At a recent event in Los Angeles, the ILC hosted Dennis Prager, host of The Dennis Prager Show and Prager University. First, a little bio of Dennis Prager:
In 1969, Prager served both the Israeli government and the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry as courier/lecturer for Soviet dissidents. Now, he is a radio talk show host, columnist, author, and public speaker. He is a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, has taught Jewish and Russian History at Brooklyn College, and was a Fellow at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Dennis came to ILC to talk about a popular subject these days – speaking for the state of Israel. Not surprisingly, he was an eloquent and entertaining speaker. Among the many interesting arguments he made, was that anti-Israel sentiment is ingrained in the media, and that the battle for perception is being lost on college campuses all over the world. A reason for this, he noted, was that “the Left” is always rooting for the underdog and somehow Israel, outgunned and outnumbered 22 arab countries to 1 Jewish state has come to be perceived as the top dog, shifting Leftist allegiance (many Jews included) toward the Palestinian cause. Shocking as it may seem to some, many of the biggest proponents (propagandists?) of the malicious BDS movement are actually Jewish professors on college campuses.
The entire presentation was interesting, but two things surprised me about Dennis:
- He speaks fluent Russian. In fact, he has lectured on Russian history in Russian.
- During the Q&A Dennis cited the Rabbi Mazeh quote that is central to Cycles and Revolutions: “It’s the Trotskys who make the revolutions, and the Bronsteins who pay the price.”
As you might imagine, this instantly sparked feelings of kindred spirits in me. As soon as the presentation was over, I made my way to the crowd of people around him and waited with all the patience I could muster for my turn among those asking him questions. When that turn came, I handed him my business card and asked him to read the quote on the front:
After chuckling and asking what it was all about, Dennis offered himself for an interview — an offer that I will surely be taking him up on in the very near future!
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