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Is Your Meat Really Kosher???

By on August 8, 2012 in Reflections, shout out, Special Alert!

Last fall, I did a work­shop at the Wol­fond Cen­tre Hil­lel at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto. My objec­tive was to get stu­dents to think about where their food comes from. There were a few veg­e­tar­i­ans in the room, but it was pri­mar­ily filled with meat eaters. When I talked about the hor­ri­ble abuses and tor­tur­ous con­di­tions of fac­tory farms, I was met with a lot of this,

“Well, that’s really bad, but, I’m kosher so… the ani­mals have been killed humanely.”

If you are kosher and you think the meat on your plate has been eth­i­cally raised/ treated/ killed, think again.

Click here for more information.

You can also check out this video that my friends over at The Shamayim V’Aretz Insti­tute put together.

Also, one of my favourite authors, Jonathan Safran Foer nar­rated a doc­u­men­tary some years ago about the kosher meat indus­try. Watch the trailer below.

Peo­ple don’t like to know about or watch the suf­fer­ing of ani­mals because it’s uncom­fort­able and upset­ting. Yet, it is also the truth.

The real ques­tion is, once we open our eyes and real­ize what is tak­ing place, what are we going to do about it? Stand idly by or take action. Please con­sider shar­ing this and start­ing a dis­cus­sion with those around you.

Oy Vegan!

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Veganism and the Environment: By the Numbers

By on July 12, 2012 in shout out, Special Alert!

For all those who want to talk about the envi­ron­ment and their eco­log­i­cal foot­print, eat your heart out!

This is a strong case for veg­an­ism if you ask me.

Shout out to One Green Planet where I found this!

Oy Vegan!

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Amazing Speech! Animals Should Be Off the Menu!

By on June 27, 2012 in shout out, Special Alert!

Philip Wollen, Aus­trail­ian phil­an­thropist and for­mer VP of Citibank in Aus­trailia makes a pas­sion­ate speech at the St. James Ethics Cen­tre and the Wheeler Cen­tre debate in Mel­bourne on May 16th, 2012. The topic: Ani­mals should be off the menu!!!

All I can say is..WOW.  I clapped, I called out and I shed a tear dur­ing this inspir­ing speech for ani­mal wel­fare. This is truly incred­i­ble. Take a look!

Here is a link to the full tran­script.

Oy Vegan!

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Chefs for Peace!

By on March 21, 2012 in Reflections, shout out, Special Alert!

Last Wednes­day evening I joined a packed room in Uni­ver­sity of Toronto’s Multi-Faith Cen­tre for a night of cook­ing and con­ver­sa­tion. Cook­ing and demon­strat­ing for us were two top chefs from Israel– one Mus­lim and one Jew­ish. Ibrahim Abu Seir is the head pas­try chef at Jerusalem’s 5 star David Citadel Hotel and Joseph Elad is the owner of Menahe Yehuda Resu­tau­rant.

The room was filled with Mus­lims, Chris­tians and Jews at every table. The pur­pose of the evening was to bring all three faiths together in a pos­i­tive way– through food. While we helped the chefs pre­pare our din­ner, we were also encour­aged to dis­cuss whether or not we thought peace could be achieved in Israel. The dis­cus­sion was very inter­est­ing and for the most part quite pos­i­tive. When one stu­dent started to bring up cer­tain anti-Israeli sen­ti­ments she had wit­nessed on U of T cam­pus, founder and dis­cus­sion facil­i­ta­tor, Kevork Aleimian, was quick to get the con­ver­sa­tion back on track. Aleimian is Armen­ian and also from Israel.

Founded in 2001, Chefs for Peace is com­prised of chefs from all over the world…

Aleimian explained Chefs for Peace is a not-for-profit with a dream of peace. Founded in 2001, it is com­prised of chefs from all over the world from dif­fer­ent reli­gious back­grounds and its goal to is to encour­age peace­ful coex­is­tence. He explained that it’s easy to focus on who did what to who and dwell in the past, but the only way to bring about peace is by work­ing together to focus on it.

The meal we were served was deli­cious. An Israeli cucum­ber tomato salad, a beau­ti­fully spiced rice and veg­etable dish and a dessert of fresh figs in coconut milk with a berry coulis on top. All veg­e­tar­ian, all kosher, and all halal.

