OLIVER HOLMES: ‘There’s a wildcard option that some Israeli Jews have started using when they can’t find a restaurant with a kosher certificate: vegan food… A growing religious zeal for veganism has been further fostered by rabbis who question whether the faithful should eat animals at all, especially under modern farming methods considered inhumane. Animal abuse is explicitly forbidden in the Bible. “The world has changed. We don’t have a choice. We must become vegan,” says religious scholar, Asa Keisar, a figurehead of the campaign for Jewish veganism. “There is no kosher meat at all”…
From a tiny faction of outliers just five years ago, Israeli vegans now say they make up 5% of the country’s population, a higher percentage than anywhere else in the world. An estimated 500 restaurants are vegan or have substantial plant-based dishes on their menus. Tel Aviv is often referred to as the world’s “vegan capital”… “Veganism is almost mainstream,” said Ori Shavit, a consultant for Israeli restaurants hoping to cater for the growing camp. Ideas spread fast in a country of 8 million. Judaism has helped too, she says, because the kosher diet means Jews, even many secular ones, have a culture of checking what is in their food’. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: