David Brog

David Brog (born 1965/1966)[1] is the former executive director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), an American pro-Israel Christian organization, and a conservative activist.[2][3]

David Brog
Personal details
Born1965 or 1966 (age 57–58)
Margate City, New Jersey, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
Harvard University (JD)

Career

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Brog served as an executive at America Online and practiced corporate law both in Israel and the United States.[4][5] In the early 1990s, Brog practiced in Israel.[6]

Afterwards he worked in the United States Senate for seven years, where he eventually became the chief of staff to Senator Arlen Specter and staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee.[4][5]

According to David Krone, Harry Reid's chief of staff, Brog was key in securing House Republican support for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed in 2016.[1]

In July 2015, Brog was tapped to head a new group called the Maccabee Task Force, an entity formed by American philanthropists Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban to combat Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions BDS activities on college campuses. Brog's exploits as head of the Maccabee Task Force were featured in an Al Jazeera documentary titled The Lobby.[7][8][9] Brog was seen as a surprising choice due to his position far from the mainstream within pro-Israel position, according to a Jewish organizational official speaking to The Forward in 2015. Nonetheless, the official found Brog's past success in organizational development explanatory regarding his appointment.[9]

Brog is often considered a protégé of Adelson's.[10]

He co-founded the Edmund Burke Foundation with Yoram Hazony.[11] As part of that foundation's work, Hazony and Brog organized the National Conservatism Conference.[12][13] They hoped to develop the frame the development and growth of conservatism through the conference.[14]

Christians United For Israel leadership

Brog helped found Christians United For Israel (CUFI), an American pro-Israel Christian organization.[12] CUFI founder and San Antonio-based Pentecostal preacher John Hagee hired Brog in 2006. Hagee did so as a solution to his organization's lack of pull in political circles; with Brog's political connections and ability, Hagee hoped to extend influence from the familiar broadcast radio to the unfamiliar Washington, D.C.[15]

Brog said in 2015 that his first task upon joining CUFI was to tap into existing bases of Christian Zionist support. Around 2015, the organization was exploring the idea of expanded political engagement, whether through Washington office focused on lobbying or through the development of a political action committee.[16]

According to Sander Gerber, a major player in the passage of the Taylor Force Act, a bill passed in 2018 that halted aid to the Palestinian Authority until it stops paying the families of deceased terrorists, Brog played a role in the bill's passage. Brog brought CUFI into the lobbying effort to pass the bill, bringing evangelical groups on board long before Jewish groups entered the arena, according to Gerber.[17]

2022 Republican Nevada congressional primary

In 2022, Brog ran for Republican Congressional nominee in Nevada's 1st congressional district. He lost in an eight-way race, finishing second with 17% to former Army colonel Mark Robertson's 30%.[10] Brog announced his entry into the race in February and raised $284,000 in the first six weeks, including a $50k loan to himself.[2] By June, Brog had spent $187k. His campaign spent $59k on mail advertisements and $88.5k on "media placements". This left his campaign with $174k in remaining cash at that point. By that point in the campaign, Brog had received endorsements from Genie Energy PAC, the Hindu American PAC, and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.[3]

Brog described "securing our Southern border and finishing Trump's border wall" as among his top priorities.[12]

Education and early life

Brog was born in Margate City, New Jersey, a community near Atlantic City. His parents were largely secular, his father Eugene attending synagogue only for the high holidays. His Zionism was fostered after reading The Revolt by Menachem Begin while a student at Atlantic City High School.[1]

Brog attended Princeton University for his bachelor's degree. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.[18][12]

Personal life

He is a cousin of former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, whose original surname was also "Brog" until he Hebraized it to Barak in 1972.[18] He is married to an Israeli-American woman.[9]

Brog is Jewish.[7] He occasionally attends his local Orthodox synagogues, Young Israel Aish HaTorah and Chabad. He does not work on Shabbat.[1] Before moving to Nevada, Brog lived in Texas.[17]

Views

Brog says he was a Democrat until law school.[4]: 2 

In 2014, Brog expressed concern in Middle East Quarterly that traditional reflexive American evangelical Christian support for Israel was waning.[19]

