![]() In August of 2012, I ran one of my first kosher slaughter workshops at the Urban Adamah educational farm in Berkeley. I explained the kosher process and demonstrated live slaughter and processing on a few of their spent laying hens. Several participants cried during the slaughter and while some were inspired to eat better meat afterwards, others said they wanted to become vegetarians or vegans as a result of the experience. The class not only facilitated a tremendous amount of dialogue, growth and learning for all involved, it also provided a highly nutritious and tasty heritage chicken soup for farm visitors. This past Sunday, Urban Adamah had once again set up a workshop where they were slated to slaughter the remaining 15 hens of their laying flock. Things were going very smoothly until animal rights activists found out about the event and began to organize a mass protest. Their threat eventually caused the farm’s landlord to request a cancellation and despite holding strong until that point, farm founder Adam Berman was forced to scrub the workshop in the face of this large and disruptive demonstration. In my eyes the most disappointing part of this event is the role that the Jewish Vegetarians of North America played as one of the central mobilizers of the protest. While I disagree with much of the JVNA philosophy I’ve always had much respect for them as an organization and especially for their President Emeritus, Dr. Richard Schwartz, who did so much to foster a dialogue about animal rights in Judaism where none existed. But their involvement and attitude here has left a bitter taste and caused me to lose much of the respect I once held for the organization. Don’t get me wrong; I whole hardheartedly support JVNA’s right to be opposed to the slaughter workshop and their right to express that opposition in a public forum. Do I think they would be better served by putting their attention elsewhere? Yes, but if they prefer to focus their energy on a small class of fellow Jews that cares about animals and uses extremely high welfare practices rather than protest the atrocities that go on daily in industrial farms and slaughterhouses, then who am I to stop them? If they had decided to write articles and send out press releases expressing their opposition I wouldn’t have held it against them. If they had taken the opportunity to set up a debate about the ethics of animal slaughter I would have applauded them. But instead JVNA decided to mount a protest; instead of engaging in intelligent and meaningful dialogue they decided to scream and yell so loud that the other side would have no recourse. According to JVNA’s director Jeffrey Cohan they did attempt to engage in dialogue with Urban Adamah in order to avoid this process. But sadly this effort for dialogue seemed to be little more than an ultimatum for them to give the hens to a sanctuary or else. This demonstration was not slated to take place at a huge poultry plant which could easily operate during such an event but rather at a small urban farm that would have little to no chance of continuing with its workshop in the face of such an outcry. One of the most important core principals in Judaism is machloket, the tradition of spirited debate, a respectful yet assertive back and forth. By organizing a protest in order to stop the slaughter class, JVNA decided to ignore this principal. Instead of starting a dialogue in which people could explore their thoughts and feeling about animal slaughter they decided to give an ultimatum and worked to force their opinions on others by getting the class canceled. According to the JVNA this was a life and death struggle in which they needed to resort to desperate measures to save the life of 15 chickens but I put little stock in this narrative when millions of chickens are scalded to death in industrial slaughterhouses each year. To add insult to injury, JVNA Facebook followers used the JVNA Facebook page to organize ways to publicly humiliate and injure Urban Adamah in order to bully them into canceling the class. While the JVNA never directly encouraged that these steps be taken they also did nothing to stop it and refuse to apologize or show remorse for their role in the defamation. The JVNA did take down the Facebook events page on which these comments were posted but this was too little too late as Adamah's facebook rating space was already filled with one star ratings and malicious attacks from animal rights protesters that had never once stepped foot inside the farm. After all this hostile action, JVNA even had the gall to commend and thank Urban Adamah for cancelling the class when it was largely because of their aggressive tactics that the class was canceled in the first place. I am utterly disappointed by these actions but there is a way that the JVNA can make amends. There exists another very important value in Judaism, that of tshuvah, which means repentance or return. The JVNA needs to commit to the fostering of intelligent and thoughtful dialogue rather than the path of forceful intolerance that they’ve chosen. While intolerance and negative publicity is what many have come to expect from some animal rights groups, until now the JVNA were always the ones to take a higher road. I expect much less from the JVNA than I once did but I hope that in the future I’ll be able to hold them up to a high level of behavior once again.
15 Comments
kram
5/7/2014 04:35:43 am
What is there to have a spirited dialog about?
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Yadidya Greenberg
5/7/2014 06:57:02 am
I don't think that it is a fruitful tactic to try and force others into veganisim. I think that by waging protests like these you do more harm to your cause of helping animals than good. I think dialogue and education are better and more ethical means of outreach than trying to force others to do what you feel is right and that is the central message I tried to convey with the article.
