Today's Shoah

Alex Hershaft was five years old when the Nazis invaded his native Poland.  Almost immediately, half a million Jews were crowded into the Warsaw ghetto.  One in five died from disease or starvation, others were sent to the Treblinka death camp.  Those left in the Warsaw Ghetto put up a heroic fight, against impossible odds, to combat the Nazis in their ultimate destruction of the entire ghetto.   Alex and his mother survived because of the kindness of gentiles; his father is thought to have been caught and killed by the Nazis.

Dr. Alex Hershaft has a Ph.D. in chemistry and works as an environmental consultant, specializing in wastewater treatment.  He was sent to a slaughterhouse in the Midwest.  He turned a corner and saw piles of body parts – hearts, heads, and hoofs.  Horrified, he remembered the extermination camps, and could not get the images out of his mind.  He began to see other similarities between animal agriculture and the death camps in Europe:  farm animals are branded with numbers, separated from their families, taken to their death in rail cars, and murdered.

The parallels are not about the victims, but about the perpetrators. 

It was the arbitrary nature of the cruelty that struck him.  “The Christian lives, and the Jew dies; the dog lives, and the pig dies.  You need to get permission from society – to believe that it is alright that one sentient being will live, and another will die.” Hershaft says.

Dr. Alex Hershaft is the co-Founder of FARM, Farm Animal Rights Movement, the nation’s oldest, and the world’s first, organization devoted exclusively to promoting the rights of animals not to be raised for food.  In addition, he is the Founder of A Well Fed World.  He works closely with Jewish Veg, an organization that encourages Jews to embrace plant-based diets “as an expression of the Jewish values of compassion for animals, concern for health, and care of the environment.”

Why work on behalf of animals when humans suffer? 

“Animals are the most defenseless, the most vulnerable, therefore the most oppressed sentient beings on earth.  Oppressing animals is the gateway to oppressing humans”, says Dr. Hershaft.  “Everyone has the awesome power of life and death over animals.  Every time we shop for food, we literally make a choice between subsidizing life or subsidizing death”. 

Choose Life!

"VEGAN" is about "COMPASSION"

‘Vegan’ is about compassion’.  It is not just a diet.  It is about making the world a better place, not only for people, but for the billions of other inhabitants on this planet whose lives and well-being have been overlooked, habitats destroyed, some species driven to extinction, and used as vehicles for providing human satisfactions of all types. 

Vegan is about providing simple solutions to complex global issues.  The non-vegan lifestyle is a major contributor to Climate Change - the world’s current greatest threat to security and survival.   This is because methane from animal agriculture holds heat in the atmosphere more effectively than carbon dioxide.  In addition, forests are cut down to provide grazing land.

The meat and dairy based diet causes catastrophic health concerns - such as skyrocketing diabetes, cancer, heart disease, potentially devastating antibiotic resistance, along with accompanying rising health care costs. 

Then non-vegan lifestyle exacerbates world hunger since crops which could feed hungry people are fed to abused, incarcerated, soon to be slaughtered, animals while unfortunate people are hungry and starving.  The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.

Vegan is not a form of deprivation.  It is a lifestyle which embraces life, and life lived to the fullest.  Vegan holds the promise of a healthier population, a sustainable planet, and kindness and compassion for all.  Support Raoul Wallenberg Vegan International and Raoul Wallenberg Vegan Retreat.  www.VeganInternational.org and www.VeganRetreat.org.

Vegan International, Founded by Author Sharon Wallenberg, Participates at United Nations

Author Sharon Wallenberg represented Vegan International at the Anniversary of the United Nations Day of Older Persons Conference on Thursday, October 10, 2019.  Krishna Gautam, new V I International Advisory Board member, was the Keynote Speaker.  Mr. Gautam is the Founder of Aging Nepal, which teaches illiterate Grandmothers to read and write.  These Grandmothers were not given the opportunity to go to school as girls.  Education for girls was not allowed then.  Although school for girls is now accepted in Nepal, no provisions were made for the previous illiterate generation until Krishna Gautam founded Aging Nepal.  Mr. Gautam has also started a “No Kill Zone’ in Kathmandu.  According to Aging Nepal Founder, Krishna Gautam, ‘There are many bodies: people, animals, and insects - but only one life.’

Mr. Gautam also maintains that he would have been sleeping on the streets of New York if not for Sharon, who came to his rescue when he arrived from Kathmandu.  There was a problem at his hotel due to an oversight by the UN NGO Committee on Aging who was hosting Mr. Gautam.  Fortunately, between Krishna and Sharon, they straightened it out that evening, and the next morning the UN NGO Committee on Aging members arrived.

Vegan International, Founded by Sharon Wallenberg participated in the Anniversary of the UN Day of Older Persons Conference first with a proposed side event called “Healthy Aging”.  This had three parts: Diet, Exercise, and Health Care.  ‘Health Care’ was to be presented by Vegan Cardiologist, Robert Ostfeld, MD.  ‘Exercise’ was to be presented by Mindy Collette, Vegan Bodybuilder, and friend of VI Advisory Board Member, Robert Cheeke.  ‘Diet’ was to be presented by a Registered Dietitian from Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine arranged by Founder and VI Advisory Board Member, Neal Barnard, MD.  

The side events were cancelled by the UN NGO Committee on Aging, and written statements were accepted instead.  Vegan International submitted a statement on ‘Healthy Aging’ written by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., Nandita Shaw, MD., and Neal Barnard, MD.

More UN Nations Interested in Convention Against Speciesism

  

Author and Founder of Vegan International, Sharon Wallenberg met with Ambassador Abdoulaye Barro and Minister Saliou Dieng of Senegal to discuss a UN Convention Against Speciesism during a recent trip to the United Nations.  

Minister Fritzner Gaspard from Haiti also met with Ms. Wallenberg.  He suggested that Vegan International form a Caribbean coalition to support their proposed  U N Convention Against Speciesism. These developing nations are at risk of incurring diet related disease, and skyrocketing health care costs, as they develop, potentially transitioning from their traditional plant-based diet to the unsustainable meat and dairy based diet.  Additionally, these islands are vulnerable to rising water from global warming making the UN Convention Against Speciesism an attractive solution.

South African First Secretary Diyana Tayobd was ‘very keen’ to meet with Ms. Wallenberg during her recent trip to the UN.  South Africa wants to present statistics to the UN Second Committee on the relationship between Animal Agriculture (methane) and Climate Change.  Climate Change causes are being taken very seriously by South Africa.

In all, there were a total of ten Ambassadors, Deputies, Ministers, and others who met with Vegan International Founder, Sharon Wallenberg, from Tuesday, October 8 to Friday, October 11, 2019 to discuss the UN Convention Against Speciesism. Two Ambassadors were unable to schedule a meeting for this visit.  They will be met with next time.  Ultimately, Vegan International hopes to make the proposed UN Convention Against Speciesism a reality.