documentary with a powerful Jewish message
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Shalom,
As a follow-up to the review of "A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish
Values to Help Heal the World" in the November-December Associations
of Jewish Librarians newsletter, please note that the Jewish
Vegetarians of Norh America (JVNA) will be happy to provide a
complimentary DVD to each librarian who requests one.
More information about the movie is in the article below.
Best wishes,
Richard (Schwartz)
president, JVNA
NEW DOCUMENTARY APPLIES JEWISH VALUES TO ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH, HUMANE ISSUES
Richard H. Schwartz
Because the world is heading rapidly toward an unprecedented
catastrophe from global warming and other environmental threats,
Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) has produced a
documentary, A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE
WORLD, to address these threats from a positive Jewish perspective.
JVNA will send a free copy to anyone who will help arrange a
screening or help promote the movie in some other way.
Almost daily there are reports of severe droughts, floods, storms or
wildfires, of the melting of glaciers and polar icecaps and other
indicators of global warming. It is frightening that, while these
effects are due to an increase in temperature of less than 1.5
degrees Fahrenheit in the past 100 years, the Nobel Prize-winning
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group composed of
hundreds of the world's climate scientists, is projecting an increase
of 3 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 100 years. Even more
ominous is that some climate scientists, including James Hansen of
NASA, are warning that global warming may reach a tipping point and
spiral out of control within a decade, with disastrous consequences,
unless major changes are soon made. Israel is especially vulnerable
to global climate change, in terms of reduced rainfall, severe storms
and flooding from a rising Mediterranean Sea.
A SACRED DUTY is a Jewish response to these realities. It reminds us
that it is our sacred duty to become aware of current threats and our
responsibility to apply Jewish teachings to how we obtain our food,
use natural resources, and live among other creatures whom God
created. It offers simple, practical measures for reducing our impact
on the planet, including "an inconvenient truth" that even Al Gore
has not yet acknowledged.
Produced by the highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning film maker,
Lionel Friedberg, A SACRED DUTY reinforces the messages in Al Gore's
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and Leonardo di Caprio's, THE ELEVENTH HOUR
about the dangers of global warming. However, it goes beyond these
films, by showing how religious responses can make a major difference
and why a shift toward plant-based diets is an essential part of
efforts to reduce global climate change and other environmental
threats. It also challenges people to consider the many moral issues
related to our diets, including Torah teachings on how animals are
treated on factory farms and the effects on human health and the environment.
Although it is primarily intended for a Jewish audience, A SACRED
DUTY speaks to people everywhere about the ethics of our relationship
to the natural world in which we live. The movie's universal message
will appeal to anyone interested in such topics as biblical
teachings, Israel, the environment, health, nutrition, vegetarianism,
hunger and resource usage. The movie may be said to be like Levy's
Jewish Rye bread - you do not have to be Jewish to appreciate it.
The documentary features interviews with leading Israeli and American
environmental, health, vegetarian and animal rights activists as well
as Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and secular leaders.
Interviewees include: Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, Ashkenazic Chief
Rabbi of Haifa; Rabbi David Rosen, Former Chief Rabbi of Ireland
and International Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American
Jewish Committee; Dr. Yeshayahu Bar-Or, Chief Scientist: Israel
Environmental Ministry and many other rabbis and Jewish leaders and activists.
Biblical passages are read by the acclaimed Jewish star of Broadway
and screen Theodore Bikel
A SACRED DUTY and the many activities being planned around it have
the potential to help move our imperiled world toward a sustainable
path. But only if the movie is widely viewed and discussed.
So, please order your FREE copy and please consider taking one or
more of the following actions after viewing the movie: have viewings
for family, neighbors and friends; try to schedule showings at a
local school, a synagogue and/or other houses of worship, a community
center or other communal site, etc.; share the DVD with local rabbis
and other religious leaders, teachers, politicians and other local
influential people.
You can request a free DVD to share by sending your name and mailing
address to JVNA's secretary/treasurer John
Diamond ([email protected]). If you feel that you can profitably use
more than one DVD, just let John know, with a brief description of
how you plan to use them. Additional information about the movie may
be found at www.asacredduty.com.
JVNA plans to build a major campaign around the movie to get tikkun
olam (the repair and healing of the world) to become a central focus
in Jewish life today, with a shift toward plant-based diets as an
essential part of the changes that can help move our imperiled planet
to a sustainable path. If you would like to be involved in the
campaign or have suggestions, please contact Richard Schwartz
at [email protected].
=======================
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island
Author of "Judaism and Vegetarianism," "Judaism and Global Survival,"
and "Mathematics and Global Survival," and over 130 articles at
www.JewishVeg.com/schwartz
President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) www.JewishVeg.com
and Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV)
Associate Producer of A SACRED DUTY (asacredduty.com)
Director of Veg Climate Alliance (www.vegclimatealliance.org)
[email protected]
---
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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