On Nov. 18, 2009, Dennis Prager wrote in the Forward:
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite national holiday. In fact, although I am a religious Jew (or rather,because I am a religious Jew), it rivals my favorite Jewish holidays for my affection.
It does so because it is quintessentially American,
it is deeply religious without being denominational and it is based
entirely on one of the most important, and noble, traits a human being can have — gratitude.…American Jews should celebrate Thanksgiving with
particular enthusiasm.First, and most obvious, nowhere in Jewish history have we had it is as good for so long as we have had it in America. No individuals or groups have better reason to celebrate Thanksgiving in America than we Jews.
Second, Thanksgiving is the one day of the year in which we Jews celebrate the same religious holiday with the rest of America. By definition, Jews do not share a religion with the non-Jewish majority of Americans. But we do share our God (the God of Creation and the God of Israel) with the Christian majority. And this holiday alone affirms that.
…I recall with pride that in my Orthodox parents’
home on Thanksgiving we ritually washed our hands before the Thanksgiving meal and sang the Birkat Hamazon — the grace
after meals — afterward as if it were a yom tov
meal.
On Nov. 28, 2013, Dennis said: “Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in many ways. There is no American by group or by individual — and this is a favorite theme of mine — who should not be able to have a Thanksgiving.”
American Jews most observant of Torah tend to not observe Thanksgiving because their religion commands that one not follow non-Jewish customs (Leviticus 18:3).
“Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner argues that it is obvious and apparent that–whatever the merit of celebrating Thanksgiving the first time in the 1600s–the establishment of an annual holiday that is based on the Christian calendar is, at the very least, closely associated with idol worship and thus prohibited.”
John from Queens, New York, called Dennis Prager’s radio show Nov. 28, 2013: “I grew up in a pretty Orthodox Jewish family and we never celebrated Thanksgiving and neither did anyone in my community because it was considered a non-Jewish holiday and if anyone did celebrate Thanksgiving, that was frowned upon.”
Dennis: “Is that still the case?”
John: “Yes… I remember bringing up to a member of my community
several years ago that there was a certain rabbi, Joseph
Solveitchik, who used to eat a turkey on Thanksgiving, and they scoffed at me and laughed me off, and said, ‘Huh, he’s not a legitimate rabbi.'”
Dennis: “He was the leading halakhist (decider of Jewish law) of his generation along with Moses Feinstein.”
John: “For the more modern.”
Dennis: “Yeah, well, he was the rabbi of the Yeshiva University. So they discounted him? Do they discount Chabad, because they are fervent observers of Thanksgiving? I think it is the insularity of New York. I don’t think that was true of Orthodox Jews in Nashville.”
Dennis shows his ignorance of Orthodox Judaism and Orthodox Jewish culture. Haredi Jews in America rarely celebrate Thanksgiving. Joseph Solveitchik wasn’t a halakhist. He made few rulings on Jewish law. He was a philosopher and had no influence in Orthodox Judaism outside of intellectuals who liked to play his intellectual games.
On Nov. 25, 2013, Dennis said: “The Hebrew calendar simply went wild this year with everything [such as Hanukkah] super duper early.”
The Hebrew calendar wasn’t early with its holidays in 2013. Hanukkah
began on the 25th of the month of Kislev just like it has for millenia. Hanukkah in 2013 was only “early” if you consider the Western calendar the ultimate real. For one rooted in Torah, the Hebrew calendar is the primary calendar and the Western calendar is just another custom of the Gentiles like hunting, Christmas, and “Have a nice day”.
On Nov. 28, 2013, Dennis said: “There are sacrifices you make for your religion. Our religion in America is Americanism… We believe we have a value-system that is God-based that is worthy of living for. I’m not asking you to die for, how about keeping your store closed one day a week [for Thanksgiving]? I come from a tradition that has always said you make sacrifices for your religion. I grew up in a world and still do where you honor the Sabbath. I take pay-cuts for that reason… It hit my bottom line tremendously.”
The most controversial thing Dennis Prager ever said was about Muslim congressman Keith Ellison not taking his swearing in ceremony on a Bible.
The Ellison incident illustrates how Dennis Prager believes as
much in Americanism as in Judaism, and that sometimes his Americanism trumps his Judaism, a religion that says nothing about which non-Jewish scripture a Muslim politician in American should swear upon when entering office.
