Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics

Since the turn of the millennium, rapid advances in technology, globalized markets, and atomized politics instigated in the American and Israeli Jewish communities questions about the morals of food consumption. Contemporary issues such as workers' rights, animal welfare, environmental protection, among others, intersect with basic Jewish food ethics: while Jewish communities respect ancient laws, they also appreciate the importance of progress and look forward to a more repaired world. In these pages, readers will have the unique opportunity to delve into the minds of the brightest Modern Orthodox thinkers of the current generation. The contributions contained in Kashrut & Jewish Food Ethics by members of the progressive Orthodox Jewish association Torat Chayim are rich in detail and offer new paradigms for the practical observance of kashrut that have swirled in the ether for generations.

This volume of collected essays brings forth new paradigms in the exploration between the intersection of Judaism's concern with eating, dignity, food ethics, and animal welfare. Contained here are rabbinic reflections on the nature of Judaism's timeless concern with upholding the moral and spiritual integrity of kosher laws in theory and practice.
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is President and Dean at Valley Beit Midrash. He is an educator, social entrepreneur, activist, and the author of fourteen books on Jewish ethics. Newsweek named Rabbi Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America and the Forward named him one of the 50 most influential Jews.

"The book is a feast of valuable insights, a very useful guide on how to make our diets more consistent with kashrut and Jewish values: holier, healthier, more compassionate, more environmentally sustainable, less wasteful of land, energy, water and other resources - and more just, by avoiding foods that involve the mistreatment of workers on farms and in slaughterhouses. ... At a time when typical Jewish diets, and those of most people, contribute substantially to an epidemic of life-threatening diseases in the Jewish and other communities, to climate change and other environmental threats to humanity, and to the widespread horrific treatment of farmed animals, this book provides much 'food for thought' and practical ideas that can help produce a healthier, more compassionate, just, peaceful and environmentally sustainable world."

--Richard H. Schwartz, The Jerusalem Post

"Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics is well-organized and thoughtfully presented, offering germane and urgent issues, even for those not fully compliant with Jewish dietary laws. Its remedies are balanced, middle paths between Jewish law, rabbinic dictum, and modern realities, showing that kashrut's core values permeate Judaism, so that if the commandments are characterized as wheels driving Judaism forward, the dietary laws are their hubs and spokes. Kashrut and Jewish Food Ethics is a remarkable book, creating a mnemonic, the simple act of eating, reminding us we have custodianship of the Earth, welfare for our fellow humans, and care for ourselves." --Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World

--San Diego Jewish World