Roberta Kalechofsky
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2008-06-22T23:29:12Z
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'''Roberta Kalechofsky''' (born [[May 11]], [[1931]]) is an [[United States|American]] writer, [[Feminism|feminist]] and [[animal rights]] activist, focusing on the issue of animal rights within [[Judaism]] and the promotion of [[vegetarian]]ism within the [[Jew]]ish community. She is the founder of Jews for Animal Rights and runs Micah Publications, which specializes in the publication of animal-rights and vegetarian literature.
She is the author of ''Animal Suffering and the Holocaust: The Problem with Comparisons'' (2003), as well as seven works of [[fiction]], [[poetry]], two collections of essays, and a monograph on [[George Orwell]]. <ref>[http://www.micahbooks.com/speaker.html Roberta Kalechofsky's biography], Micah Publications.</ref> Micah, which Kalechofsky founded in 1975, has published two [[Haggadah|haggadot]] for a vegetarian [[Passover Seder|seder]], one of which, ''Haggadah for the Liberated Lamb'', has been exhibited at [[Harvard University]] in an exhibit on food and politics, and at the [[Jewish Museum (New York)|Jewish Museum in New York]].
Philosopher [[Tom Regan]] has said of Kalechofsky, "[o]f all the historians of ideas with whom I am familiar, if I had a choice between listening to just one of them, I would not hesitate to choose Roberta. She is that good, that worth spending time with." <ref name=Braun>Braun, Nathan. [http://www.utoronto.ca/wjudaism/encyclopedia/e_k.html "Roberta Kalechofsky"], Women in Judaism, 2002.</ref>
==Education and teaching==
Kalechofksy attended [[Brooklyn College]], receiving her B.A. in 1952, followed by an M.A. in English literature from [[New York University]] in 1956, and a Ph.D. from the same university in 1970, also in English literature. She has taught at the [[University of Connecticut]] and [[Brooklyn College]].
==Jews for Animal Rights==
Kalechofsky founded Jews for Animal Rights in 1985 with the aim of upholding and spread the [[Talmud]]ic prohibition against causing suffering to living creatures, known as ''tza'ar ba'alei hayyim''. The group promotes the ideas of Rabbi [[Abraham Isaac Kook|Abraham Kook]] on [[vegetarianism]], and campaigns to find alternatives to [[animal testing]]. <ref>[http://www.micahbooks.com/JAR.html Jews for Animal Rights website]</ref>
==Works==
*''Autobiography of A Revolutionary: Essays on My Life as an Animal Rights Activist''. Micah Publications, 1991.
*''Bodmin, 1349''
*''The Martyrdom of Stephen Werner''
*''Solomon's Wisdom and Other Stories''
*''Job Enters a Pain Clinic''
*''Justice My Brother, My Sister''
*''Orestes in Progress''
*''A View of Toledo''
==Honours==
* 1987: Literary Fellowship in Fiction, Massachusetts Council on the Arts.
* 1982: Honorary Membership in Israel Bibliopile Society.
* 1982: Literary Fellowship in Creative Writing, National Endowment for the Arts; publishing grant from Massachusetts Council on the Arts.
* 1980: Grant from National Endowment for the Arts in small Press Publishing; finalist in Massachusetts Council on the Arts Fellowship in Fiction.
* 1977: Finalist in Massachusetts Council on the Arts Fellowship in Fiction; cited for Distinctive Writing in Best American Short Stories of 1977; grant from National Endowment for the Arts in Small Press Publishing.
* 1976: Cited for Distinctive Writing in Best American Short Stories of 1976.
* 1972: Included in Best American Short Stories of 1972.
==See also==
*[[Jewish ethics#Animals and the environment|Animals and the environment in Jewish ethics]]
*[[Animal rights and the Holocaust]]
==Notes==
<references/>
==Further reading==
*"The Evolution of An Independent Publisher," ''Judaica Book News'', 1983
*Cohen, Noah J. ''Tsa'ar ba'ale hayim: The prevention of cruelty to animals: its bases, development, and legislation in Hebrew literature'', New York: Feldheim, 1979.
*Kaganoff, P. "An Independent Woman of Words," ''The Jewish Monthly'', 1988
*Kalechofsky, R. ''Animal Suffering and the Holocaust: The Problem with Comparisons'', 2003. ISBN 0-916288-49-8
*Kalechofksy, R. (ed.) ''Judaism and Animal Rights: Classical and Contemporary Responses'', a collection of 41 articles by rabbis, doctors, veterinarians, and philosophers on animal rights and Judaism, 1992. ISBN 0-916288-35-8
*Kalechofksy, R. ''Vegetarian Judaism: A Guide for Everyone'', 1998. ISBN 0-916288-45-5
*Kalechofsky, Roberta. [http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/issue4.html#5 Book Review by Urrutia of "A Boy, a Chicken, and the Lion of Judah: How Ari became a Vegetarian"].
*Patterson, C. ''Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust'', 2002. ISBN 1-930051-99-9
*Schwartz, R. ''The Schwartz Collection on Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights''.
*Walden, D. (ed.) "American Jewish Writers, ''Dictionary of Literary Biographies'', vol 28, 1984.
*[http://www.micahbooks.com/JAR.html Jews for Animal Rights website]
*[http://www.jewishveg.com/ Jewish Vegetarians of North America]
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[[Category:Animal rights movement]]
[[Category:Jewish American writers]]
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American activists]]
[[Category:American feminists]]
[[Category:American vegetarians]]