May 6, 2008
Dennis Prager
Luke Ford writes: Talkshow host Dennis Prager wrote four influential books: The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, Why The Jews? The Reason For Antisemitism, Think A Second Time and Happiness Is A Serious Problem.
Dennis Prager’s parents were born and raised in Brooklyn. Max Prager married Hilda Friedfeld on September 14, 1940.
“My parents are a fascinating amalgamation of modern American and traditional Judaism,” says Dennis. “Both grew up with European Jewish parents. “…Within Jewish life I’m in the no-man’s land, denominationally. Prager discussed his abandonment of Orthodoxy on his radio show July 13, 2001:
Dennis: “I was raised Orthodox but after my Bar Mitzvah on I was never Orthodox. Dennis: “Yes. Dennis: “I don’t have an Orthodox temperament. Never. Dennis is the only member of his immediate family who is not Orthodox. That Dennis’s parents met at a mixed-sex Orthodox dance shows how far Jewish Orthodoxy has shifted to the right. This showed the compassion Dennis always had.”
Dennis Prager
Dennis began school at age six at the kindergarten of Yeshiva Rambam. (CD)
(The Prager Perspective, June 15, 1997)
When fights broke out on the ice, Prager would stay seated, to show his disaproval.
Around the same time, Dennis developed a decade-long hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts.
During summer vacations, Kenny and Dennis attended Camp Winsoki, a modern Orthodox summer camp located in Rensellaervile N.Y..
Ethnic pride has never been a big value for Dennis. The proverbial “why?” child, Prager was sent to the principal’s office so often that they named a chair “The Dennis Prager seat.”
Dennis said he wanted his parents to never ask him about school. (Relayed by Dennis on his radio show, 12/12/03)
Dennis Prager’s best friend, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, wrote three paragraphs in the Summer 2001 issue of Olam magazine that seem to be about Dennis:
Prager came early to the belief that his life mission was to promote goodness. Dennis was raised to never take the easy way out. Kenny attended an all-boys yeshiva high school. Flatbush put an end to mixed-sex dances in Prager’s 10th grade.
Prager and Telushkin were assigned to the C-student track. Dennis was known as a loudmouth in highschool. Prager fell in love with classical music. “This camp provided the most positive Jewish experiences in my life. Dennis had his “first serious romance. (Prager’s CD)
Dennis particularly liked WNBC radio and WOR host Jean Shepherd.
In Prager’s final year of high school, he served as Senior Class President.
(Ultimate Issues, Summer, 1985, pg. 10)
Prager attended Brooklyn College. Prager studied international history, comparative religion and Arabic at the University of Leeds. Prager intervened, kicking the leader of the thugs. On Friday night, August 1, 1969, Prager’s life forever changed.
Approaching one of the groups he’d addressed, Prager asked to lecture on why so many young people were alienated from Judaism.
Bnai Brith nominated Prager as its delegate, and its later report described Dennis as “the star of the West.”
Prager graduated Brooklyn College with a double major in Anthropology and History. “Graduate school was a tough time for me,” Prager said on his radio show March 2, 2006. Dennis taught at Brooklyn College from 1970-72.
Around 1970, Prager’s car was broken into and the stereo stolen. Dennis opened his door. (Prager’s radio show, 12/28/06)
* Why are so many young Jews alienated from Judaism and the Jewish people?
As is typical of Prager’s personality, the book is not titled Nine Questions People Ask about Judaism but The Nine Questions People Ask about Judaism.
Then I found out that it’s ideas are largely absent from Jewish life, even Orthodox Jewish life. In April, 1976, Shlomo Bardin, the 76-year old founder and director of the Brandeis Institute, invited the 26-year old Prager to take charge. In 1976, Prager appeared on television for the first time. “We’re trying to turn out leaders,” Prager said.
“Why?”
Prager’s friends teased him about this remark for years afterwards. (Related by Prager on his radio show on Jan. 24, 2006 during his first hour.)
One night as Prager was about to tell his latest theory, the rabbi stopped him.
Dennis answered in the negative. “The [1980] election of Ronald Reagan affected my happiness,” said Prager on his radio show March 2, 2006. “I had a feeling that if I did well [on his radio debut],” remembers Prager on his radio show January 3, 2006, “that it would change my life.”
In 1983, Prager and Telushkin published their second book: Why the Jews? Prager ejected musician Sam Glaser for playing non-Jewish music. In his speeches since working at BBI, Prager mocks his BBI board. Prager says the board was shocked. In September of 1983, Prager left the Brandeis Bardin Institute. (Prager CD)
Joseph Telushkin writes on page 104 of his book Jewish Humor about Prager and Brandeis-Bardin:
Prager and Telushkin portray Prager’s experience at Brandeis-Bardin as that of the martyr. While Prager claims he quit, a Jewish Journal cover story in early 1986 indicated he was pushed out. Many on the board said Prager was a lousy administrator.
At the time of Bardin’s death, [Prager] was 27 years old. As Prager himself observed, “Some of the people on the board had children who were older than me.”
But it was not simply Prager’s youth inspired controversy. Chotiner’s case against Prager was based upon his conviction that the type of Judaism Prager advocated was too rigid. Dennis Prager served as institute director for seven years, despite the existence of a virtual split within the executive board as to his efficacy. During this time, claim both Prager and his adherents, he quadrupled the BBI membership. “Under Dennis’s directorship,” says Chotiner, “Brandeis was a swinging door. Chotiner is not alone in his contention that Prager lacked intellectual depth. Says Dr. Goodhill, “Dennis was a brilliant man. At Brandeis, Prager says now, not without bitterness, “I learned that many Jews are uncomfortable with paying another Jew to do something Jewish.”
Even his critics acknowledge that Prager succeeded in exciting many young people about Jewish observance and bringing them into the Jewish community. Some students back up that view of Prager as a bully. Rabbi Telushkin writes about Dennis in his 1996 book, Words That Hurt, Words That Heal:
Dennis became convinced that he was turned down because of differing politics, even though Gene regularly published somebody far to the right of Dennis — Orthodox Rabbi Dov Aharoni.
In 1985 Dennis launched his personal journal of thought, the quarterly Ultimate Issues, which never quite achieved 10,000 subscribers. Prager began selling cassette tapes and eventually VHS tapes of his lectures through Ultimate Issues. Dennis wanted to punch him. Dennis said yes. On May 13, 1987, Janice Prager sued Dennis Prager (Case Number: D191749).
During 1986, Prager began assembling material for his third book - Why Don’t All Good People Hate Communism?
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