Jewish Animal Welfare Group Pushes Synagogues To ‘Go Vegan’

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By Ari Feldman July 27, 2017

A Jewish animal welfare group is providing grants for U.S. synagogues to “go vegan” for one year. The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute will donate $5,000 to five synagogues to help offset the costs of only providing food on Shabbat and holidays that contain no animal products whatsoever.

“Veganism is one of the fastest-growing trends in America aimed at improving human health, supporting the environment and reducing animal suffering,” Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, the founder and CEO of the Shamayim V’Aretz Institute, told PlantBasedNews.org. “The Jewish community needs to show leadership, but there is not one vegan synagogue in America yet.”

The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute, founded in 2012 to put “animal welfare on the Jewish agenda,” counts Mayim Bialik, a star of the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” as one of its founding members.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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