Dennis Prager

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Dennis Prager (born August 2, 1948) is an American syndicated radio talk show host, columnist, author, ethicist, and public speaker. He is noted for his conservative political views and for his study of the consequences of secularism in the 20th Century.

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[edit] Biography

Prager is a native of New York City. He has an elder brother, Kenneth (b. January 3, 1943). His nephew is Joshua Prager.

Raised as Orthodox Jews, the Prager brothers attended Yeshiva Rambam from kindergarten through 8th grade and Yeshivah of Flatbush for high school, where he met his future co-author Joseph Telushkin in the 10th grade. Prager attended Brooklyn College, majoring in Anthropology and History; he graduated in 1970.[1]

In 1969, Prager spent his junior year abroad at the University of Leeds in England. Having studied Russian, Prager was sponsored to be sent to the Soviet Union to bring in Jewish religious objects and meet with Russian Jewish dissidents. Upon his return, Prager began his career as a public speaker, lecturing several times a week about the state of Jews in the Soviet Union.

From 1970-72, Prager attended the Russian (now the Harriman Institute) and Middle East Institutes at the Columbia University School of International Affairs. He studied under Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who later served in the Carter administration as the head of the National Security Council.

Prager did not complete his Masters degree, dropping out instead in 1973 to collaborate with Joseph Telushkin on an introductory book about Judaism. Prager and Telushkin self-published the book in 1975 as The Eight Questions People Ask About Judaism, later published by Simon & Schuster in 1976 as The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism. The book has been translated into nearly a dozen languages and remains a widely-used introductory text to Judaism.

From 1976 to 1983, Prager served as the director of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, California, teaching the tenets of Judaism to college-aged Jewish singles.

In 1980, Prager met his first wife, Janice Adelstein, who was a nurse there. They were married on January 15, 1981. Their son, David, was born two years later. In August 1986 Janice filed for divorce.

Prager started his radio career on August 8, 1982 as the moderator of "Religion on the Line", a Sunday night program on KABC-AM, Los Angeles. The program featured discussions between representatives of various religions, typically including a priest, a Protestant minister, and a Jewish rabbi. Prager continued as the show's moderator for 10 years, and he continued to broadcast on KABC for several more years on "The Dennis Prager Show." He then began broadcasting for KRLA (national syndication started 1999), and recently celebrated his 25th anniversary in radio broadcasting.

On September 4, 1988, Prager married Francine Stone, an actress, in a Los Angeles synagogue. In November 1992, the couple adopted a son, Aaron Henry Prager. On December 30, 2005, Prager announced on air that he and Stone were getting divorced.

[edit] Political views

Prager often presents his political views in moral terms. He advocates what he sees as the uniquely American combination of "Judeo-Christian values". He places great emphasis on "moral clarity," that is, the ability to identify and combat evil.

Though Prager is an activist and advocate for conservative causes and a partisan of the conservative Republican party[citation needed], he sometimes labels himself as "passionate centrist" or a "JFK liberal".[citation needed] The motto for his radio show is "I prefer clarity to agreement".[citation needed]

In his articles, broadcasts, and lectures, Prager has declared that the U.S. is engaged in a "second civil war", a "culture war" over the fundamental moral values on which American society was built. Prager has claimed that many influential American institutions (including universities, trial lawyers, labor unions, the ACLU, civil rights groups, and most large newspapers and television networks) are dominated by secular leftists, which attack and misrepresent the uniqueness of Judeo-Christian values and their remarkable positive historical effect upon America and the world.[citation needed] In 2005, 24 of his columns were devoted to explaining those values and how he believes they make the United States special.[2] Prager has suggested that most contemporary social and political crises stem from the absence of a normative system of "ethical monotheism".[citation needed] Prager accuses the governments of Western Europe ("a civilization in decline") and Canada of suffering from "a broken moral compass", charging that the dominance of secular leftist thought in those countries has rendered their societies morally confused.[citation needed]

