John F. Kennedy established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. Unfortunately, he did not live to honor the medal’s first recipients. Kennedy was included posthumously in the first class. Over the past 60 years, this recognition has been bestowed on many worthy people. Recent events have led me to focus on someone who measures up for this distinct honor in all respects.
Dennis Prager – a beloved friend — suffered a very serious injury as many of you know. Dennis has shown to be the very definition of a person worthy of a President bestowing this medal since his accident. He has arduously moved from a near-death experience back to renewing the many personal attributes that has earned him consideration for this high honor.
The team of family and close friends who have pulled together to help his extraordinary wife Sue with nurturing Dennis back to using his unique talents to improve the lives of others is a relatively small validation of his effect on the world.
Many of us are daily engaged in providing “DP updates” to nearly everyone we collectively know. This clearly demonstrates the far reaches of those touched by Dennis.
And why not? He has spent over fifty years uplifting people’s lives in a multitude of formats used. His days are filled with a nationally syndicated radio show. His books – culminating with his life’s work, the Rational Bible series (a detailed explanation of each of the five books of the Torah) are read worldwide. His speeches have been delivered to virtually every community in this cherished country and across two-thirds of the countries of the world. Literally billions have watched Prager U five-minute videos (since 2011) which continue to educate the world on a library of topics. And the curriculum has been adopted in seven states giving promise to a new generation of children.
I first met Dennis in a somewhat odd way. I lived 39 months of my life in Reno, NV, in the early 1980’s. I had joined a men’s club at a local Jewish temple that met on Sundays. A member had traveled to Southern California and came back excited. He was wielding a cassette tape and told us the person he had heard was extraordinary and we had to listen to it. We huddled around a portable cassette player and listened to Dennis Prager expound on one of the many topics he has spoken of over the years. Dennis was only in his early 30’s, but he was already having a tremendous impact on people and the world. (Dennis loves that story).
Flash forward to the early part of this century when I had formed the Republican Jewish Coalition in Los Angeles with a hardy group of talented and committed people. Dennis came to speak to a group at the Skirball Center and was stunned to see over 300 Jewish Republicans in the room. He told us he had never seen such a sight before and was enthralled enough to deliver one of his fabulously inspiring and educational speeches.
From there I was drawn into the Prager inner circle enough such that I was invited to be part of a small team of people helping Dennis decide whether he was going to run for an upcoming open U.S. Senate seat. After much deliberation we advised that Dennis would have a greater impact on the world by continuing on with his radio show, speaking engagements and writings. This was before the vision of PragerU had ever entered the mind of Dennis and his ever ready sidekick Allen Estrin. Truly an effort that has changed the world of education in an extraordinary manner.
I contacted my dear friend Larry Elder — The Sage of South Central — after he published a wonderful column suggesting the presidential honor for two giants, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. I conveyed my thoughts about Dennis receiving the honor as well and the Sage said, “let’s do it.” The Sage published an exceptional column https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2025/03/13/when-dennis-prager-returns-award-him-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom-n2653710 telling of his debt to Dennis for building Larry’s radio career and endorsing the thought that we should all work to help this wonderful human being honored with other Americans from all walks of life to be recognized with this honor.
We should not need to work too hard to achieve our goal. But sometimes someone has to turn on the light bulb for people to focus. After they realize Dennis should be in the next group of honorees, we can all work to get Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams honored as well.
