Dennis Prager

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Dennis Prager (born August 2, 1948) is a conservative syndicated radio talk show host, columnist and public speaker in the United States. He is also one of the leading spokesmen for the Republican religion. The Republican religion is followed by those who replace religious philosophy with the ideology of the American Republican party.

Contents

[edit] Biography

This article (or section) may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article, especially its section layout, and relevant internal links. (help)
This article has been tagged since December 2006.

Prager is a native of Brooklyn, New York. His parents were also born and raised in Brooklyn. His father, Max Prager (born July 18, 1918) married Hilda Friedfeld (born October 24, 1919) on September 14, 1940. They had two sons: Kenneth, born January 3, 1943, and Dennis, born August 2, 1948.

Raised an Orthodox Jew, Prager attended Yeshiva Rambam for 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 graduated from Brooklyn College in 1970, majoring in Anthropology and History[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 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, and instead dropped out in 1973 to write an introduction to Judaism with Joseph Telushkin. They 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 Judaism to college-aged Jewish singles. During the summer of 1980, Prager met his first wife, Janice Adelstein, who was a nurse there. They were married January 15, 1981. Their son, David, was born two years later. In August 1986 Janice filed for divorce.

Prager started his radio career In August 1982, as the moderator of "Religion on the Line," a Sunday night 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.

Prager married 41 year old actress Francine Stone on September 4, 1988 in a Los Angeles synagogue and in November 1992, adopted a son, Aaron Henry Prager. On December 30, 2005 Prager announced on air that he and Stone were getting divorced.

[edit] Philosophy

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, he sometimes labels himself as "passionate centrist" or a "JFK liberal."

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 claims that many influential American institutions (universities, trial lawyers, labor unions, the ACLU, Civil Rights groups, and most large newspapers and television networks) are dominated by secular leftists. These institutions, according to Prager, attack and misrepresent the uniqueness of the Judeo-Christian tradition and its remarkable positive historical effect upon America and the world. He suggests that most contemporary social and political crises stem from the absence of a normative system of "ethical monotheism." 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 and corrupt.

Prager is a proponent of "American exceptionalism," the view that the moral superiority of US values sometimes justifies unilateral action on the world stage, and that the US should not always be constrained by international law or the United Nations in pursuit of its goals. Prager is an enthusiastic supporter of the United States' initiative in the War in Iraq, which he characterizes as another example of the nobility of the US: Americans dying in order to bring liberty to others — as in Korea and Europe before. President Bush appointed Prager to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

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 a political agenda, even to the point of holding that Jews should publically swear on the Bible.[2] Prager is often harshly critical of religious organizations who do not share his interpretations of Jewish or Christian values, such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Council of Churches and the Anti-Defamation League. He often speaks of his disappointment with contemporary Jews' securalism: in a 1993 speech in Greensboro, North Carolina, Prager said that "the real religion of most American Jews is liberalism." Prager identifies himself as "a religious non-Orthodox Jew," and attends a Reform synagogue, the most liberal of Judaism's four main denominations. Prager does not observe the Jewish Sabbath according to Orthodox standards (he will drive in a car on that day to Sabbath-related events but does not allow television or radio in his home as they are non-Sabbath-oriented; and neither broadcasts nor appears on TV talk shows on the Sabbath or Jewish holy days) or keep Orthodox Jewish dietary laws (he eats chicken with milk, as did some rabbis in the Talmud, and as have many Persian Jews, but which is forbidden under Orthodox Jewish law). He grew up Orthodox but abandoned Orthodoxy early in life. Prager claims to believe in the divinity of the Torah. However, he differs with some in orthodoxy on Torah law. Indeed, Prager disregards any Torah law that he is not comfortable with. It is ironic that he would claim that "the real religion of most American Jews is liberalism" as it is obvious that Prager's real religion is American political conservatism. Prager has taken up several causes to preserve references to God and the Ten Commandments in public facilities such as schools, parks, and courthouses. 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. Prager believes that the cross represents the community's history.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Defense of Marriage

Prager has been very outspoken in his opposition to granting civil rights to homosexuals. Prager spoke before Congress in 1996 in support of the "Defense of Marriage Act," which was designed to maintain the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

[edit] Sex with Pages

While Larry King was leading a discussion on the Mark Foley case, Prager made clear that sex acts with teenagers bother him morally but not politically.

