Prager speaks in Vaughan about hope in dangerous world

Shabbat Project presents controversial American TV personality June 9

Yorkregion.com
May 26, 2015
By Simone Joseph

A controversial, right-wing American Jewish radio and television personality is coming to Vaughan.

The Shabbat Project presents Dennis Prager June 9 at Paradise Banquet Hall at 7601 Jane St.

Billing for the event says Prager will discuss how Jews “can maintain hope in an increasingly dangerous world”.

He is a syndicated columnist, the author of five best-selling books and a sought-after speaker on Judaism, the Jewish people, politics, spirituality, relationships and happiness.

From 1992 to 2006, he taught the Hebrew bible verse-by-verse at American Jewish University.

He has lectured on all seven continents, in 45 U.S. states and in nine of Canada’s 10 provinces. He has lectured in Russian in Russia, and in Hebrew in Israel.

In 2002, he produced the documentary Israel in a Time of Terror, which looked at how the average Israeli deals with the daily threat of terror. The movie has been shown across the country.

Prager was a fellow at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, appointed by then-President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. delegation to the Vienna Review Conference on the Helsinki Accords.

But he has courted controversy for, among other things, saying campus rape culture "is a gargantuan lie" cooked up by left-wing feminists to get votes.

He has also been criticized for denying HIV/AIDS is an issue for heterosexuals and for denying climate change is a serious problem.

In 2007, Prager drew ire for a column criticizing a congressman-elect's decision to take his oath of office on the Qur’an rather than the Bible.

At the time, he wrote the elected-official’s decision would "embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones."

The Shabbat Project involves having Jews from all walks of life and all parts of the world experiencing one full Shabbat together, in full accordance with Jewish law.

The Shabbat Project was introduced in South Africa in 2013. At that time, close to 70 percent of the country’s 75,000 Jews kept Shabbat in full, many for the first time in their lives. In the aftermath, the idea caught on and so, the international Shabbat Project was born.