Jewish Veg – Shining a Light on Veganism in the Jewish Faith, Part 1 of 2

Mr. Cohan is the executive director at Jewish Veg, a charitable organization that embraces and encourages a plant-based way of living to people of the Jewish faith. Its mission is to inspire and help Jewish people to transition to a vegan lifestyle based on Jewish values.

“In the first chapter of Genesis – this is the first chapter in the entire Bible – it says in verse 29, you will eat the plants and only the plants. I was paraphrasing slightly, but that's what it says. The plants are your food. So, my wife and I looked at each other and said, well, it looks like we're supposed to be vegetarians. So, we immediately became vegetarians right on the spot.”

“Our Torah, which is what we call our bible, and our rabbinic tradition, which is what leading rabbis have been talking and writing about for millennia, point very strongly towards a vegan diet. And if you compare what’s happening today in animal agriculture against what our Torah and our religions say, there’s no doubt about it. Jewish should be transitioning into vegan lifestyles.”

“A couple years ago, we released a rabbinic statement that was signed by, at the time, 75 rabbis, asking their fellow Jewish to transition to vegan lifestyles. We’re about to re-release the same statement. This time 150 rabbis have signed it. So, twice the number as the original. We think it will really open people’s eyes and get a lot of attention.”

The renowned rabbi from the past, Rabbi Yosef Albo wrote: “Killing animals involves cruelty and anger and rage. Eating meat makes the soul thick, murky, and occluded.”

This has been a recurring theme in our beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai’s discourses since the 1980s, informing us of the clear advantages of a plant-based way of living for the health of all beings and the planet. “The best thing is stop eating meat, stop killing animals, stop raising animals. Then, the methane gas and the nitrous oxide gas will stop. And then we cut already a big chunk of pollution off our air, and we cut off the global warming process. And I said already, 80% of it will be cut almost immediately, and we can see the result in a few weeks.”