Unique, potentially transformative Earth Day zoom event scheduled

In commemoration of the 51st Earth Day on Thursday, April 22, there will be a zoom teach-in, with the theme, “Applying Jewish and Other Religion’s Values to Help Save the World.”

The teach-in aims to increase awareness of the seriousness of climate and other environmental threats, and the urgency of applying religious Values to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. It also aims to initiate the creation of a coalition of veg, animal rights, environmental, and other organizations and individuals that will work together to address the threats, stressing the importance of shifts toward veganism.

The teach-in starts at 12:30 PM US Eastern time. It is organized and will be moderated by Richard Schwartz, PhD, president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of the recently published “Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism.“ You can register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12-dBY1r2YcjDsPeqWjenBZuA41ge5L1UDr1fuzLACa4/edit

Among the 21 scheduled speakers at the teach-in are six rabbis and eight present and past leaders of veg organizations. The list of speakers and brief information about them is below.

Some of the issues that will be addressed during the teach-in include, but are not limited to: how serious are climate threats, what are various organizations doing to respond to the climate crisis, how significant are shifts to veganism in addressing climate threats, and what can be done to establish a coalition of organizations to increase awareness of the threats and the urgency of responding to them.

This unique event has the potential to be transformative in efforts to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. Please attend and let others know about the teach-in.

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Here is the list of scheduled speakers, in the order in which they will be speaking. 

Richard Schwartz: President emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of “Judaism and    

     Vegetarianism”and “Vegan Revolution”

Rev. Fletcher Harper: Founder and director of GreenFaith, a national interfaith     

     environmental coalition.

Rabbi David Rosen: Former chief rabbi of Ireland  and president for Israel of the 

     International Jewish Vegetarian Society

Jeffrey Spitz Cohan: Executive Director of Jewish Veg

Steve Kaufman, MD: President of the Christian Vegetarian Association and author of  

     books on vegetarianism

Rabbi Gabriel Coussens: wholistic doctor,author of many health-related books, and 

     founder and director of the Holistic Liberation Way and the Tree of Life Foundation,

Rabbi David Seidenberg: creator of neohasid.org and author of “Kabbalah and Ecology: 

     God’s Image in the More-Than-Human World. “

Victoria Moran: Author of many veg-related books, host of the Main Street Vegan 

     Podcast, and director of Main Street Vegan Academy

Yossi Wolfson: Coordinator of the Israeli Jewish Vegetarian Society (“Ginger”)

Jonathan Wolf: Founding president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (now named 

     Jewish Veg) and a long time veg, social justice, environmental, and peace activist.

Lewis Regenstein: Author of “Replenish the Earth and other veg and environmental 

     works

Lionel Friedberg: Multi-award winning producer and producer of “A Sacred Duty: 

     Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World”    

Judy Carmen: Author of several veg-related books including, most recently, “Homo 

     Ahimsa: Who We. Really Are and How We ‘re Going To Save the World”

Will Tuttle: Author of the highly acclaimed “World Peace Diet” and frequent speaker and 

     author of articles about veganism 

Alex Weisz: Content Manager at Shamayim: Jewish Animal Advocacy

Sailesh Rao: Founder and Executive Director of “Climate Healers,  a non-profit dedicated 

     towards healing the Earth’s climate. 

Rabbi Yonatan Neril:  Founding Director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable 

     Development and co-editor of the recently published “Eco Bible”

Lisa Kemmerer: Professor of Philosophy and Religion and author or editor of a number 

     of books on animal ethics, ecofeminism, animals and religion, and the environment

Michael Klaper, MD: wholistic doctor, author of books about nutrition, and creator of a 

   master class on plant-based clinical nutrition for doctors

Rabbi Daniel Swartz: Executive Director of the Coalition on the Environment and

     Jewish Life (COEJL) 

Rabbi David Wolpe: Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple; voted “Most Influential Rabbi in 

     America” by Newsweek, among many honors, and author of several books. 

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