New Dennis Prager essay, which will probably prove controversial

The essay is entitled "Explaining Jews, Part IV: All the types of Jews," and it devotes a number of paragraphs to categories such as "Conservative," "Reform," and "Secular." It all builds up to the following:

Among the reasons it is so important to understand these types of Jews is this: The great majority of Jews who affect the world are either non-Jewish Jews or Jews with minimal Jewish identity, and very rarely have Jewish religious faith or religious values. That is why all talk about "Jewish control" of Hollywood or of media or of anything else is meaningless. A disproportionate number of powerful figures in these professions and in academia may have been born to a Jewish parent, but most of them have no Jewish identity and they surely do not work on behalf of any Jewish interest. When was the last pro-Israel movie made, for example?

However, given the influence of non-Jewish Jews on society -- in the arts, the university, the media -- it is fair to say that a Jewish revival among Jews is in both the Jews' and humanity's interest.

That is about as tactful a way of making that point as I can imagine, but it is bound to offend some. We might ask, if some other ethnic group was disproportionately represented in positions of power in Hollywood, would we have a more conservative country than we do now? I am not convinced that we would necessarily. It is very hard to be certain about alternate universes. A more conservative country and more Jewish-identified (I would stress frummer) Jews are both worthy goals in any event.

Tags: Dennis Prager, liberalism, Judaism, Hollywood