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My letter in the July 28, 2021 Jerusalem Post on climate threats
Whither the weather?
Kol hakavod for your editorial “A bigger step needed” (July 27), which cogently argued that “Israel should step up its game” in responding to climate change.
Your article “Summer of disaster: Extreme weather wreaks havoc worldwide as climate change bears down,” (July 25) should convince everyone that the world is already suffering greatly from climate change. It seems like there are almost daily reports of severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, floods and other effects of climate change. Within ...
My Draft of a Haggadah for a Restored and Transformed New Year For Animals Event
Shalom,
Below is my very preliminary draft for a Haggadah’ for a future ‘Seder’ for a renewed and transformed New Year for Animals.
It is presented mainly to get people thinking about possibilities for future observances of the restored ancient Jewish holiday. We may end up with an approach or approaches very different from the one I am suggesting in this draft. And that would be fine with me.
I would very much welcome your input on this and suggestions for other possible approaches.
In reviewing this, please do not be concerned with the wordage, the ...
My three articles about restoring the ancient New Year for Animals
Shalom
My three articles about restoring the ancient New Year for Animals are:
Restoring and Transforming an Ancient Jewish Holiday Related to AnimalsTen Reasons for Restoring and Transforming the Ancient New Year for AnimalsAn Often Overlooked Mitzvah: Tsa’ar Ba’alei Chaim
Restoring and Transforming an Ancient Jewish Holiday Related to Animals
The current widespread mistreatment of animals on factory farms is very inconsistent with Judaism’s beautiful teachings about compassion to animals. One way for Jews to respond to these inconsistencies ...
Our Temple is Being Destroyed
~by Lynn Nadeau
* Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Francesco Hayez
On Tisha B'Av, we sit on the floor, a candle barely lighting the page, and we read the words which sear the heart. We lament the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians. And we lament the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans. And today, we mourn the destruction caused by ourselves. Our private profligacy. Our passivity and our lack of participation in public policy letting selfish interests predominate. For these things I weep; my eye, yea my eye, sheds ...
How Tisha B’Av relates to current environmental and climate threats published in the Jewish Journal
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/338498/a-tisha-bav-message-will-we-again-fail-to-heed-the-warnings/
My interview of Noam Bedein, founder in 2015 and director of the Dead Sea Revival Project
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XnE9I_37Z7K8XDQwUYQjn7QkjtP_h1cO/view?usp=sharing
Jewish Quotations About Animals and How Animals Are Treated Today
Jewish Quotations About Animals and How Animals Are Treated Today
A. Attitude Toward Animals
1. “A righteous person regards the life of his or her animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” ~Proverbs 12:10
2. The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His creatures.” ~Psalms 145:9
3. The tzaddik (righteous person) acts according to the laws of justice; not only does he act according to these laws with human beings, but also with animals.
~The Malbim
4. “Living creatures possess a soul ...
A Tisha B’Av Message: Will We Again Fail To Heed the Warnings?
Tisha B'Av (the 9th day of the month of Av) which we commemorate this year on July 17 - 18, reminds us that over 2,600 years ago Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah about the importance of changing their ways. That failure resulted in the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, one of the many tragic things that occurred to Jews on that day, including the later destruction of the second Temple.
Today there are no prophets like Jeremiah to issue warnings, but we are receiving increasingly dire warnings from climate ...
Dr. Alon Tal Joins Knesset! Aytzim Co-founder Brings Green Agenda to Israeli Government
Dr. Alon Tal, co-founder of the Green Zionist Alliance
JERUSALEM (June 16) -- This morning Aytzim co-founder Dr. Alon Tal joined the Knesset, Israel's parliament, becoming only the second Knesset member with roots in Israel's Green Party to be appointed to the legislative body (following Yael Cohen Paran). Tal, who serves on Aytzim's board of directors, led the founding of Aytzim in 2001 along with Rabbi Michael Cohen, Dr. Eilon Schwartz and about 30 other volunteers. For almost two decades, Tal has served as one of Aytzim's Green Zionist Alliance representatives on ...
3rd Jewish Climate Action Conference:
"Everything is Connected"
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
The JCAN-MA for the 3rd Jewish Climate Action Conference: Everything is Connected occurred April 25, 2021. Over 550 people attended. The 40 sessions focused on carbon reduction, advocacy, spiritual resilience, soil and agriculture, raised up the voices of youth, and addressed environmental justice. The day-long event was geared toward action solutions and strengthening the national Jewish climate action network. Opportunities are still available for connecting with other climate activists in your ...
