This week on Unorthodox, we’re coming to you from Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut. Our Jewish guest is Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of more than 15 books, including the recently updated and reissued Words That Hurt, Words That Heal. Rabbi Telushkin tells us about the most common types of questions he fields as a rabbi, why he’s so interested in Jewish laws of ethical speech, and what he learned from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Our gentile of the week is Farooq Kathwari, CEO of the Ethan Allen furniture company and author of Trailblazer: From the Mountains of Kashmir to the Summit of Global Business and Beyond. He tells us about his childhood in Kashmir, his interfaith work on the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, and why it feels perfectly right to be an immigrant at the helm of a famous furniture company named after a Revolutionary War hero.