anyone know if there was any sort of retraction/apology?
No real retraction. Just printed a bunch of critical letters and said they would try to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Here is the response my friend received via email:
“Dear ,
You are rightfully upset about the Vegan article that was featured last week. We have decided to print a large selection of our readers' letters of indignation with the acknowledgement that they represent Torah haskafah.
By way of explanation, every word that appears in Mishpacha Magazine is read by the Rabbinical Board. In fact, this very article appeared in the Hebrew-language Mishpacha the previous week -- with the approval of the Hebrew edition's Rabbinical Board -- and it garnered nary a response from the readership. Why the disparity of reaction? Because in Israel the vegan community is viewed as nothing more than a curiosity, without any larger agenda. In keeping with that perspective, the article was crafted as a quirky human-interest story. As for the hashkafah, it was viewed as strange, fringe, but essentially harmless. In the US, however, the Vegan movement is associated with the ultra-liberal agenda, one that lacks respect for humans and thus does not differentiate between humans and animals, and one that worships Mother Nature as a type of Avodah Zarah. In that context, the vegan movement is indeed extremely objectionable, as delineated in your letter.
We appreciate our readership's vigilance and sensitivity and additional safeguards will be put in place to avoid such instances in the future.
The Rabbinical Board”
I don’t find it acceptable that the response from the israeli public is their barometer for the acceptability of an article. They are also obfuscating the real issue, which is that the actual content of the article is objectionable, not merely its association with left wing extremists. Disappointing, but I can’t say I expected more from Mishpacha or their Rabbinical board....
The part they wrote about the Swiss currency being preferred because the Swiss are particularly sensitive to animal cruelty was also quite upsetting when one views it in context as my friend wrote in his email to them:
“The article mentions that vegans prefer to use Swiss currency since Switzerland has "the greatest sense of indignation when it comes to compromised animal rights". What the article fails to mention is that Switzerland has a full ban on shechita going back to 1897, a measure widely considered to be an anti-Semitic reaction to Jewish immigration from Western Europe. In 2002, when the Swiss government attempted to lift the century-old ban, animal rights activists, along with many Swiss citizens expressed strong opposition, killing the bill. They called shechita "barbaric", "an archaic tradition from the time of the ghettos", and demanded that Jews either become vegetarian or leave the country.”
Bad research and vetting on Mishpachas part.
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