Center for Jewish Food Ethics

Include our new resource in your Shavuot learning!

"Shavuot, Dairy, and Jewish Food Ethics" discusses where the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot may have come from and offers explanations and reflections for each text source, connecting them to our contemporary world and food practices.

Download and share the free PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YW90BgqifPwPZPnGWM1wanu4RKLWs2-0/view?usp=sharing

📣 Calling all clergy and faith leaders 📣

We've signed an interfaith letter opposing the so-called "Save Our Bacon" (SOB) amendment in the U.S. Farm Bill, and we're inviting you to join the almost 100 clergy and faith leaders who have signed in the past several days.

Despite its cutesy name, this amendment would have serious consequences. It would override 600+ established state and local laws, invalidate animal welfare protections enacted by voters in California, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, and permanently strip every state of the ability to regulate how meat and eggs sold within its borders are produced.

The pork industry has tried this before, as the King Amendment, as the EATS Act, and in seven lawsuits, including one that went to the Supreme Court. It lost every time. Now it's back, and SOB is in the Farm Bill the House forwarded to the Senate.

We see this as a deeply important moral issue, sitting at the intersection of animal welfare, food ethics, and democratic accountability. Faith leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and other traditions are signing on together.

✉️ Read the letter: https://tinyurl.com/interfaith-sob

✍️ Sign as an individual faith leader: https://tinyurl.com/individual-sob
🏛️ Sign on behalf of a faith organization: https://tinyurl.com/organization-sob

Please share this with clergy and faith leaders in your networks — every signature matters. Thank you!

This Farm Bill locks in the $187 billion in cuts Republicans made to SNAP last summer and wholly ignores the suffering of hungry Americans.

We recently joined more than 30 national faith organizations in writing to Congress with one message: feeding oneself and one's family is a matter of human dignity, and charity alone cannot make up for vast federal resources.

Hungry veterans, children, and seniors will pay the price. Congress must restore SNAP.

Help make this point heard, before it's too late, by contacting your representatives and asking that they vote no on the .

Thank you : A Jewish Response to Hunger for helping to organize and amplify interfaith community voices.

ShabBAT shalom and happy 🦇

"Bats are crucial members of the environment. They provide pest control, disease control, and even medical assistance to humans. Bats are responsible for the pollination and seed dispersal of many plant species and help with plant regrowth after fires and habitat destruction. Without bats, we wouldn’t have things like tequila, bananas, mango, and avocados." -- Lubee Bat Conservancy

Today is . It's a day to raise the public's awareness of the realities animals farmed for food endure.

This is also an opportunity to revisit the foundational Jewish value of tza'ar ba'alei chayim, which teaches the importance of preventing unnecessary animal suffering.

One of the deeply considered applications of tza’ar ba’alei chayim is the act of killing and eating animals. While shechita (kosher slaughter) may have been a more humane method at one point in history, slaughter looks quite different on today's factory farms that produce 99% of all animal products--including kosher ones.

The practice of kosher slaughter now takes place in high-speed, industrialized facilities prioritizing speed and volume over everything else, including the well-being of animals.

What can you do?

One of the most direct ways to prevent animal suffering is by reducing your reliance on animal products produced on industrial farms. Instead, incorporate more plant-based foods whenever possible and be an advocate for sustainable and ethical food practices.

Tza’ar ba’alei chayim is more than a theoretical principle; it is a call to action. By making compassionate choices in our daily lives and communal practices, we honor this essential Jewish value and contribute to a kinder and more sustainable world for all living beings.