Heart of a Horse

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. 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. 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.

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