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Engaging Religion - Sun. 2:00pm
Engaging Christian, Jewish, Moslem, and minor religious denominations

Presenters: Dalal, Friedrich, Kalechofsky, Kaufman

Saurabh Dalal
President, Vegetarian Society of DC; Deputy Chair, International Vegetarian Union

From experiences working in a local group as well as views of some societies from around the world, Saurabh will reflect on failures and successes of volunteer-based, local groups.  He will examine some trends in groups and activities, the benefit of strong teamwork and consensus-building, the need to balance strategic planning vs tactical efforts, and suggest some helpful resources for organizers.

Bruce Friedrich
Senior director for strategic initiatives, Farm Sanctuary

Bruce will be speaking of his experience as a Roman Catholic animal rights activist about the most effective way of influencing people of faith—specifically, by appealing to the religious values that they already hold. He'll be giving examples of how to deal with specific challenges.



Roberta Kalechofsky
Fiction writer, speaker, essayist, publisher, Micah Publications

A history of vegetarianism in the Jewish religion.  My argument is that vegetarianism is a strong current in the Jewish religion, from the establishment of vegetarianism in the Garden of Eden, to the vegetarian practice of the first chief rabbis of mandatory Palestine.  I will discuss the position of the temple in both curtailing the eating of meat and in preserving it as a tradition.

Isaiah's criticism of temple practice and his interest in diet frugality and agricultural  habits as a means of national defense.

Finally, cookbooks as the best means to argue the case for a particular ethnic vegetarianism. It is important to anchor dietary habits in ritual and tradition. Every tradition has great vegetarian recipes that can be used at holiday times.

My example will be our "Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook" and "The Vegetarian Shabbat Cookbook"

 

Stephen Kaufman
Chair, Christian Vegetarian Association

Many people have the impression that Christianity is hostile to animal protectionism and animal rights. While there are biblical stories and passages that seem to undermine animal rights, biblical ideals point to a strong animal protection ethic. I will suggest simple and effective ways to discuss animal issues with Christians who use the Bible as a weapon against animals.