Four-page review of my latest book, VEGAN REVOLUTION: SAVING OUR WORLD, REVITALIZING JUDAISM, in the semi-annual journal of the Central Conference of American rabbis (CCAR), a publication that goes to US reform rabbis
The Vegan Revolution
by Richard Schwartz
(Brooklyn, NY: Lantern Publishing and Media, 2020), 272 pp.
I’ve been a vegetarian for forty years. Inspired by a college boyfriend,
I then fully committed to it the year I was at HUC-JIRJerusalem,
walking down the meat aisle of the Old City Shuk with
its hanging animal carcasses. I married a man who was already a
vegetarian (thank goodness no “training” required!) and we raised
three vegetarian children who now, as adults, have all retained
their commitment to it. In true family dynamics, two of ...
Climate Change and the Jewish Question
by Rabbi Dr. Dov Maimon
Despite everything they have in common, the Israeli Jewish experience differs greatly from the Diaspora Jewish experience. The two communities don't always have the same interests or find the same issues compelling, and they disagree on quite a few matters, both those relating to values and those relating to modes of action. Climate change, however, is an opportunity for collaboration between Israeli and Diaspora Jews.
Climate change is a burning issue for young people across the Western world. The challenge does not differentiate ...
Honors thesis on the beginnings of Jewish environmental and vegetarian activism in the 1970s and 1980s
Renewing and Recycling:
The Formation of American Jewish Environmentalism
in the 1970s and 1980s
Gabrielle Plotkin
Advisor:
Keith Woodhouse
B.A. Thesis for Honors in History
Northwestern University
May 3, 2021
ii
Abstract
Few environmental historians have considered how American Jews interacted with the
postwar environmental movement. Those that have, often characterize American Jews as
“urban” and separate from nature. However, I demonstrate that American Jewry’s involvement
in left-leaning politics and inclination to both ...
My interview of Jeffrey Spitz Cohan, director of Jewish Veg, formerly Jewish Vegetarians of North America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdsQSVQE6LU
Video of amazing Earth Day teach-in that involved talks by 22 fabulous speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ck72NqkUAA
Earth Day teach-in I aranged (on Earth Day, April 22, 2021), which involved 22 fabulous speakers .
The theme was "Applying Religiouis Values To Help Save the World."
Here is the list of speakers the order of their appearance.
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
&...
Three Shavuot Articles Related To Vegetarianism and Veganism
Below are three Shavuot-related articles. They are:
1. A Shavuot Message: Time to Apply Torah Values To Our Diets
2. Dialogue on Shavuot Night About Veganism
3. Shavuot and Vegetarianism and Veganism
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A Shavuot Message: Time to Apply Torah Values To Our Diets
Shavuot is "z'man matan Torateinu,” the time of the giving of the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. To honor the Torah, many dedicated religious Jews admirably stay up the entire first night of Shavuot to hear talks about and discuss Torah teachings.
Yet, despite this ...
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, ...
Rainbow Day is May 8-9 in 2021, the week following Shabbat Behar-Bechukotai!
Celebrate Rainbow Day and the Rainbow Covenant with all Life!
The first covenant in the Torah, when Noah leaves the ark, is a covenant with all creatures, and a covenant with the Earth itself, not just with humanity. There are so many ways you can teach about this covenant, the rainbow covenant, on the day it was established!
What is Rainbow Day?
On the 27th day of the second month, Noah, his family, and all the animals that were with them left the ark (Genesis 8). Exactly one lunar year and ten days before—one complete solar year—the flood began on ...
Jewish quotations about animals
1. God’s original dietary lawAnd God said: "Behold, I have given you every herb-yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit - to you it shall be for food."Genesis 1:29God did not permit Adam and his wife to kill a creature to eat its flesh. Only every green herb shall they all eat together.Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 1:29You are permitted to use the animals and employ them for work, have dominion over them in order to utilize their services for your subsistence, but must not hold their life cheap nor slaughter ...
Parshat Tzav: How Meat Consumption Today Differs from The Time of the Mishkan (Sanctuary) in the Wilderness
And that which is left thereof [from the meal-offering] shall Aaron and his sons eat; it shall be eaten without leaven in a
holy place; in the tent of meeting they shall eat it. . . . it is most holy as the sin-offering and the guilt-offering. Leviticus 6:9.10When the Jewish people were in the wilderness before they entered the land of Israel, the consumption of meat was associated with holiness. Every piece of meat consumed came from an animal sacrificed in the Mishkan (Sanctuary), an act meant to bring ...