Center for Jewish Food Ethics

06/17/2026

Eden Village West makes sure Jewish values always have a seat at the table. 🪑

Their fully organic, vegetarian, and inclusive dining program is a product of years of intentional investment in camp culture, infrastructure, and relationships.

Every summer camp can learn from their model, without needing to be at the same stage of readiness or working toward the same goals.

Why? Because the strategies that make EVW's dining program stand out are about more than what foods end up on the table, it’s about creating an environment where stewardship, compassion, and justice influence every decision, meal, and program through intentional framing, experiential education opportunities, and culture building.

Our new case study offers valuable context about Jewish values in the food system and takeaways any camp can act on.

Read the case study: www.jewishfoodethics.org/learn/case-study-aligning-camp-food-with-jewish-values

Our case study captures how Eden Village West, a Jewish sleepaway camp in Northern California, makes Jewish values come alive in the dining hall.

06/16/2026

If you’re in the Denver, Colorado area, join us on June 28th for an event at Ekar Farm. We’ll be learning about Jewish teachings on water and drought, as well as actionable ways we can conserve water in our daily practices.

If you're not local to Colorado but know folks who are, tag them below or send them this post!

Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaDPH6fr7iyI8trblFQk3yy1mBRi-xr4v0EiPVK5T7aavUeA/viewform

Ekar Farm Colorado Jewish Climate Action

06/11/2026

This week, a letter we signed as one of 25 faith organizations, along with 212 faith leaders from 30 denominations and traditions, is being hand-delivered to all 100 U.S. Senate offices.

The letter details why we are collectively opposing the "Save Our Bacon" amendment to the Farm Bill, a provision that would strip states of the right to set their own animal welfare standards and could override as many as 600+ laws covering animal welfare, food safety, and disease control.

Among those at stake are California's Prop. 12 and Massachusetts' Question 3, passed by voters with overwhelming majorities, which simply require that farmed animals have enough room to turn around, lie down, and extend their limbs.

This is a nonpartisan issue. The pork industry has challenged these protections repeatedly, through legislation and seven lawsuits, including one that reached the Supreme Court. Big Pork lost every time. Let’s keep it that way, since they remain committed to causing extreme suffering for the sake of profit.

Help ensure that NO iteration of “Save Our Bacon” is part of any . We encourage you to read the letter we signed and to contact your senators today.

The letter: https://www.farmforward.com/news/a-moral-line/
Contact your senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

A letter signed by hundreds of clergy and faith leaders across traditions is being hand-delivered to every U.S. Senate office, calling on senators to strip the "Save Our Bacon" amendment from the 2026 Farm Bill.

06/10/2026

A letter signed by hundreds of clergy and faith leaders across traditions is being hand-delivered to every U.S. Senate office, calling on senators to strip the "Save Our Bacon" amendment from the 2026 Farm Bill.

05/20/2026

Include our new resource in your Shavuot learning!

"Shavuot, Dairy, and Jewish Food Ethics" discusses where the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot may have come from and offers explanations and reflections for each text source, connecting them to our contemporary world and food practices.

Download and share the free PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YW90BgqifPwPZPnGWM1wanu4RKLWs2-0/view?usp=sharing

05/18/2026

📣 Calling all clergy and faith leaders 📣

We've signed an interfaith letter opposing the so-called "Save Our Bacon" (SOB) amendment in the U.S. Farm Bill, and we're inviting you to join the almost 100 clergy and faith leaders who have signed in the past several days.

Despite its cutesy name, this amendment would have serious consequences. It would override 600+ established state and local laws, invalidate animal welfare protections enacted by voters in California, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, and permanently strip every state of the ability to regulate how meat and eggs sold within its borders are produced.

The pork industry has tried this before, as the King Amendment, as the EATS Act, and in seven lawsuits, including one that went to the Supreme Court. It lost every time. Now it's back, and SOB is in the Farm Bill the House forwarded to the Senate.

