Vol. 33, No. 2 Shevat-Adar I 5771 February 2011
An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Greater Chariotte
Radio Personality and Author Dennis Prager to
IHeadllne Federation’s 2011 Main Event
Gifted speaker and prominent
author Dennis Prager will be the
guest speaker at the Jewish
Federation’s 2011 Main Event to
be held on Thursday, February 24
at 7:30 PM at Temple Israel.
Tickets are $36 per person and can
be purchased online at www.jew-
ishcharlotte.org.
According to co-chairs, Gale
Osborne and Rich Osborne, “We
are pleased to bring a speaker of
Mr. Prager’s caliber to Charlotte
and hope everyone in the commu
nity will join us for this special
evening.”
The theme of the 2011
Campaign is “It’s What Being
Jewish Feels Like” and Dennis
Prager will share his own Jewish
story with us. He was raised in
Brooklyn, New York where he
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. Dennis Prager and
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin went on
to write The Nine Questions
People Ask about Judaism one of
the most widely used introduc
tions to Judaism.
Dennis Prager is one of
America’s most widely respected
radio talk show hosts, columnists,
authors and speakers. He has been
broadcasting 25 years in Los
Angeles, and nationally for the
last ten. He has lectured in 45
states, nine of Canada’s ten
provinces, and on six continents.
He is a Jewish theologian who
regularly speaks at both Christian
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and Jewish institutions and has
recorded over 300 CDs of biblical
commentary; and he is an orches
tra conductor who has introduced
thousands of people to classical
music.
Called by Toastmasters as “one
of America’s five best speakers”,
Dennis Prager is one of America’s
most respected thinkers. As New
York Times columnist David
Brooks wrote, “Dennis Prager is
intelligent 99% of the time.” The
Los Angeles Times described him
as “an amazingly gifted man and
moralist whose mission in life has
been crystallized to get people
obsessed with what is right and
wrong.”
The Levine
Challenge
The Leon Levine
Foundation lias pledged
an additional $50,000 if
we reach our $2,950,000
campaign goal!
Dennis Prager is the Bill and
Barbara Edwards Media Fellow at
the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University, was a lecturer in
Russian and Jewish history at
Brooklyn College, and a Fellow at
the Columbia University School
of International Affairs, where he
did his graduate work at the
Russian and Middle East
Institutes. He is also an expert on
happiness - a subject on which he
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has lectured around the world. He
has traveled through some 82
countries and has lectured in
Russian in Russia and in Hebrew
in Israel.
Prager was appointed by
President Ronald Reagan to the
U.S. Delegation to the Vienna
Review Conference on the
Helsinki Accords. He holds an
honorary doctorate of law from
Pepperdine University. And in
2006, President George W. Bush
appointed Dennis Prager to the
United States Holocaust Memorial
Council.
Dennis Prager’s daily three-
hour radio show is heard on over
100 radio stations across America,
and around the world on the
Internet. Widely sought after by
television shows for his opinions,
he has appeared frequently on
“Larry King Live,” “Hardball”
and “CNN Headline News.” The
late radio and TV personality Tom
Snyder called Prager “the best
radio talk show host in America.”
He has written four books, all
of which remain in print and are
widely read. His first book. The
Nine Questions People Ask about
Judaism co-written with Rabbi
Joseph Telushkin, has been trans
lated into nearly a dozen lan
guages. New York’s Jewish Week
newspaper called Prager “one of
the three most interesting Jewish
minds in America.”
His second book. Why the
Jews? The Reason for Anti-
Semitism, was called by the
Jerusalem Post “a seminal work”
and by Rabbi Harold Kushner “the
most persuasive explanation of
anti-Semitism ever written.”
His third book. Think a Second
Time is the best introduction to the
wide scope of Prager’s thinking. It
is a book of 44 essays on 44 differ
ent subjects, on topics ranging
from : “Can a good man attend a
striptease show?” to “Faith in God
after the Holocaust.” Bill Bennett,
from the right, called Think a
Second Time “one of those rare
books that can change an intelli
gent mind” and from the left, USA
Today columnist and professor of
law Susan Estrich called it
“Brilliant, a tour de force.”
Happiness Is A Serious
Problem, his fourth book, was
published in February 1998 and
rose to number one on The Los
Angeles Times' bestseller list.
Dennis Prager has engaged in
interfaith dialogue with Catholics
at the Vatican, Muslims in the
Persian Gulf, Hindus in India, and
Protestants at Christian seminaries
throughout America. For ten
years, he conducted a weekly
interfaith dialogue on radio with
representatives of virtually every
religion in the world.
Since 1992, he has been teach
ing the Bible verse-by-verse at the
American Jewish University in
Los Angeles. His very popular
class is attended equally by Jews
and Christians. All the lectures are
on CD and video and are available
through dennisprager.com.
Dennis Prager regularly speaks
to Christian audiences, including a
keynote address to 6,000 congre
gants at Pastor John Hagee’s
Cornerstone Church in San
Antonio.
In 2002, Dennis produced a
documentary, “Israel in a Time of
Terror,” a compelling look at how
the average Israeli dealt with the
daily threat of terror. It has been
shown at colleges, universities,
churches and synagogues across
the country. He has also written
and starred in three best-selling
comedy videos on values: “For
Goodness Sake,” directed by
David Zucker (Naked Gun), “For
Goodness Sake II” and “What Is
Diversity?” both directed by Trey
Parker (South Park).
The Main Event is the major
fundraising event of the 2011
Campaign. At the event you will
have the opportunity to make your
pledge to the 2011 Annual
Campaign. This year The Leon
Levine Foundation has presented
us a remarkable opportunity.
When we reach our campaign goal
of $2,950,000 The Leon Levine
Foundation will give us an addi-
Dennis Prager
tional $50,000 bringing the cam
paign back to pre-recession levels.
The additional funds would enable
the Federation to fund new and
innovative programming to bene
fit our Jewish community. Please
support our campaign which pro
vides for our beneficiary agencies
at home and around the world by
making an increased or new gift
for 2011.
To leam more about the Jewish
Federation or The Main Event,
please visit our website www.jew-
ishcharlotte.org or call the
Federation office at 704-944-
6757. ^
MAIN EVENT
TICKETS
ON SALE NOW
$36 each
www.jewishcharlotte.org
JEWISH^
FEDE^RATION$
OF GFIEATEFI CHAFJLOTTg
Local, Global, Eternal
Also in this issue,,.
Join Temple Beth El for their Rededication
Weekend, February 11-13; see page 17.
Temple Israel presents “Kosher Gospel, ” a free
concert with Joshua Nelson, February 20;
see page 16.
Help rebuild the Carmel Forest. Join Hadassah for a
community-sponsored event on February 7;
see page 4.