Prager is a proponent of his version of "American exceptionalism", the view that the moral superiority of American values sometimes justifies unilateral action on the world stage,[citation needed] and that the U.S. should not always be constrained by international law or the United Nations in pursuit of its goals.[citation needed] Prager has been an enthusiastic supporter of the United States' initiative in the War in Iraq.[citation needed]

Prager is both a leader in Jewish life ("One of the three most interesting minds in American Jewish life" according to The Jewish Week) and an outspoken supporter of the conservative Christian movement in the U.S., with whom he often shares political views, even to the point of holding that Jews should publicly swear on the Bible.[3] Prager often speaks of his disappointment with contemporary Jews' secularism: in a 1993 speech in Greensboro, North Carolina, Prager said that "the real religion of most American Jews is liberalism".[citation needed]


In 2004, he spearheaded an unsuccessful movement to protect the official seal of the County of Los Angeles from being redesigned in such a way as to remove a small Christian cross from its imagery after the ACLU complained that the cross on the official seal implied government endorsement of religion, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.[citation needed]

[edit] Opposition to same sex marriage

Prager has been outspoken in his opposition to same sex marriage. He spoke before Congress in 1996 in support of the Defense of Marriage Act which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.[citation needed]


[edit] The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council's Resolution

In 2006, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council (which, among other projects, governs the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Due to Prager's involvement in the "Quran Oath Controversy", the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Prager to be removed from the council overseeing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial. Some members of the Memorial Council such as former NYC mayor Ed Koch were vocal in advocating his removal.[citation needed]

In the end, the executive committee of the council issued a resolution that has been seen as "distancing" the council from Prager's remarks.[4] In an interview with the Associated Press, Prager stated "he was honored to 'continue serving' on the board, and that he understands the pressures that caused it to issue a statement".[5]

Main article: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and the Quran Oath Controversy of the 110th United States Congress

[edit] Lectures, radio and writings

Prager has lectured on his views in Jewish communities across North America, at major business conclaves, to chapters of the YPO (Young Presidents Organization) around the world, and at churches and other Christian institutions. He is credited with lecturing on all seven continents. This claim appears to be at least partially in jest. During a cruise -- aboard which he gave lectures -- to Antarctica in 2002, a picture was taken of Prager speaking in front of a group of penguins, and posted on his official website. [6]

On February 1, 1999, Prager began nationally syndicating his radio show. Now KRLA is his flagship station, broadcasting live across the country, 9:00 AM - Noon (Pacific Time) for the Salem Broadcasting network. He began has radio career as a substitute host for the Los Angeles KABC Sunday night program Religion on the Line in 1982. He was eventually given a weeknight show to speak on any topic and his popoularity grew. Although possessing strong opinions, Prager is known for his keeping a calm demeanor and respect for those who call in to disagree, a rarity in conservative talk radio. He has been criticized, however, for turning the volume down on callers so he can always have the last word before moving on to the next call. Prager is a regular columnist in the Jewish magazine Moment. Since 2002, he has also been a columnist for Townhall.com, a widely-read blog. His columns are also regularly featured in the e-zine Jewish World Review. Currently he is writing his fifth book, about male sexual nature. In June 2005, The American Jewish Press Association awarded him its First Prize for Excellence in Commentary.

[edit] Bibliography

Prager wrote for several years for the Sunday Los Angeles Times "Current" section and writes a weekly column published in newspapers and online at Townhall.com Town Hall.com/contributors and elsewhere.

He is also the author of four books:

[edit] Trivia

Conducted 2007 Yom Kippur services in the performing arts center of a Catholic high school in La Cañada, California, which he jokingly called, "St. Francis High Shul".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Maxprager.com
  2. ^ Town Hall.com/columns
  3. ^ Quran controversy
  4. ^ James Besser. "U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council distances itself from Prager", The Jewish Journal, 2006-12-22.  Retrieved on Dec. 22, 2006
  5. ^ "Ellison tells Virginia Rep., "He has nothing to fear"", Associated Press, 12/22/2006.  Retrieved on Dec. 22, 2006
  6. ^ Prager's website

[edit] External links

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