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Melissa Hoffman is the Humane Education and Program Specialist at the Jewish Initiative for Animals.
Melissa Hoffman is the Humane Education and Program Specialist at the Jewish Initiative for Animals.
As reopening communal life grows tantalizingly close in many parts of the U.S., Jewish institutions are considering the best ways to resume in-person activity. To reduce the risk of suffering through a similar catastrophe again any time soon, the aspect of gathering that many have missed most, and that will inevitably grace our spaces once…
On November 20, JTA published a piece highlighting an Israeli research group’s findings that burning the excrement produced by turkey and other poultry could be a “greener” alternative to coal power. But burning poultry excrement to combat climate change is a load of chicken poop. To fight climate change and protect our environment, we have…
Many worry that a new proposal to ban ritual slaughter in the Belgian region of Flanders is yet another attempt to mask anti-Semitism and Islamophobia with a disingenuous argument for animal welfare — and they’re right to be concerned. The draft law requires pre-slaughter electrical stunning of sheep and poultry. This proposed bans violate kosher…
It’s 5777, and it’s time to change the conversation about Kapparot. Next week, in the day or two before we observe Yom Kippur, we’ll hear about or participate in the long-standing Jewish folk tradition that attracts explosive debate over its use of live chickens: Kapparot, or Kapporos, a ritual practiced by some Jews in which…
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