"This lecture will explore how the Jewish community is and could be responding to the challenge of eating ethically in the age of the factory farm. Factory farms now raise 99% of the animals eaten by Americans, including those sold as kosher. How did this happen and how can Jewish values and Jewish thinkers help us respond? Drawing on Jewish resources you’d expect — like Tanakh, Talmudic teachings, Maimonides, and other classical Jewish thinkers — as well as contemporary Jewish thinkers you may be learning about for the first time — including novelist Jonathan Safran Foer and the eminent French philosopher, Jaques Derrida — this lecture and discussion will leave you more informed and more inspired!
Aaron S. Gross is a professor of Jewish studies at the University of San Diego and the founder and CEO of the animal protection group, Farm Forward. Gross recently received a grant that will support the creation of a new Jewish animal ethics initiative that will launch in 2016. He is the author of numerous academic publications including his brand new book, The Question of the Animal and Religion, published by Columbia University Press.
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