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Media
NEWS RELEASE
BROAD JEWISH COALITION LAUNCHES MAJOR CAMPAIGN
TO CHANGE JEWS' DIETS
New York City, September 2 - A wide-ranging coalition
of Jewish medical, spiritual, and activist leaders -
including rabbis from all branches of Judaism - is urging
all congregational rabbis in the United States and Canada
to share with their congregants the ways in which the
medical, environmental, and moral realities of high
meat diets are incompatible with at least five basic
Jewish mandates.
The coalition, under the leadership of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America is sending a special issue of the Jewish
Vegetarian Newsletter to 3,650 North American rabbis
in early September. The Newsletter, which contains a
letter to the rabbis seeking their support and involvement,
inaugurates a major campaign to put issues related to
diet on the Jewish agenda. Among the next steps are:
radio and television appearances; articles and letters
in Jewish publications; an Internet course on "Judaism
and Vegetarianism"; booths at community events and fairs;
an annual "Vegetarian Shabbat", scheduled for Parshat
B'ha'alot'cha (when the Torah tells of the deaths of
many Israelites after consuming quail flesh); and mailings
sent to rabbis throughout the year connecting vegetarianism
to the Jewish holidays.
The coalition cites many facts and rabbinic opinions
that demonstrate how animal-based diets are incompatible
with Jewish mandates to take care of our health, to
treat animals with compassion, to help hungry people,
to conserve natural resources, and to protect the environment,
including:
Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
and current Dean of the Pinchas Sapir Center for Jewish
Studies in Jerusalem, has stated that: "As it is halachically
(according to Jewish law) prohibited to harm oneself
and as healthy, nutritious vegetarian alternatives
are easily available, meat consumption has become
halachically unjustifiable."
While a child dies of malnutrition or starvation
somewhere in the world every 2.3 seconds and over
a billion people are chronically undernourished, over
70% of the grain grown in the United States and almost
40% grown worldwide is fed to animals destined for
slaughter.
Each 4 oz. imported fast-food hamburger results in
the destruction of 55 sq. feet of rainforest forever.
This destruction contributes to the extinction of
hundreds of species of plants and animals every year.
Loss of such biodiversity threatens our ability to
find life- saving medicines. Burning of rainforests
to create grazing land releases huge amounts of carbon
dioxide, the primary contributor to global warming.
Cruelty to animals in the livestock industry is so
great that Rabbi David Rosen has also said that "the
current treatment of animals in the livestock trade
definitely renders the consumption of meat as halachically
unacceptable."
Overgrazing of animals raised for food erodes over
4 billion tons of topsoil in the U.S. each year, leading
to droughts and flooding. Runoff from animal-based
agriculture pollutes our water with nitrates and other
chemicals, causing birth defects in humans and animals,
and renders vast water resources undrinkable and dangerous.
For interviews, contact Dr. Richard Schwartz ([email protected]).
He can also provide contact information for medical,
rabbinic, and activist spokespeople.
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