Why Vegans Should Spend Time with Farmers and Their Animals: 5 years on a Jewish Farm
Sarah Chandler

Daily goat milking and egg collection, a kosher cheese business, animal slaughter four times per year - each an essential component of Adamah, the largest Jewish educational farm in America. Hear from a vegan about her experience as role models and educator for the staff and interns living and working at this farm. 

Can Milk Be Kosher when it Comes from Factory Farms?
Rabbi Aryeh Bernstein

We're not allowed to drink milk from forbidden animals, yet we don't always know whether an animal is permitted until after we slaughter and check it? How do the Sages permit drinking milk, and what how would that apply to contemporary, factory conditions?​

Getting Animals on the Jewish Agenda: How You Can Help
Professor  Aaron Gross

​Animal welfare and the fight against factory farming are of deep concern to large numbers of Jews, but these issues receive little attention in institutional Jewish life. All that will be changing, though, as the new Jewish Initiative for Animals launches a set of resources that will make it easy for you to get animals on the agenda in your local Jewish community. Come find out more and be part of the changing the way American Judaism speaks out for animals!

What are the challenges of talking to kids about animal-based issues?
​Melissa Hoffman

What can we do to bring these conversations to kids in ways that instill empathy towards others?
 
Industrial animal agriculture and myriad other animal-based issues are difficult concepts to grasp and face even as adults – but as Jewish educators, parents, and community members we can empower ourselves and kids in our lives to understand the world's problems and possibilities by shifting our perspective. Jewish tradition and the humane education movement give us a variety of resources and ways to address our relationship to all animals and foster empathy for all living beings.

Heart Health: A Plant Based Miracle
Dr.  Joel Kahn

Dr. Joel Kahn  has practiced cardiology for over 30 years and has cared for tens of thousands of patients.  He has seen how a lifestyle centered on plant based diets can heal both the heart and the soul and improve both the quality and quantity of life.  The scientific data that even advanced heart disease can be prevented and reversed is one of the true "miracles" of modern medicine and Dr. Kahn will explore this.  The Jewish perspective of our relationship to our environment and animal rights going back to to the time of Noah and even before will be woven in to the healing process of a "kind" plate.

Israel’s Vegan Revolution
Eric Lawrence 

5% of the Israeli population eschewing animal products. What inspired this widespread veganism? There is evidence that close proximity to factory farms as well as deeply critical halachic processes have lead to this trend in both secular and religious communities. Through excerpts from recent articles and Jewish text study, we will explore this question together. ​

Cultivating Compassion  & Responsibility in the 21st Century
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

To whom are we responsible? How much must we sacrifice for the needs of the other? How do we understand our obligation to humans differently from our obligations to animals? 
 
In this session, Rabbi Shmuly will be engaging us in an exploration of Jewish texts (classical & modern) and will be leading us in a workshop to identify our value priorities & to concretize our middot (character traits) in line with those values. ​