Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism: Studies and New Directions

Contents
Illustrations
Introduction: Considering Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism
	Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism
	What’s Jewish About Veganism? What’s Vegan About Jewishness?
	Notes on Purpose and Scope
	Organization of the Book
		Studies
		New Directions
	Acknowledgments
	Notes
Part One: Studies
	1 The Slipperiness of Animal Suffering: Revisiting the Talmud’s Classic Treatment
		The Raccoon in the Kitchen
		Peter Singer and His Critics
		The Resting Donkey and the Exhausted Ox
		Lazy, Sick, and Elderly Donkey Drivers
		Rava’s Revolution
		The Talmud’s Testing Grounds
		Conclusions: Competing Concerns, Law and Ethics, Slippery Slopes
		Notes
	2 Vegetarianism as Jewish Culture and Politics in Interwar Europe
		Vegetarianism and Jewishness in Vilna
			Communal Health in Unsanitary Conditions
			Interwar Poland and Anti-Kosher Laws
			Lewando‘s Cookbook and Ideals for a New Jewishness
			4 Niemiecka Street
		Vegetarianism as Antifascism in Nazi Germany
			Jüdischer Frauenbund‘s Vegetarian Recipes
			CVZ‘s Vegetarian Recipes and Toni Benario‘s Nutrition Column
		Conclusion: Romanticizing Jewish Food in France
		Notes
	3 “I am a Vegetarian”: The Vegetarianism of Melech Ravitch
		Biography
		I Am a Vegetarian: Ravitch’s First Twenty­Four Hours as a Vegetarian
		Ravitch and His Vegetarian Ideology
		Ravitch’s Vegetarian Poems
		Conclusion
		Notes
	4 Farm Animal Welfare in Jewish Art and Literature
		Veganism: A New Trend?
		European Voices from the Past
		Contemporary Authors and Animal Welfare
		Paintings of Slaughtered Oxen
		Final Remarks and Acknowledgments
		Notes
	5 Vegetarianism and Veganism among Jewish Punks
		Veganism among Punks
		Shared Values and Backgrounds between Jews and Punks
			Tikkun Olam
			Radicalism
			Individualism
			Questioning
		Examples from Punk Rock Musicians
			Prominent Punks
			Outspoken Vegetarian Jewish Punks
			References by Nonvegetarians
		Examples from the Food World
			Isa Chandra Moskowitz
			NewKosher
		Coda
		Notes
	6 Opening the Tent: Jewish Veganism as an Expression of an Ecological Form of Judaism
		Jewish Identities
		Vegan Identities
		Jewish Vegan Identities
		Jewish Vegan Identity in Practice
		Conclusion
		Notes
	7 A Linguistic Appraisal: Jewish Perceptions of Animal Suffering
		Data Collection and Methodology
		Results
		Concluding Remarks
		Appendix
			English Survey
			Hebrew Survey
		Notes
Part Two: New Directions
	8 Veganism and Covenantalism: Contrasting and Overlapping Moralities
		Defining Covenant
		Domestication
		Covenant in the Torah
		The Covenant of Israel and the Covenant of Blood
		The Covenantal Role of the Shepherd
		The Ecological Dimension
		Domesticated Animals versus Wild Animals
		The Prophets
		Rabbinic Teachings on Animals
		Medieval Philosophical Perspectives
		Kabbalah and the Souls of Animals
		Abraham Isaac Kook
		Bifurcating Moralities
		Veganism and Covenantalism: Transcending Dichotomy
		Notes
	9 Musar and Jewish Veganism
		Divine Love for All Creatures and the Prohibition on Causing Suffering
		Emulating Noah’s Constant Concern
		Shepherds and the Power of Empathy
		Contemplating Midrash and Overcoming Rationalization
		Sharing the Burden of the Animal
		Self-Restraint before Pleasure
		Simchah Zissel’s Explorations of Vegetarianism
		Conclusions
		Notes
	10 The Vegetarian Teachings of Rav Kook
		Kook’s Critique of Vegetarianism and Responses
			Rav Kook was not a Vegetarian.
			Rav Kook did not allow his son Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook to become a vegetarian, and even encouraged him to study ritual slaughter.
			Rav Kook considered vegetarianism to be an ideal for the messianic age, when people will have a heightened spiritual awareness, but he argued that vegetarianism should not be widely adopted as a norm for human conduct before that time.
			Rav Kook asserted that at present, other societal issues, such as the enmity between nations and racial discrimination, should be of greater moral concern to humanity than the well-being of animals. Hence, he advocated that people first work on such societal issues before improving the lives of animals.
			Rav Kook criticized people who promoted vegetarianism in his own day and in our imperfect world, fearing they might use vegetarianism as an excuse to not involve themselves in other important societal issues.
			Despite his strongly provegetarian stance, Rav Kook considered this diet to represent a spiritual rung that is presently too difficult for most human beings to attain.
			Rav Kook believed that when people take on austerities for which they are insufficiently prepared, their uncorrected evil traits will manifest themselves inevitably in other, possibly more harmful ways. He observed that a common psychological strategy for a corrupt person is to whitewash their self-image by finding an extremely idealistic cause to champion. He felt that these dangers apply to ethical vegetarianism. If the premature embrace of this lofty expression of compassion for animals should fail, he warned, it could lead to moral regression—even cannibalism.
			According to Rav Kook, because people had fallen to an extremely low spiritual level, it was necessary that they be given an elevated image of themselves in comparison to animals. He feared that vegetarians might forget their human superiority and come to think of themselves as beasts.
		Conclusion
		Notes
	11 Relevant and Irrelevant Distinctions: Speciesism, Judaism, and Veganism
		Rabbi Albo’s Account of Cain’s Human Sacrifice of Abel
		Speciesism: A Primer
		The Divine Image, Souls, and Differences between Humans and Animals
		Tza’ar Ba’alei Chayim: Limits and Reasons
		Assessment and Conclusions
		Notes
	12 A Morally Generative Tension: Conflicting Jewish Commitments to Humans and Animals
		Modern Secular History
		Jewish Thought on Obligation
			Bible and Early Rabbinic Thought
			Anthropocentrism
			Reincarnation
			Partnership
		Conclusion
		Notes
	13 Linking Judaism and Veganism in Darkness and in Light
		Darkness
			What Does It Mean to Be a Jew?
			Becoming “Animals”
			Becoming Jews
		From Darkness to Light: Kashrut
			Redeeming Kashrut
			Here’s Your Damned Meat
			Why Not Just Require It?
		Conclusion
		Notes
	14 Jewish Veganism as an Embodied Practice: A Vegan Agenda for Cultural Jews
		The Crisis of Secular or Cultural Judaism
		Religious and Ethnic Judaism as Technologies of the Self
			Jewish Ethnic Self-Understanding and Practices
		The Rewards of Secular Jewish Veganism
		Veganism and Jewish Values
		The Reinvention of Tradition
		Jewish Veganism and Advocacy
		Vegan Advocacy and Israel
		Conclusion
		Notes
Report: Jewish Vegan and Vegetarian Movements in North America
	A Brief History of the Jewish Veg Movement
		1970s: The Beginning
		Publishing and Conferences
		The Eco-Jewish Value of Not Eating Meat: Teva Learning Center
		Twenty-First Century: Podcasts and a Documentary
		The First Professional Jewish Vegetarians
	The Role of Meat Reduction in Jewish Food and Farming Education
	New Jewish Animal Welfare Organizations
	Collaboration and Points of Tension
	Notes
Afterword
	Notes
Contributors
Index