A Major Documentary on Current Environmental Threats and How Jewish Teachings Can Be Applied in Responding to These Threats Our planet is imperiled as perhaps never before by global warming and other environmental threats. It is urgent that steps be taken immediately to avoid the unprecedented catastrophe toward which the world is rapidly heading. Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) has produced a major documentary about how Jewish teachings can help address current environmental crises. While this one-hour documentary -- entitled A SACRED DUTY: Applying Jewish Values To Help Heal the World -- is especially suitable for synagogues, temples, JCCs, Jewish schools and other Jewish institutions, its universal message also makes it appropriate for showings at Christian, other religions' and secular institutions, and at film festivals. A SACRED DUTY speaks to people everywhere about the ethics of our relationship to our natural world and why it is imperative that we respond quickly to help shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path. Key climate scientists, including James Hansen of NASA, warn that we may reach a tipping point within a decade after which global warming could spiral out of control, with disastrous consequences. Recent reports, including the landmark "Livestock's Long Shadow," by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, highlight the disastrous contributions of modern, intensive animal-based agriculture to this crisis. Israel's special vulnerabilities to global climate change, in terms of reduced rainfall, severe storms and flooding from a rising Mediterranean Sea make this documentary urgent and timely. A SACRED DUTY is a Jewish response to these issues. It reminds us that it is our sacred duty to become aware of these realities and our responsibility to apply Jewish teachings to how we obtain our food, use natural resources, and live among other creatures whom God created. It offers simple, practical measures for reducing our impact on the planet. Produced by the highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning documentarian, Lionel Friedberg, A SACRED DUTY will take its place alongside Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and Leonardo di Caprio's THE ELEVENTH HOUR as another powerful expose of the dangers of global warming. However, it goes beyond the latter two films, by showing how religious responses can make a major difference and why a shift toward plant-based diets is an essential part of efforts to reduce global climate change and other environmental threats.