"The matter bothers me but not politically. A congressman is given a page to nurture and take care of and not to try to have an affair with, with same-sex or opposite sex, so that bothers me. There's no question about it and a great deal in fact but, it doesn't bother me politically."[3]


[edit] Quran Oath Controversy of the 110th U.S. Congress

In late 2006 Prager became the center of a national controversy, when he wrote two columns[1][2] condemning the plan of Representative-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to US Congress, to ceremoniously swear in on the Quran. Prager's ultimate objection was not that Ellison chose the Quran to swear in on, but that Ellison was not respectfully acknowledging the value system on which the United States is based upon - that is, the Judeo-Christain value system. Prager suggested that Ellison would be more of a unifying figure if he paid due respect to the traditions and values of the United States by bringing along a Bible to his swearing in. According to Prager, Ellison wouldn't have to swear in on the Bible. By bringing a Bible along to his swearing in ceremony, Ellison would simply be paying respect to the source of America's value system. Prager acknowledged that his original words criticizing Ellison's decision to use a Quran were misstated. Prager originally wrote, "He [Ellison] should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization." Prager admitted that the words "should not be allowed to do so" were poorly chosen and were not expressed as a desire to see the government restrict Ellison's right to swear in on the Quran. Rather, Prager said he meant to suggest that public outcry should be strong enough to influence Ellison to bring a Bible along to his swearing in. Because Ellison's swearing in on the Quran was symbolic in nature (the actual swearing in was done on the floor of the House of Representatives), Prager's position was that by not bringing a Bible along, Ellison was symbolically denying the source of traditional American values.[1]

Main article: Quran Oath Controversy of the 110th United States Congress

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

Because of his part in the Quran Oath Controversy, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for Prager to be removed from the council overseeing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial. CAIR's executive director said "No one who holds such bigoted, intolerant and divisive views should be in a policymaking position at a taxpayer-funded institution that seeks to educate Americans about the destructive impact hatred has had, and continues to have, on every society."[citation needed] Some members of the Memorial Council like Ed Koch were vocal in advocating his removal. In the end, the executive committee of the council issued a resolution that has been seen as "distancing" the council from Prager's remarks.[3] 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."[4]

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

[edit] Views on Breastfeeding

Prager believes that proponents of breastfeeding inflate its health benefits, inflicting unneeded harm and guilt on those who choose not to breastfeed or are unable to do so. He also believes that it ought not be done by a new mother if her husband is turned off by it, since a good sexual life between parents is more important to family health than breast feeding.

One of the phenomena of our time is the passion surrounding breast-feeding. In Norway, for instance, it is now illegal to advertise baby formula. And America is probably not far behind. Whenever I raise this issue on my radio show, merely saying that bottle-feeding is OK renders me a villain in the eyes of many listeners....
I acknowledge having no scientific basis on which to challenge the many scientific studies that point to the health benefits of breast-feeding -- such as fewer infant infections, fewer early allergies, getting the mother's antibodies, and so on.[4]

[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 did give 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. [5]

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). [6]

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, The Best System Ever Devised: The Case for Judeo-Christian Values. In June, 2005, The American Jewish Press Association awarded him First Prize for Excellence in Commentary.

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).

[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 [7] and elsewhere. He is also the author of several books:

[edit] Trivia

  • Conducts orchestras in Southern California. Considers Haydn as great as Mozart.
  • Brought Larry Elder to Los Angeles talk radio in 1994.
  • Has stated on his radio program that he considers Jimmy Carter's refusal to back The Shah of Iran in 1979--which contributed to his fall and the rise of political Islam after Ayatollah Khomeini's ascent to power--to be the biggest American foreign policy failure of his lifetime.
  • Believes that women and men have very different sexual natures. He notes as a major example that men are far more initially aroused by the visual than are women.
  • Prager, a Jew, often speaks to Christian groups. He was one of the three speakers invited to speak at the 25th anniversary celebration of Focus on the Family.
  • Though divorced, he is a major advocate of marriage and has convinced many men who fear marriage to find a woman and commit to her. He also believes that a bad marriage is a form of "lifetime imprisonment" and "lifetime imprisonment should be reserved for murderers, not decent people."

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Dennis Prager (November 28, 2006). America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on.Retrieved on Dec. 4, 2006
  2. ^ Dennis Prager (December 5, 2006). A response to my many critics - and a solution. Retrieved on Dec. 5, 2006
  3. ^ James Besser. "U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council distances itself from Prager", The Jewish Journal, 2006-12-22. Retrieved on Dec. 22, 2006
  4. ^ "Ellison tells Virginia Rep., "He has nothing to fear"", Associated Press, 12/22/2006. Retrieved on Dec. 22, 2006

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/e/n/Dennis_Prager_c8fe.html"
In other languages