What is Dennis Prager's Net Worth and Salary?
Dennis Prager is an American conservative radio talk show host and writer who has a net worth of $20 million. Dennis Prager hosts the nationally syndicated program "The Dennis Prager Show." He also co-founded the media organization PragerU, which creates about various topics. As a writer, Prager has penned numerous books and co-written some short films.
Early Life and Education
Dennis Prager was born on August 2, 1948 in New York City to Hilda and Max. With his older brother Kenneth, he was raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish household. Prager went to the Yeshiva of Flatbush as a youth, and for his higher education attended Brooklyn College. He went on to pursue a graduate degree at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and at the University of Leeds, but ended up leaving without graduating.
Career Beginnings
While studying in England in 1969, Prager was recruited by a Jewish group to travel to the USSR and interview Jewish people about their lives there. He returned to the USSR again the next year, at which point he had become renowned for his advocacy of Refusenik, Soviet Jews who were disallowed from emigrating. Prager visited around 60 countries worldwide as he became the national spokesperson for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. Back in the US, he ran the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a Jewish retreat in Simi Valley, California; he did that from 1976 to 1983.
Radio Career
In 1982, the Los Angeles station KABC hired Prager to host its Sunday night religious talk show "Religion on the Line." He hosted the program for over a decade, leading to a weekday talk show on KABC. By that time, Prager had become a local radio fixture and a notorious figure in the social conservative battle against secularism. In 1994, he moved to television to appear on a syndicated program broadcast by Multimedia Entertainment.
At the end of the decade, Prager started hosting "The Dennis Prager Show," a nationally syndicated talk show on the conservative Christian radio station KRLA in Los Angeles. His comments on the show have been controversial, notably including arguments against COVID-19 safety measures.
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Writing Career
As a writer, Prager has penned numerous books and columns, most of them focused on Judaism and Zionism. His first book was "The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism," which he co-authored with rabbi Joseph Telushkin. The pair collaborated again on "Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism." Meanwhile, Prager penned a syndicated column for newspapers throughout the country, and in 1985 launched his own quarterly journal called Ultimate Issues. The journal was later renamed the Prager Perspective. In the 1990s, Prager wrote an essay demonizing homosexuality and penned the book "Happiness is a Serious Problem." He also co-wrote the short comedy film "For Goodness Sake," in which he also appeared. Prager continued writing conservative books on Jewish ethics into the 21st century, including his "Rational Bible" series.
PragerU
In 2009, Prager and his producer Allen Estrin co-founded the media organization PragerU. The organization produces videos propagating conservative Judeo-Christian viewpoints. PragerU has been criticized for promoting homophobia and various conspiracy theories.
Other Activities
Among his other notable activities, Prager testified before Congress in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. He claimed that "the acceptance of homosexuality as the equal of heterosexual marital love signifies the decline of Western civilization." Also in 1996, Prager worked on Bob Dole's presidential campaign. Later on, during President Obama's first term in office, he opposed the Affordable Care Act. During the presidential election in 2016, Prager endorsed Donald Trump despite having previously claimed he was "unfit to be a presidential candidate, let alone president."
In 2017, Prager was invited to be a guest conductor for the volunteer orchestra of Santa Monica, California at a fundraising concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall. A number of the orchestra members protested the invitation, seeing it as an embracement of bigotry. Meanwhile, the orchestra leader, Guido Lamell, clarified that he invited Prager because of the talk show host's love of classical music and his ability to help raise more money.
Personal Life
Prager has been married multiple times. His first wife was Janice Adelstein, to whom he was wed from 1981 until their divorce in 1986. Prager subsequently married Francine Stone in 1988; they divorced in 2005. He married his third wife, Susan Reed, in 2008.