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kram
5/8/2014 03:46:27 am
But the planned protest was not about turning people into vegans. Furthermore, dialogue alone often does not save animals. History has taught us that stores, politicians, organizations need to be boycotted or protested before they 'come around' and do the right thing.
Jenny Heller
5/7/2014 03:07:16 pm
This was just forwarded around & represents the Jewish and Torah perspective by two of the most respected rabbis of modern times.
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Yadidya Greenberg
5/7/2014 03:20:20 pm
Jenny, I appreciate that point of view but many other contradictory opinions also exist within Judaism. That is the beauty of our religion, argument, machloket, questioning, back and forth. We don't all have to believe the same thing in our religion and there is room enough for a plurality of views within our faith. If you want to make a case for why your view is best that is completely legitimate but to suggest that it is the only one that exists or is the only legitimate view within the Jewish faith is nothing more than a complete falsehood. It is especially ridiculous to base these weak proofs solely on a vegetarian Rabbi that still eats eggs and dairy and R. Soloveitchik who himself certainly ate meat.
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Jenny Heller
5/7/2014 03:37:54 pm
You are very misguided & misinformed about Torah and the holy rabbis of the past and present who were vegetarian long before the word vegan existed. Your schechita is a cop out because you lack compassion and discipline to forgo flesh. Jews who sat and waxed philosophical perished. Jews who took action survived like the Maccabeess, we are a people of action, not silence or passive discussion.Large & loud protests (probably before you are born) is what freed the Soviet Jews.
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Yadidya Greenberg
5/7/2014 03:55:53 pm
What I am saying is not an opinion but a fact based on source texts like the Torah, Talmud, Shulchan Aruch etc.... There is no ONE Jewish perspective on virtually anything, that just isn't what yideshkite is about. Meat eating in Jewish though is a multifaceted discussion and not some one sided argument. Nowhere in the 10 commandments does it say "thou shalt not eat meat".
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kram
5/8/2014 03:10:29 pm
I guess you haven't read Genesis?
Yadidya Greenberg
5/9/2014 02:59:19 am
Kram it is clear that you are the one that hasn't read the bible. Every positive character in the torah is a shepard. Guess what shepards do? They eat meat. Here is just one example of God approving of the animal offerings which Abel brings him... ד וְהֶבֶל הֵבִיא גַם-הוּא מִבְּכֹרוֹת צֹאנוֹ, וּמֵחֶלְבֵהֶן; וַיִּשַׁע יְהוָה, אֶל-הֶבֶל וְאֶל-מִנְחָתוֹ. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering;..... I'm not bringing this as proof that the torah says eating meat is the best way to go about things but clearly this is a conversation and not some one sided story.
Kram
5/9/2014 05:15:55 am
Genesis 1:29
Yadidya Greenberg
5/9/2014 06:34:34 am
That is an important piece of understanding the Torah conversation about meat and animals but it is still only one small piece of a huge conversation.
kram
5/9/2014 09:34:47 am
There is really no need for conversation though. Either Urban Adamah believes in killing or not. They had the option of giving the chickens freedom at no cost to them ( freedom after years of work for them by producing eggs ) or not. They chose not too. Its very simple. Certain things do not need to be discussed.
Jerry Schwartz
5/8/2014 12:22:46 pm
Regarding the 15 spent hens, sending them to a sanctuary is of dubious morality in my view. The money for feed, shelter, sanitation, and veterinary care could be much better allocated to a food bank for hungry human beings. What if Urban Adamah donated the meat of the hens to a food bank? Would the JVNA support this or would it rather 15 families go hungry for a night?
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kram
5/9/2014 09:47:06 am
Jerry, first,your point highlights how little people think of animals. You are describing economic interests of humans should be considered more than non-humans. As history has shown this, many nations have compared people of other races and religions to be less than human ( animal-like ) and that they should be enslaved, tortured or murdered.
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Jenny Heller
5/8/2014 12:31:34 pm
Watch this video, Jerry, & you won't make such an absurd suggestion:
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About the blog:
Welcome to The Kosher Omnivore's Quest! My old blog on kosher slaughter, kosher meat, and animal welfare. For new content check out my new website, The Kosher Cut™. There you'll find: blog posts about shechita and related topics, educational slaughter presentations, kosher slaughter training, and a selection of high quality professional kosher slaughter equipment. Archives
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