Attacks on Dennis Prager, PragerU are unfair, unwarranted

As a longtime friend of Dennis Prager since the 1970s, I was personally distressed to read an Aug. 28 guest column by three members of the League of Women Voters – as well as a subsequent Sept. 1 letter to the Herald-Tribune – denouncing both Prager’s integrity and his enormous contribution to our society.

Dennis Prager's work with Prager U has changed the landscape of our discourse about social, religious and cultural issues perhaps more than any other intellectual endeavor in our nation’s recent history. That's why to label the work of hundreds of lectures from scholars, theologians, academicians and medical experts as “fake propaganda” – which was the phrase used in one recent Herald-Tribune headline regarding these extremely articulate, well-documented presentations – is just part of our nasty culture that focuses on the individual rather than the content of one’s words.

In addition, to call Prager an “advocate for pornography” – in light of the distortions made from an intellectual conversation he had with Dr Jordan Peterson earlier this year – is the height of character assassination. In fact, Prager, Peterson and the other members of the panel were discussing a verse in the New Testament regarding whether one can “commit adultery in one’s heart” rather than in behavior.

Prager was simply making the point that Judaism values the deed more than the thought. But instead of properly addressing Prager's comments in this full context, the assault on his character has been driven more by political agendas than actual reality.

More: Sarasota school parents must protect their kids from PragerU's indoctrination effort

I would suggest to the Herald-Tribune's readers that they decide for themselves and watch the hundreds of videos on Prager U that cover just about every subject of importance to our troubled world – including religion, the Ten Commandments, history, ethical monotheism, the teaching of values to our children, science and the environment.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler is the leader of Temple Beth Sholom in Sarasota. The views expressed in this guest column are solely those of Rabbi Altshuler and not of the entire Temple Beth Sholom congregation.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Dennis Prager doesn't deserve attacks on his character, integrity