I had a really inter­est­ing con­ver­sa­tion about the sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences between what makes some­thing kosher and what makes some­thing halal with a girl of Mus­lim faith at my table. I think that every­one who attended learned a lot about each other in a pos­i­tive envi­ron­ment. If only there were more pro­grams like this, the world would be a more peace­ful place.

For more infor­ma­tion visit chefsforpeace.com.

Spe­cial shout out to Emily Berg, the Wol­fond Cen­tre Hil­lel team and all the other orga­ni­za­tions that brought Chefs for Peace to Toronto for a week of amaz­ing events!

Oy vegan!

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Shamayim V’Aretz– What Mayim Bialik, Matisyahu, and I have in common!

By on March 4, 2012 in shout out, Special Alert!

Call­ing all Jew­ish peo­ple– veg­e­tar­ian, vegan and non-veg!

I’m very excited to announce a new project out in L.A. started by Rabbi Shmuly Yan­klowitz  called The Shamayim V’Aretz Insti­tute.

Hear Rav Shmuly talk about Shamayim V’Aretz!

Read their mis­sion state­ment below:

Mis­sion Statement

The Shamayim V’Aretz Insti­tute is the spir­i­tual cen­ter inter­twin­ing learn­ing and lead­er­ship around the inter­sect­ing issues of ani­mal wel­fare activism, kosher veg­an­ism, and Jew­ish spir­i­tu­al­ity, for those any­where on the jour­ney towards com­pas­sion­ate eat­ing and liv­ing within Judaism.

The Insti­tute trains lead­ers to address the abuse of ani­mals, injus­tices in kosher slaugh­ter­houses, and other ani­mal wel­fare issues while also serv­ing as an edu­ca­tional resource to help peo­ple make informed and pas­sion­ate Jew­ish moral choices about their eth­i­cal consumption. 

It’s about time that some­one started some­thing like this, and I’m so excited that Rav Shmuly has taken this on. Com­pas­sion­ate liv­ing and eat­ing is an eth­i­cal and moral issue.  As Jew­ish peo­ple, we have a respon­si­bil­ity to strive to improve con­di­tions for our planet and all its creatures.

And I’m not the only one who thinks so… Rav Shmuly has assem­bled a top notch team of found­ing mem­bers and advi­sory com­mi­tee mem­bers includ­ing Mayim Bia­lik (Blos­som), Matisyahu, Jana Kohl, Ellen Lavinthal and yours truly.

Watch Mayim’s hilar­i­ous promo video below!

For more infor­ma­tion about the insti­tute visit www.shamayimvaretz.com.  Also, be sure to check out their upcom­ing spir­i­tual retreat on Sun­day June 3rd in L.A.!

Oy Vegan!

 

 

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Blossom is a vegan!!

By on November 21, 2011 in shout out

Just want to shout out Ms. Mayim Bia­lik for her pos­i­tive influ­ence on young girls every­where. Mayim Bia­lik, fea­tured on hit TV show The Big Bang The­ory and star of clas­sic sit­com Blos­som, dishes about her par­ent­ing style, her veg­an­ism, and her envi­ron­men­tal and ani­mal activism. Read the inter­view here! Cool blog eco­razzi!

Oy Vegan!

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Eco-Kosher Means Veggie-Kosher!

By on November 9, 2011 in shout out

Shout out to veggiejews.org for this inter­est­ing arti­cle on how being Eco-kosher really means being veggie!

Oy Vegan!

 

 

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Organic Vegan Fast Food Truck!

By on November 4, 2011 in shout out

 

Check out the Seabirds Truck.

These ladies in Cal­i­for­nia have a super cool organic vegan food truck with a menu com­prised of local organic food such as beer-battered avo­cado tacos and zuc­chini water­cress soup. Ellen DeGeneres shouted them out on her 1400th episode yesterday.

If this is the future of fast food on the go, then I’m excited!

Oy Vegan!

 

 

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Oy Vegan shout out!

By on October 14, 2011 in shout out

 

Shout out!

 

Shab­bat Shalom everyone!

I’d just like to shout-out Makom in Toronto’s Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket neigh­bour­hood for all the cool stuff they’re doing.

Led by a vegan rabbi, they have super inter­est­ing events like tonight’s Shab­bat ser­vice and veg­e­tar­ian potluck in the sukkah!

For more info on Makom visit their web­site: makom.org

Oy vegan!

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