About heebnvegan

Updated 11/12/09

heebnvegan (pronounced "heeb 'n' vegan") is a Jewish blog about animal protection issues. Founded in August 2005, heebnvegan serves as a vegan voice in the Jewish blogosphere. heebnvegan is run by Michael Croland, a Jewish vegan, who writes all posts that aren't explicitly marked guest posts. Although I have attended Conservative synagogues most of my life and generally identify as a Conservative Jew more than any other variety, I'm not a big fan of labels and I have flirted with Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Modern Orthodox, Chabad-Lubavitch, and nondenominational services, events, and thinking. I serve on the advisory board of Jewish Vegetarians of North America. heebnvegan is not affiliated with and does not represent any organizations or third parties.

My initial exposure to the Jewish blogosphere came in late 2004, when PETA released an undercover investigation of AgriProcessors, the world's largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse. My article about the investigation was published in the Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh and helped me win The Humane Society of the United States' Student Genesis Award and Carnegie Mellon University's Alan and Gloria Siegel Award for Professional Writing. I followed developments about the AgriProcessors scandal closely, and in the words of a Jewsweek article:

In the Jewish community, coverage has been characterized primarily by non-traditional outlets. With the weekly schedules of most Jewish publications simply insufficient to keep up with the demand for information, much discussion and reporting has taken place in the blogosphere. There, various blogs have kept on top of the latest press releases and reporting, but have also begun to do some reporting of their own, contacting individual rabbis and experts for comment. If this keeps up, the PETA video story could be the big one that finally gets the Jewish blogosphere to beat the Jewish weeklies to the punch.

During the spring 2005 semester (my last semester at Carnegie Mellon before graduating with a BA in professional writing and a minor in religious studies), I wrote a term paper for an Advanced Journalism class that was titled "From Weaklies to Strength: The Emergence of Online Media in Jewish Journalism." In May 2005, I attended the National Jewish Student Journalism Conference, which included a panel discussion titled "Jewish Blogging: Tips, Theories, Tales From the Field." I launched heebnvegan shortly afterward.

heebnvegan primarily focuses on the Jewish side of animal protection issues. heebnvegan frequently discusses vegetarian connections to Jewish holidays and traditions as well as the questionable practices of the kosher meat industry. I frequently post about newspaper articles and blog posts that promote vegetarianism in the Jewish community. My experience with heebnvegan also led me to launch CountingTheOmer.blogspot.com in 2007.

E-mail mcroland@gmail.com with any questions about heebnvegan or to propose a guest post.