How many Jewish vegans do you know?

Here's a list of prominent rabbis and community leaders who have come out in support of veganism, from Rabbi David Rosen to Franz Kafka.

Writer and activist Ori Shavit. (photo credit: REVITAL TOPIOL)
Writer and activist Ori Shavit.
(photo credit: REVITAL TOPIOL)

Jerusalem Report logo small (photographer: JPOST STAFF)
Jerusalem Report logo small (photographer: JPOST STAFF)

Rabbi David Rosen, the former chief rabbi of Ireland who now lives in Jerusalem and serves as the American Jewish Committee’s International Director of Interreligious Affairs, was one of 75 rabbis from across the globe and across the religious spectrum who signed a landmark statement in 2017 calling on Jews to align sacred teachings with their eating habits and go vegan. The list includes prominent American Masorti Rabbi David Wolpe, the Israel-based Talmud scholar, Rabbi Daniel Sperber, who made aliyah from London, Rabbi Raymond Apple, the former senior rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Sydney, and Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris, the principal of Leo Baeck College in London. “We... encourage our fellow Jews to transition toward animal-free, plant-based diets,” they said. “This approach to sustenance is an expression of our shared Jewish values of compassion for animals, protection of the environment, and concern for our physical and spiritual well-being.”

Rabbi David Rosen. (photographer: WIKIPEDIA)
Rabbi David Rosen. (photographer: WIKIPEDIA)

Notable rabbis who were vegetarian or partial to vegetarianism, according to Wikipedia, include David Cohen (known as Ha’Nazir), Shlomo Goren, Jonathan Sacks, She’ar Yashuv Cohen, Yitzhak Halevi Herzog, Joseph Soloveitchik, Abraham Isaac Kook, Elyse Goldstein and Asa Keisar.

Notable Jewish vegetarians, the Wikipedia entry says, include Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Reuven Rivlin, Franz Kafka, Jonathan Safran Foer, Aaron S. Gross, Ori Shavit, Roberta Kalechofsky, Natalie Portman and Richard H. Schwartz.