[4] Kalechofsky was married to Robert Kalechofsky—a retired mathematics professor from Salem State University who was also a vegetarian—until his death in December 2020.

Kalechofsky was the author of Animal Suffering and the Holocaust: The Problem with Comparisons (2003), as well as poetry, seven works of illustrative fiction, two collections of essays, and a monograph on George Orwell.

[4] Philosopher Tom Regan has said of Kalechofsky, "[o]f all the historians of ideas with whom I am familiar, if I had a choice between listening to just one of them, I would not hesitate to choose Roberta.

"[5] Kalechofsky founded Jews for Animal Rights (JAR) in 1985 with the aim of upholding and spread the Talmudic prohibition against causing suffering to living creatures, known as tza'ar ba'alei hayyim.

The group promotes the ideas of Rabbi Abraham Kook on vegetarianism, and campaigns to find alternatives to animal testing.