Roberta Kalechofsky (May 11, 1931 – April 5, 2022)[2] was an American writer, feminist and animal rights activist, focusing on the issue of animal rights within Judaism and the promotion of vegetarianism within the Jewish community. She was the founder of Jews for Animal Rights and Micah Publications or Micah Books, which specializes in the publication of animal rights, Jewish vegetarianism, and Holocaust literature.
Kalechofsky was married to Robert Kalechofsky—a retired mathematics professor from Salem State University who was also a vegetarian—until his death in December 2020.[1][4] They appeared together representing Micah Books at publisher, writer, vegetarian, and animal advocacy events around North America, including the Boston Vegetarian Society's annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Their two sons each have earned doctorates.
Kalechofsky was the author of Animal Suffering and the Holocaust: The Problem with Comparisons (2003), as well as poetry, seven works of illustrative fiction, two collections of essays, and a monograph on George Orwell.[4] Micah Publications, which Kalechofsky founded in 1975, has published two haggadot for a vegetarian 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 in New York.[4]
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."[5]
Kalechofsky founded Jews for Animal Rights (JAR) in 1985 with the aim of upholding and spread the Talmudic prohibition against causing suffering to living creatures, known as tza'ar ba'alei hayyim. The group promotes the ideas of Rabbi Abraham Kookonvegetarianism, and campaigns to find alternatives to animal testing.
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. ISBN0-916288-49-8
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. ISBN0-916288-35-8
Kalechofksy, R. Vegetarian Judaism: A Guide for Everyone, 1998. ISBN0-916288-45-5
Patterson, C. Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust, 2002. ISBN1-930051-99-9
Schwartz, R. The Schwartz Collection on Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights.
Walden, D. (ed.) "American Jewish Writers", Dictionary of Literary Biographies, vol. 28, 1984.
