Dennis said on his radio show today that he disagrees with Jewish parents who give their kids distinctively Jewish names. I guess he means names such as Dovid or Shmuel or Dov.
Dennis says they should have their Hebrew names and then their English names, which they use in the wider American culture.
Dennis also does not wear a yarmulke in the public sphere. He likes such distinctive things to kept for home. Dennis does wear a yarmulke around the house.
There’s an ancient Jewish teaching that one of the reasons the Israelites merited the redemption from Egypt was that they kept their Hebrew names. Orthodoxy is very particularistic and gives great merit to making particularistic choices at the cost of integrating smoothly into the wider culture.
