Asa Keisar (born September 1, 1973) is an Israeli religious scholar, known for his views on veganism as both a Torah imperative to avoid cruelty to animals, as well as it being the Torah’s ideal for mankind. He has served in the IDF, and became a vegan after learning about the widespread animal abuse that is today part of modern industrial agriculture.
He is the author of "
Velifnei Iver HaShalem" (In Front of The Blind), in which he states that eating meat and animal byproducts is no longer permitted according to Jewish sources, because of the cruelty inflicted on animals by the modern mass production of meat, dairy and eggs. The book is distributed to tens of thousands of yeshiva students throughout Israel annually.
He states that the origin of veganism is the Torah, and that it is a Torah ideal. He explains that although eating meat is permitted, not everything permitted in the Torah should necessarily be done. That the Torah permits eating meat only as a concession, in the same way it permits owning slaves or having relations with a woman against her will during a time of war.
His ten minute lecture, Religious Veganism, discussing what the Torah, Talmud and scholars have to say about meat consumption has been viewed on YouTube by over two million Israelis.
In 2017 the President of Israel
commended him, saying; “You are doing groundbreaking work, nothing less than a true revolution. I am hopeful more and more people will join your righteous journey so that Israel will become a light among the nations regarding it’s compassionate treatment of animals.”
He is a frequent lecturer at universities, elementary and high schools, religious and non-religious, and yeshivot across Israel.
Asa has dedicated his life to spreading the message of Veganism based on Jewish values and he is 100% donation backed.
The “Lechatchila” foundation has been supporting all of Asa’s work and wishes to continue doing that with your contribution. In addition to the continued support for book printing and distribution and our lecturing activity, we’d like to expand into the following:
1. Expand the reach of this important message beyond the boundaries of Israel by translating the book into English, printing it in thousands of copies and distributing it for free to Yeshivot and Jewish communities around the US.
2. Translate Asa's lectures and videos into English and promote them on Youtube in order to get as much exposure as possible.
3. Establish an educational team that will work on writing and editing textbooks on the subject of our enterprise and integrating them into the educational institutions in Israel, including elementary and high schools.
4. Establish an advertising campaign for veganism throughout Israel by producing, editing and financing the dissemination of videos, conferences, workshops and information in various forms.
