Welcome to the WINTER 2016 issue of the Jewish Vegetarian. What a year it has been!
Highlights of 2016 include:
· Raising £50,000 for a brand new community centre dedicated to promoting animal welfare. (See page 4 for an update on the building work).
· Marking 50 years of this publication with a special edition in the autumn.
· Running a double stand at this year’s Gefiltefest: London Jewish Food Festival.
· Attracting a record number of new membership sign-ups. · Taking on the Big Green Jewish campaign, more about that on page 5.
· Hosting 400 people over the high holidays, our largest ever pop-up.
· Teaming up with Shabbat UK
The movement as a whole has made great strides over the last twelve months:
· Veganism was declared one of the fastest growing lifestyle movements in Britain.
· An All Party Parliamentary Group for Vegetarianism and Veganism has just been created.
· New veggie eateries are popping up everywhere, see page 20 for some of our favourites.
· Supermarket shelves are filling up with more and more kinder alternatives, making it even easier for us to align our actions with our ethics.
In this, our last issue of 2016, read about the ‘incredibly disturbing’ scenes uncovered in a kosher slaughterhouse in South America on page 6. It proves that we have so much work still to do as a movement. There’s a full news round-up over on page 11, and some wonderfully warming winter recipes on page 21. With 2017 just around the corner, we are eagerly awaiting the release of the film version of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, ‘Eating Animals’, which has played a big role in inspiring people to become vegetarian. As always, we love hearing from you. Please get in touch via [email protected] with ideas you have for this magazine, and for our events or campaigns.
Lara Smallman, Director of the Jewish Vegetarian Society