PETA Global 2019 Issue 1

Isaac Bashevis Singer: Social Justice and Animal Rights Icon

PETA Honors

Isaac Bashevis Singer: © Miami Dade College • Joanna Krupa: © Kamil Szkopik • Paul McCartney: © 2012 MPL Communications Ltd/Photographer: Claudia Schmid • Heart hands: © iStock.com/beakraus

I saac Bashevis Singer came into this world in 1902, in Poland. Had he been born later, he might have been a PETA staffer. Before the Nazis invaded Poland, he was lucky enough to escape, following his brother to the US. Tragically, others among his friends and family members did not make it. It became his life’s work to write about injustice to all living beings. distraught, because he’d seen a man beating a pig. When he was young, it wasn’t common to be vegetarian, but as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean – fleeing persecution by people who called their victims “vermin” – he decided that he would never again cause the torture or killing of any living being. He vowed to stop eating meat. Singer refused to believe that animals were inconsequential or subordinate to humans, just as he refused to accept that belief about women or Jewish, Black, or gay people. Singer had long been sensitive to animal suffering. When he was just 3 years old, he ran to his mother,

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health. I did it for the health of the chickens.”

On the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, Polish supermodel Joanna Krupa, accompanied by PETA Vice President Dan Mathews, honored Singer with a posthumous PETA Hero to Animals Award at his childhood home in Biłgoraj. “On behalf of PETA, I’m here to celebrate Isaac’s legacy and share his voice with a new generation,” she said.

As he was preparing to perform in Kraków on Singer’s birthday, November 21, Paul McCartney sent a letter urging the Polish Parliament to honor the writer, “who, like me, used his artistic platform to support animal rights.” The request was granted in a public declaration read aloud in parliament.

In a story titled “The Letter Writer,” he noted about animals, “In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.”

In a foreword to a book about animal protection, Singer wrote the following:

What gives a man the right to kill an animal, often torture it, so that he can fill his belly with its flesh? We know now, as we have always known instinctively, that animals can suffer as much as human beings. Their emotions and their sensitivity are often stronger than those of a human being. Various philosophers and religious leaders tried to convince their disciples and followers that animals are nothing more than machines without a soul, without feelings. However, anyone who has ever lived with an animal – be it a dog, bird, or even a mouse – knows that this theory is a brazen lie invented to justify cruelty.

“Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.”

Oscar winner Natalie Portman partnered with PETA to film a stirring tribute to the Nobel Prize–winning author. The video features music by Moby and was directed by Bob Dylan’s son, filmmaker Jesse Dylan, both of whom cite Singer as an inspiration. “Decades ago, one man articulated the plight of animals so boldly that the modern world couldn’t ignore him,” Portman says in the video. “The heroes in his novels championed women’s issues, gay marriage, and especially animal rights, decades before PETA pushed the cause into the mainstream.” Watch the video at PETA.org/CelebrateSinger .

Singer died in 1991, but his words still inspire readers to defend animals.

T H E R E ’ S A P E R S O N I N T H E R E • T H E R E ’ S A P E R S O N I N T H E R E

In his short story “The Slaughterer,” Singer wrote about a young man who loved animals but was appointed by the rabbi to be his town’s ritual slaughterer. Tormented, he pondered the roots of violence. “As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures, there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony,” Singer wrote. “Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.”

Take Action Now Are you ready to fight cruelty and injustice at least three times a day?

Visit PETA.org/VSK to get started. You can also leave a legacy of compassion by remembering PETA in your will. Visit PETA.org/Legacy to learn more.

Global

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