San Diego (special) -- A squad of well-known, politically conservative, Jewish talk show hosts and commentators will offer their views in San Diego on such hot button issues as abortion, affirmative action, and school choice in a forum designed to challenge what organizers describe as the Jewish community's "knee-jerk" liberalism.

Film critic and author Michael Medved will moderate the forum next month which will bring together author David Horowitz, and three well-known radio talk show hosts: Dennis Prager, Barry Farber and Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

The forum is being organized by the non-profit, Washington D.C.-based Jewish Policy Center. Spokesman Matt Brooks was in San Diego last Friday finalizing arrangements to hold the free event at 7 p.m., Sept. 28, in the ballroom of the San Diego Hilton at Mission Bay. 

Brooks told HERITAGE that the Jewish Policy Center -- a "think tank" for politically conservative Jews -- has held two such forums before, both in Washington D.C. Each of those attracted about 100 persons and generated enough enthusiasm to merit roadtesting the concept, he said.

Although members of the Jewish Policy Center write articles for such conservative journals and magazines as Commentary and The New Republic, "we realize that they have a limited audience," Brooks said.

Wanting to expand the audience for the center's politically conservative ideology, the Jewish Policy Center decided "to do something that was more exciting than a regular lecture and less raucous than the McLaughlin Group," Brooks said. "We wanted to have something that was engaging and stimulating for people to watch and have some entertainment value, but at the same time that didn't devolve into a screaming, yelling match." Although the questions that will be thrown to the panelists during the first part of the forum have not yet been determined, Brooks said "I expect we will spend a lot of time on school choice and vouchers. I think we will talk about things like religious persecution and RFRA (Religious Freedom and Restoration Act), and welfare reform and immigration." Affirmative action is another likely topic, he said.

MATT BROOKS

After the panelists have their initial say on such issues, the forum will be opened to questions from the audience, with Medved walking around with a wireless microphone, Phil Donohue-style, Brooks said.

Brooks works part-time for the Jewish Policy Center and part-time as executive director of the National Jewish Coalition, which is an umbrella group for Jewish Republican groups around the country. Whereas the local San Diego Jewish Republican group will be invited to help fill the ballroom of the San Diego Hilton, invitations also will be sent to the United Jewish Federation and to other Jewish organizations around San Diego, Brooks said.

He expressed hope that representatives of traditionally liberal Jewish organizations will attend the forum so as to hear the consevative viewpoint.

"I suspect we will get questions on affirmative action, abortion, the Religious Right, Christian Coalition and church and state stuff," Brooks said.

"A lot of these guys (panelists) are very knowledgeable from a religious perspective and I think it is important for the Jewish community to understand where the Jewish tradition is on a lot of these social issues -- getting a point of view they may not have had in the past."

Giving a flavor of some of the debate to come, Brooks said "as far as I am concerned, school choice is the number one issue facing the Jewish community, or should be."

"Public schools have let parents and children down for several generations now," he said. "I think one of the top priorities that we have as a nation is to get an education system that really educates people. We should give more choice to the parents who know best and are best equipped to make the right choice for their children. 

"Without question religious schools in this country -- Jewish, parochial schools, what have you--have done an extraordinarily successful job in educating children," Brooks added. "If parents and families want a top flight, top caliber education for the children...we as a country should hopefully try to make it easier for them to do that."

Studies of Jewish continuity are unanimous in finding that children who attend Jewish day schools are less likely to assimilate, Brooks said. "If we can lower the barrier to entry and make Jewish education more affordable for more families that will only help us in the long run with the issue of Jewish continuity," he said.