Eco Kosher
Title
Eco Kosher
Creator
Innovations in Jewish Life Collections
Date
2023
Contributor
Gregg Drinkwater, Hilary Kalisman, Samira Mehta, Maggie Rosenau
Rights
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Format
Portable Document Format
Language
English
Text
The dietary laws of kashrut, the traditional principles defining food as kosher or not kosher, are focused on allowed and forbidden categories of animals based on biblical passages.
Starting in the late 1970s, rabbis and activists affiliated with the Jewish Renewal movement and Reconstructionist Judaism (another U.S.-born Jewish movement) began arguing for an expansion of the idea of kashrut to also consider the environ-mental, social, and eth-ical aspects of our modern food system. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1924-2014), a founder of Jewish Renewal and a long-time Boulder resident, coined the term “eco-kashrut” to describe this focus on connecting an ethos of sustainability, environmental consciousness, and social justice to traditional Jewish understandings of kashrut. Rabbi Arthur Waskow centered this focus on sustainable eating and living in much of his work in the 1990s and 2000s. For Rabbi Waskow and Reb Zalman (as many in the Jewish Renewal world called him), Judaism’s core ethical values required a reimagining of how and what we eat.
Starting in the late 1970s, rabbis and activists affiliated with the Jewish Renewal movement and Reconstructionist Judaism (another U.S.-born Jewish movement) began arguing for an expansion of the idea of kashrut to also consider the environ-mental, social, and eth-ical aspects of our modern food system. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1924-2014), a founder of Jewish Renewal and a long-time Boulder resident, coined the term “eco-kashrut” to describe this focus on connecting an ethos of sustainability, environmental consciousness, and social justice to traditional Jewish understandings of kashrut. Rabbi Arthur Waskow centered this focus on sustainable eating and living in much of his work in the 1990s and 2000s. For Rabbi Waskow and Reb Zalman (as many in the Jewish Renewal world called him), Judaism’s core ethical values required a reimagining of how and what we eat.
Files
Citation
Innovations in Jewish Life Collections, “Eco Kosher,” IJL Digital Exhibits, accessed April 30, 2024, https://embodiedjudaism.omeka.net/items/show/133.