Watch our ELI Talk on “Meat and Empathy: The Root of Morality” now!

It’s live!  ELI Talks, a Jewish take on the well-known TED Talk series, invited Simon Feil to give a talk entitled “Meat and Empathy: The Root of Morality” this past June in Chicago. The talk focused on empathy as the root of moral behavior and what Jewish texts and tradition have to say about how we are to treat animals. The sources and conclusions may surprise you, and you can watch it right here:

New ELI Talk on eating meat with empathy and morality

ELI Talks, a Jewish take on the well-known TED Talk series, invited Simon Feil to give a talk entitled “Meat and Empathy: The Root of Morality” this past June in Chicago. The talk focused on empathy as the root of moral behavior and what Jewish texts and tradition have to say about how we are to treat animals. The sources and conclusions may surprise you- we’ll post the talk once it’s live in August 2015!

UPDATE! You can view it on our “Speaker Initiative” page

Introducing our Humane Slaughter Fieldtrip

We’re excited to announce a new experiential learning opportunity. After organizing a communal kosher goat slaughter as part of the 2007 Hazon Food Conference and realizing how powerful and life-changing an experience it is to witness conscious, humane shechitah first hand, we put our heads to thinking of how to bring that experience to a wider audience.

Starting in August of 2015, we will begin accepting reservations to bring small groups on experiential fieldtrips, allowing them to both witness and partake (if they choose) in the process of creating humane, kosher meat. Options will include:

• poultry (visiting the farm were they are raised, preparing them for shechitah, witnessing the shechitah and then assisting with the plucking and processing if desired.)
• goat or lamb (visiting the farm were they are raised, preparing them for shechitah, witnessing the shechitah and then assisting with the processing if desired)
• beef (visiting the slaughterhouse where they are shechted and processed, witnessing the shechitah as well as the various checks done to verify kashrut, and then assisting with the processing if desired. Farm visits may also be possible upon request).

These will be day long experiences. Some of the meat may also be available to take home or consume, but our focus will be on education and experience. There will be a shochet present, as well as an experienced educational mediator to walk your group through the experience in a meaningful, consciously-paced manner as well as to answer any questions you may have.

Please visit our Humane Slaughter Fieldtrip page or contact us with questions or to reserve an experience date.

New website launched

Kosher Conscience has been working on a new website. Now, thanks to the generous work of Aaron Hodge Silver at Springthistle Design, we have one! Stay tuned while we load in our content.