students.
In another project with the Beit Ya'acov Institute for Teachers, Shomera helped put together a program for teachers in Beit Ya'acov schools.
"Shomera came to us and suggested a program," says Chaya Kiel, director of continuing education at the Beit Ya'acov Institute. "We started last year with some 40 teachers and this year we anticipate 80 general teachers, and 15 students in our institute."
The program provides courses for teachers designed to strengthen their awareness of the environment and give them the tools to teach this subject in their schools. The individual schools decide whether to teach environmental studies as a stand-alone subject or integrated into another subject.
"There is no doubt that the program is having an impact," Kiel continues. "It is still too early to see the full effect but we are hearing from our teachers how they are introducing it into their schools and have already had clean-ups."
Last year, S., a high-school teacher in the Beit Ya'acov network, finished the course, which involved classes twice a week over a period of three months.
"The course taught me awareness of the environment," she says. "The material was presented in concentrated form, including facts and figures. Even though I had read about the issues before, I did not have the kind of knowledge I now have. This enabled me to introduce the subject into my lessons. I connect the material to the Jewish sources."
S. continues, "I also gained a greater awareness of the environment on a personal level, especially with respect to my use of disposable products. I would like to see greater awareness of green issues in my neighborhood. We need to keep the neighborhood cleaner - although I also think the city has to do more."
Two years ago, the Romema local community administration approached the SPNI to help establish a community garden. At first, the program was developed as a community activity for teenage girls. SPNI taught the girls how to plant and tend an ecological garden, growing herbs, vegetables and flowers.
Today, the project has been taken over by children and pensioners.
"The community is continuing with this project on its own," says Amanda Lind, SPNI Jerusalem branch project coordinator. "We see ourselves as catalysts - we teach, guide, lead and then turn over to the community to run on its own."
By far the most ambitious project, and one spurred by an NIS 100,000 grant from the municipality, is the development of a haredi curriculum on the environment by Ma'ayan Hahinuch's Pedagogic Center, which was implemented this year as a pilot project in 10 Jerusalem schools.
"There are two aspects to this curriculum," explains Gabriel Cohen, director of the Pedagogic Center. "One is the emphasis on practical aesthetics - personal neatness, clean schools and clean communities. And the other is environmental education in the broad sense of the word - ecology, recycling, air and water quality, noise, etc. - concepts that the haredi world doesn't really have.
"There was a definite need to develop a curriculum for the haredi schools," Cohen continues. "We see this curriculum not just for our schools in Jerusalem but for haredi schools throughout the country. Next year, we are looking to go national with the program."
The curriculum is instructional and interactive, integrating practical activities such a recycling, planting gardens and clean-ups with theoretical and Jewish source material.
The center also has developed special workbooks for both teachers and pupils.
Because of the different nature of studies for boys and girls in haredi schools, two different approaches were developed.
"We tie the environment in with Halacha [Torah law]," Cohen explains. "And because we are looking at the environment from a Jewish point of view, was have called our program Derech Ben Melech [the King's Highway]. Our symbol is a crown with the slogan - I cleaned, I made order, I sanctified Hashem [God]." Each pilot school has an ecological corner decorated with attractive placards, noting the various aspects of the program. Different classes are given responsibility for garbage collection, composting, gardening, etc. The center is also working on developing a slide program.
"I was surprised at how well our schools have received this curriculum," Cohen notes. "This is a completely new area for us. All that goes on in the larger secular society concerning the environment filters down to us. So this concept is falling upon fertile ground. And the fact that we link it to the Jewish sources enables our schools to connect to the topic."
"There is an awakening in the haredi community to this issue that started a number of years ago," explains Shilhav. "We could see this already in our 2003 study. The more haredim go out of their ghettos into new communities, the more interest there is in the environment. As the haredi community becomes more involved in politics and administration, it is exposed more to environmental issues."
"There has been a revolution in the community compared to only a few years ago. I am sure that the haredim will be occupying more space on the environmental hard drive in the future," concludes Wolff.
