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Book Review
In this updated and revised edition of "Judaism and Vegetarianism,"
a book that has been called the "Bible of the Jewish vegetarian
movement," Richard Schwartz argues persuasively that a switch
toward vegetarianism is both a societal imperative and a Jewish
imperative. He asserts vegetarianism is a societal imperative
because animal-based agriculture and diets have devastating effects
on our air, water, and land, contribute substantially to global
climate change, require far more land, water, energy, and other
agricultural resources than plant-based diets, and hence negatively
impact on the world's food supply, and are a major factor behind
rapidly rising medical costs. He demonstrates that it also is
an especially Jewish imperative, since the realities of the production
and consumption of animal products violate basic Jewish teachings
to preserve our health, treat animals with compassion, protect
the environment, conserve resources, help hungry people, and pursue
peace and non-violence.
Schwartz, a professor emeritus of mathematics at the College of
Staten Island, amasses an abundance of recent statistics and a
variety of quotations from the Torah, Talmud, and other traditional
Jewish sources to bolster his case. After reading this book one
can only agree with the assessment of Paul Peabody who asserted
in Fellowship magazine that "it would be hard for anyone ethically
sensitive - Jew or non-Jew - to read this book and not take up
the vegetarian cause."
Since many difficult questions are asked of vegetarians, Schwartz
provides 62 questions and answers on a wide variety of Jewish
and general issues. These questions include: Don't we have to
eat meat on the Sabbath and to rejoice on festivals? Isn't it
a sin not to take advantage of pleasurable things like eating
meat? Weren't we given dominion over animals? What about sacrificial
Temple services? Aren't vegetarians deviating from Jewish tradition
in asserting that people and animals are of equal value? Schwartz's
cogent answers enable vegetarians to respond effectively to the
concerns of non-vegetarians.
Schwartz also provides questions that vegetarians can use to respectfully
turn the tables on challengers. Perhaps most important is the
question that is used to conclude the book: "In view of strong
Jewish mandates to be compassionate to animals, preserve our health,
help feed the hungry, preserve and protect the environment, conserve
resources, and seek and pursue peace, and the very negative effects
animal-centered diets have in each of these areas, will you now
become a vegetarian, or at least sharply reduce your consumption
of animal products?"
In order to give as complete an analysis of Jewish connections
to vegetarianism as possible, Schwartz includes: biographies
of famous Jewish vegetarians, including Isaac Bashevis Singer,
Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Franz Kafka, and several present and past
chief rabbis: a discussion of Jewish vegetarian groups and activities
in England, where the International Jewish Vegetarian Society
is located, Israel, and the United States; contact information
for the leading Jewish vegetarian and vegetarian-related groups;
action ideas for promoting vegetarianism; suggestions for leading
a healthy Jewish vegetarian lifestyle; an extensive annotated
bibliography.
At a time when Canada and much of the world is confronted with
an epidemic of degenerative diseases, mad cow disease, foot and
mouth disease, soaring health care costs, a multitude of environmental
threats, increasingly severe effects of global climate change,
widespread hunger, and widening scarcities of water, and energy,
Judaism's powerful teachings on vegetarianism and other positive
societal changes should no longer be ignored. Hence, this important,
challenging book deserves a wide readership and much discussion
in the Jewish community, and other communities.
Nathan Braun
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nathan Braun was Presidential Scholar (Religion, Culture and Ethics)
at Augustana University College (Camrose, Alberta). He lives with
his wife Rachel in Northrop Frye's former home of Moncton, New
Brunswick.
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