We see this as a deeply important moral issue, sitting at the intersection of animal welfare, food ethics, and democratic accountability. Faith leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and other traditions are signing on together.

✉️ Read the letter: https://tinyurl.com/interfaith-sob

✍️ Sign as an individual faith leader: https://tinyurl.com/individual-sob
🏛️ Sign on behalf of a faith organization: https://tinyurl.com/organization-sob

Please share this with clergy and faith leaders in your networks — every signature matters. Thank you!

05/13/2026

Cheesecake may be the most recognizable (Ashkenazi) Shavuot food—but why dairy became associated with the holiday is far more mysterious, layered, and fascinating than many of us realize.

Shavuot, Dairy, and Jewish Food Ethics is designed for holiday learning at your table, in your community, or on your own, exploring the many interpretations Jewish tradition has offered for the custom—complete with sources, reflections, and discussion questions.

This resource invites us to ask what these traditions might mean in a world shaped by industrial dairy production and its impacts on animals, people, and the environment.

It also offers an opportunity to reclaim and reimagine Jewish food practices in ways that more fully reflect the values these traditions were meant to embody.

05/12/2026

📣Urgent action item for clergy📣

Join fellow clergy in signing an interfaith letter opposing the so-called “Save Our Bacon” (SOB) amendment currently advancing in the U.S. Farm Bill.

✉️ Read the letter here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DJPimM3A0JMQfu-K_mLPkVqhHZ51dPC47WVL3DRpG_g/edit?tab=t.0

Despite its name, this amendment would have sweeping consequences. It would override over 600 state and local laws, invalidate animal welfare protections passed by voters in states like California and Massachusetts, and permanently strip states of the ability to regulate how meat and eggs sold within their borders are produced.

This proposal has appeared before under names like the King Amendment and the EATS Act—and has repeatedly failed, including in challenges that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. Now the pork industry is trying again.

At the Center for Jewish Food Ethics, we see this as a deeply important issue at the intersection of animal welfare, food ethics, and democratic process. Faith leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and other traditions are being invited to sign on.

I hope you’ll join me:

✍ Sign as an individual clergy / religious leader: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc5m7U1JFqmAZAihLmZJajFFgx-8c73OzpduZ3_xTix4XehGQ/viewform

✍ Sign on behalf of a religious organization or community: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSegc5APc_uzPQ-FN7cJV0rBUfX6iRynHflrw2Kl_8laWmzdWg/viewform

We'd also be grateful if you would share this with other clergy and faith leaders in your networks who may wish to participate.

Thank you for lending your voice at this critical moment!

This form is for FAITH ORGANIZATIONS. FAITH LEADERS can sign on here. Signed by a wide variety of faith organizations, this letter urges the United States Senate to reject the "Save Our Bacon" ("SOB") amendment, Section 12006 of the Farm Bill passed by the House of Representatives, now being conside...

05/01/2026

The House just passed the so-called Farm Bill, and it does nothing to address America's growing hunger crisis and the largest cut to SNAP in history.

As a direct result of last summer's Republican budget cuts, millions of Americans have been plunged into hunger as their life-saving food benefits are ripped away. States are desperately scrambling. More people are being thrown off these programs every day. This bill does not meet the moment.

The House had a chance to come together and fix at least some of the damage done.

This fight is not over. We are now calling on the Senate to stand up for those in need.

Read our full statement: https://mazon.org/news/mazon_statements/farm-bill-house-vote/

04/27/2026

This Farm Bill locks in the $187 billion in cuts Republicans made to SNAP last summer and wholly ignores the suffering of hungry Americans.

We recently joined more than 30 national faith organizations in writing to Congress with one message: feeding oneself and one's family is a matter of human dignity, and charity alone cannot make up for vast federal resources.

Hungry veterans, children, and seniors will pay the price. Congress must restore SNAP.

Help make this point heard, before it's too late, by contacting your representatives and asking that they vote no on the .

Thank you : A Jewish Response to Hunger for helping to organize and amplify interfaith community voices.