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7. Animal Rights Activist/JVNA Advisor Interviewed
Forwarded message from David Cantor, Director of Responsible Policies for Animals /Please cross-post freely.
Dear Responsible Policies for Animals Members & Friends,
An extensive animal rights interview has just been posted online that I hope will interest you: “The David Cantor and Responsible Policies for Animals Inc. Interview.”
You can access it by going to www.abolitionist-online.com and scrolling down the home page a little ways or by going directly to the interview here.
The Abolitionist Online, a much-needed new publication, shares Responsible Policies for Animals’ (RPA’s) objective of seeing animal activists rededicate themselves to the struggle to establish legal rights for all sentient beings – the goal of the animal rights movement.
Like RPA, The Abolitionist Online helps explain why no amount of activity that merely seeks to improve the animal welfare status quo can ever lead to animal rights and why saving more animals than are doomed under the human boot is only possible when the animals get their legal rights and are no longer property of humans.
The interview describes the RPA dream in more detail than anywhere else to date. Crucial is the mix needed in animal rights education: The basic un-refuted argument suffices ethically – nonhuman animals have moral rights that humans should respect because they are sentient (they experience their lives and can suffer), but their legal rights require fundamental change that will only occur when human beings realize how beneficial the results will be for humanity. People will live much better lives when animal exploitation and abuse end and our species adopts humane ways of life.
You might wish to glance at the interview to see if you’ll want to read it in its entirety. It is extensive! It took months to complete. I hope you will find it unique and original and will wish to share it with others. If you would like RPA to mail you a hard copy, just let me know. Of course, let’s discuss any aspect of the interview that might interest, intrigue, puzzle, or concern you.
And please explore the rest of The Abolitionist Online and tell friends about the zine. It provides important articles and interviews you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you for considering reading the Abolitionist Online interview, for your efforts for the animals and their ecosystems, and for supporting Responsible Policies for Animals. Don’t hesitate to do the impossible: It’s been done before, and it will be done again – if we do it together.
Best wishes,
David Cantor
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9. Bird Flu Update
Bird flu likely in US this year
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER - Tuesday, March 21, 2006
More testing as bird flu expected this year in U.S.
WASHINGTON -- Bird flu is likely to arrive this year in the United States, with the increased testing of tens of thousands of wild birds expected to reveal dozens of suspected cases, the Bush administration said Monday.
Officials will test 75,000 to 100,000 wild birds this year, or nearly six times the number screened since 1998, according to a government plan finalized Monday. The government also plans to quarantine and destroy any poultry flocks where the virus appears.
The wild bird testing could reveal 20 to 100 suspected cases of bird flu, although follow-up testing is likely to reveal "dozens" are false alarms, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said. The emphasis will be on Alaska and other spots along the Pacific flyway, a common route that migratory birds follow into the United States, possibly carrying the virus as they do. Tests will also be run on 50,000 water and bird-dropping samples from waterfowl habitats, the government said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt stressed that people are not yet at risk from the virus, which has ravaged wild and domestic birds alike in Asia, Africa and Europe.
"At this point, if you're a bird, it's a pandemic. If you're a human, it's not a pandemic," Leavitt said.
Norton said that while officials plan to announce any positive tests for bird flu, it will take another five to 10 days for the Agriculture Department's laboratory to confirm the results.
"This is a disease of birds and not humans, at this point. Finding a bird with the disease does not signal a pandemic," Norton said.
Human cases of bird flu have been rare, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form easily spread among people, sparking a worldwide epidemic.
Officials also worry the virus might spread from wild birds to the nearly 10 billion chickens raised each year in the United States. Authorities say cooking kills the virus and it is safe to eat properly handled and cooked poultry.
Commercial poultry companies already test every flock for bird flu. If the deadly virus shows up in a commercial bird, the entire flock would be quarantined and killed, and the area would be disinfected. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the government would compensate farmers for their destroyed flocks.
