Vegan Boxing Rabbi - Yuri Foreman (vegan), Part 2 of 2

Yuri studied to become a rabbi in tandem with being a professional boxer. His studies of Judaism led to his discovery of the importance of not consuming animal-people from a spiritual perspective, which ultimately brought about his dedication to following a vegan diet and lifestyle.

“And I remember at some point learning, for example, an observant, a Jewish person, anytime he consumed food, he's not mixing dairy food with meat food. And we're not mixing energy of life with energy of death, which is meat. And I thought to myself, why do I need this energy of death to begin with? And then I turned vegetarian.

And I had arthritis in my elbows, especially, and in my right knee. But since I became vegan, those pains just went away over time, that I didn't even notice. Based on my experience, for example, when I have a very hard training, I recover very fast. And I remember how I was recovering when I was having meat and dairy longer, much longer. People should not be surprised as more and more athletes are going to try to switch to a vegan diet.”

“So, in Judaism, there is a Jewish law, it's called Tza'ar ba'alei chayim, which is avoiding, preventing harm to animals. Judaism is full with that.”

In this same spirit of compassion, Yuri Foreman and his wife, Shoshana Foreman established VBR (Vegan Boxing Rabbi) Kosher LLC in May 2021 in New York, USA, a company that provides kosher certification to vegan eateries.

“I think if more people would turn vegan it would be easier to feed the people. In this country alone, we have I don't know how many billion cattle, cows and yet we are spending how much resources of water just to provide food for these animals. And they are in horrendous conditions daily, from birth till the end of their lives, they are in a suffer mode. And yet, at the same time, we also have billions of people who are starving to death. Being vegan, it does influence not just your performance And your life alone, but you’re actually having an impact, and no carbon footprint.”