From smuggling religious items to building a digital media empire

Cultures · Published 1 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before he was a fixture of American conservative radio, Dennis Prager was an operative for the Refuseniks. In 1969, he was recruited by the Israeli government to smuggle Jewish religious items and names into the Soviet Union, launching a career defined by intense cultural and political friction.

Dennis Prager’s career began in the shadows of the Cold War. While studying in England in 1969, he acted as a conduit for the Soviet Jewish resistance, helping to move religious artifacts and lists of names into the USSR. This early activism as a spokesman for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry set the stage for his transition into a prominent polemicist and commentator.

By the 1980s, Prager had established himself as a 'moral critic' of secularism. Alongside Joseph Telushkin, he published works like 'The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism' in 1975 and 'Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism' in 1983. His views on antisemitism are distinct; he describes it as a 'sinister form of flattery' rooted in resentment over the Jewish concept of being God's chosen people.

Prager’s influence expanded through mass media, from highly-rated Sunday night shows on KABC in 1982 to the 2009 launch of PragerU. While not an academic institution, PragerU has become a significant force in online media, utilizing a consistent video style to advocate for capitalist and conservative viewpoints. Despite controversies regarding his stances on everything from the COVID-19 lockdowns to the Defense of Marriage Act, his reach remains vast.

In recent years, Prager's life has been marked by both personal and physical shifts. After decades of broadcasting on stations like KRLA, he suffered a serious spinal cord injury in November 2024 due to a fall, leaving him paralyzed below the shoulders.

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