Unlike in many of the countries affected by bird flu, the United States has a highly consolidated, $29 billion poultry industry that raises the majority of its birds in controlled, indoor facilities. That minimizes contact between wild and domestic birds.
While the deadly strain of the virus has not yet been found in the United States, other strains have. Birds, like humans, have a flu season. Less virulent "low-pathogenic" flu viruses are common. But three times -- in 1924, 1983 and 2004 -- a lethal, "highly pathogenic" strain has emerged in the United States.
In a related development, a federal study says the bird flu virus is mutating into more variations with genetic characteristics that increase the risk of infection in humans.
Researchers are finding more human cases of the disease caused by a variant that had only been seen in birds before 2005, said Rebecca Garten, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who led the study. The research was presented Monday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta.
"As the virus continues its geographic expansion, it is also undergoing genetic diversity expansion," Garten said in an e-mailed statement before the conference. "Change is the only constant."
The virus, called H5N1, has spread from Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. At least 177 people have caught the flu, and 98 of them have died.
This report includes information from The Associated Press and Bloomberg.
© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
---------------------------------
Sign for Animal Rights 2006 today!
Visit us at www.ARconference.org
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10. Meatout 2006 Observance Breaks US and World Records
Forwarded message from FARM (Farm Animal reform Movement):
MEATOUT OBSERVANCE SETS NEW RECORDS IN U.S. & ABROAD!
A thousand communities in all 50 states and 28 other countries welcomed spring this week, with colorful educational events ranging from information tables, exhibits, and lectures to cooking demonstrations, receptions, and elaborate “lifestivals.” Visitors were asked to “kick the meat habit on March 20 (first day of spring) and to explore a nonviolent, wholesome diet of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.” The observance had widespread support from celebrity entertainers, health authorities, public officials, and the media.
International Meatout observances have been coordinated since 1985 by FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement), a nonprofit educational organization in the nation’s capital. This year’s observance was co-sponsored by In Defense of Animals and Vegetarian Times, with support from PETA. Community events are arranged by local consumer and animal protection groups.
Lifestivals, featuring live bands, speakers, food samples, exhibits, and literature, were held in San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, Portland, Detroit, Boston, Knoxville, Atlanta, and San Juan. More than 10,000 were expected at the Seattle event. Nearly 300 staffers were treated to a vegan lunch and literature at the annual Congressional Meatout Reception in the nation’s capital.
Activists distributed samples of wholesome, nonviolent veggie burgers, soy dogs, and “chicken” nuggets in front of scores of KFC and other fast food outlets. At a Michigan KFC outlet, a “policeman” arrested a knife-wielding "Col. Sanders" for his role in crippling and torturing millions of chickens. Several Meatout walks called public attention to the Meatout message.
Forty U.S. universities arranged information tables, exhibits, lectures, and meat-free dining halls. These included Alabama, American, Arizona, Brigham Young, Colorado, Florida, George Washington, Georgetown, Georgia, Harvard, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence, Stanford, Syracuse, Utah, Utah State, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Elementary and high school teachers held special classes on the benefits of plant-based eating. Humane societies and animal sanctuaries throughout the U.S. offered Veg Starter Kits to visitors.
Hundreds of giant billboards and bus cards in ten major metropolitan areas, along with scores of letters to editor and media interviews, carried the Meatout message to millions.
Seventeen governors and mayors issued Meatout proclamations promoting consumption of vegetables, fruits, and grains. The All-Yours greeting card company designed a set of special Meatout greeting cards. Celebrity headliners included Casey Kasem, Joaquin Phoenix, James Cromwell, Mary Tyler-Moore, Ed Asner, Jennie Garth, and Bill Maher.
A record 28 other countries took part in this year’s Meatout observance. Canada, Croatia, England, Germany, and India held multiple events. Irish activists simulated a bird flu die-in. Spanish activists were displayed in a public square inside meat-like plastic trays. France and Germany built their own Meatout web sites. Other participating countries were Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Tanzania, Thailand, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.
FARM -10101 Ashburton Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817
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