Ep. 181: Wendy Goldberg and Rabbi Joe Charnes. Is connecting with other religions important in Judaism?

In Good Faith

This week on In Good Faith, Steve speaks with Wendy Goldberg in the first half of the episode and Rabbi Joe Charnes in the second half. Both our guests are passionate in interfaith bridge building, and we were excited to hear what they are accomplishing in their communities. Wendy Goldberg is the executive director of the Tri-Faith Initiative, an interfaith organization that houses a mosque, synagogue, church, and interfaith center all on one campus in Omaha, Nebraska. She helped found the initiative and has been involved ever since. In addition to running the initiative as a whole, Wendy was on the board of trustees for Temple Israel synagogue, the Jewish congregation of the organization, for a decade. Rabbi Joe Charnes received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from California State University, Northridge. He went on to study in traditional Jewish seminaries in Los Angeles, California; Brooklyn, New York; and Jerusalem, Israel, and was ordained by Rabbi Mordechai Finley, PhD, of the Academy for Jewish Religion, California. Rabbi Joe's teachings center around recovering and encountering the inner dimension of sacred, Jewish wisdom. He is also deeply devoted to interfaith dialogue and engagement and has been involved in numerous Jewish-Christian interfaith, and multi-faith events. He has studied Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism comparatively for over 25 years, and more recently, Islam and Hinduism. He has lectured frequently at seminaries, universities, churches, synagogues, mosques, and military bases across the country.