Editing Isaac Bashevis Singer (section)

===Vegetarianism===
Singer was a prominent [[Jewish vegetarian]]<ref>{{Citation |publisher=IVU |url=http://www.ivu.org/history/northam20b/singer.html |title=History of Vegetarianism |contribution=Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) |access-date=February 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222210007/http://www.ivu.org/history/northam20b/singer.html |archive-date=December 22, 2008 |url-status=dead}}.</ref> for the last 35 years of his life and often included vegetarian themes in his works. In his short story "The Slaughterer", he described the anguish of an appointed slaughterer trying to reconcile his compassion for animals with his job of killing them. He felt that the ingestion of meat was a denial of all ideals and all religions: "How can we speak of right and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood?" When asked if he had become a vegetarian for health reasons, he replied: "I did it for the health of the chickens."

Vegetarianism is a recurrent theme in Singer's novel ''Enemies, a Love Story''. One character, a Holocaust survivor, declares that "God himself eats meat—human flesh. There are no vegetarians—none. If you had seen what I have seen, you would know that God approves of slaughter,"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Isaac Bashevis |title=Enemies, a Love Story |publisher=Noonday Press |year=1972 |isbn=0374515220 |pages=33}}</ref> and another character points out "that what the Nazis had done to the Jews, man was doing to animals."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Singer |first=Isaac Bashevis |title=Enemies, a Love Story |publisher=Noonday Press |year=1972 |isbn=0374515220 |pages=145}}</ref> In ''The Letter Writer'', Singer wrote "In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]],"{{Sfn | Singer| 1982|p = 271}} which became a classic reference in the [[Holocaust analogy in animal rights|comparison of animal exploitation with the Holocaust]].<ref name=Patterson>Patterson, Charles (2002). ''[[Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust]]''. New York: Lantern Books, pp. 181–188.</ref>

In the preface to Steven Rosen's ''Food for Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions'' (1986), Singer wrote, "When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent. I can never accept inconsistency or injustice. Even if it comes from God. If there would come a voice from God saying, 'I'm against vegetarianism!' I would say, 'Well, I am for it!' This is how strongly I feel in this regard."