PRAGER: When I First Realized America Is Exceptional

I moved to California from New York City in 1976. The founder of what was then America’s largest Jewish retreat center, the Brandeis Institute (not affiliated with the university), Dr. Shlomo Bardin, asked me to work as his assistant. He was 75 years-old; I was 25. One weekend the next year, he announced to the membership he wanted me to succeed him. To everyone’s shock, he died that very week. It was then renamed the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.

The institute was located in Simi Valley, California, then more a small town than even a small city. It had all of two restaurants. I lived there for three years and joined the Simi Valley Rotary Club.