Books
  • Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights, and the Struggle for Peace (2017)
  • In Defense of Faith: The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity (2010)
  • Standing With Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State (2006)

Brog's Standing With Israel is an attempt to establish Christian Zionists as both allies to the Jewish people and not motivated by replacement theology.[20]: 158  Brog details in four chapters how Christian Zionists aided in the establishment of the State of Israel.[20]: 165  He poses modern Zionist evangelicals as the heirs to the righteous gentiles of World War II. Nikolas K. Gvosdev says in his review for the Journal of Church and State that the book "suffers from the fact that its author wants to make definitive statements on a variety of issues while ignoring inconvenient details", a byproduct of the book's nature as a political polemic.[21] Brog's primary audience is other members of the Jewish community.[22]: 86 

References
  1. Kornbluh, Jacob (May 8, 2022). "He Was the Head of Christians United for Israel. Now He's Running as a Jewish Candidate for Congress". The Forward. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  2. Golonka, Sean; Solis, Jacob; Rindels, Michelle; Mueller, Tabitha; Calderon, Jannelle; Sanchez, Humberto (April 12, 2022). "Senate race brings in millions, congressional incumbents maintain hefty cash leads". The Nevada Independent. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  3. Golonka, Sean; Calderon, Jannelle; Solis, Jacob (June 6, 2022). "Congressional incumbents maintain cash leads, as Republicans escalate primary spending". The Nevada Independent. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  4. Blumenthal, Max (August 8, 2006). "Birth Pangs of a New Christian Zionism". The Nation. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008.
  5. Blumenthal, Max (August 11, 2006). "Israel, the US, and the Christian Right: The Menage a Trois From Hell". HuffPost.
  6. Stone, Peter H.; Kukis, Mark (April 9, 2005). "Tort Reformers Press for More Wins". National Journal. No. 15. Tort reformers press for more wins. ProQuest 200309914.
  7. "CUFI's David Brog to lead new anti-BDS campus group". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 10 Jul 2015.
  8. Berkowitz, Bill (22 Jul 2015). "BDS Opponents Launch "Campus Maccabees" to Fight Divestment Efforts". Truthout.
  9. Guttman, Nathan (8 Jul 2015). "Leader of Christian Zionists Named Head of Campus Anti-BDS Group". Forward.
  10. Lapin, Andrew (June 15, 2022). "Head of campus pro-Israel group loses Republican Congressional primary in Nevada". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
  11. Luban, Daniel (July 26, 2019). "The Man Behind National Conservatism". The New Republic. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  12. "Brog joins Nevada's GOP primary in 1st District House race". AP NEWS. February 17, 2022.
  13. Beauchamp, Zack (July 17, 2019). "Trump and the dead end of conservative nationalism". Vox. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  14. Gray, Rosie (July 19, 2019). "There's A New Movement Trying To Create An Intellectual Strain Of Trumpism. It Just Doesn't Know Exactly What That Means". BuzzFeed News. Washington, DC. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  15. Chafets, Ze'ev (2015). The bridge builder : the life and continuing legacy of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. New York: Sentinel. pp. 181–182. ISBN 9781591846789.
  16. Rubin, Jennifer (January 7, 2015). "Right Turn: Christians United for Israel hits 2 million". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  17. Rod, Marc (February 23, 2022). "Maccabee Task Force director David Brog puts his chips on congressional run". Jewish Insider. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  18. Rosner, Shmuel (2006-05-07). "David Brog on why Christians support the Jewish state". Haaretz. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  19. "Is Support For Israel Waning Among American Evangelicals?". HuffPost. Religious News Service. April 9, 2014.
  20. Steen, Sheldon (2017). "Strange Bedfellows? David Brog, Josephus, and the Rhetoric of Contested Allegiances". Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 29 (2): 155–180. doi:10.1163/15700682-12341388. ISSN 0943-3058. JSTOR 44645838.
  21. Gvosdev, Nikolas K. (2006). "Review of Holy Fire: The Battle for Christ's Tomb; Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State". Journal of Church and State. 48 (3): 691–693. doi:10.1093/jcs/48.3.691. ISSN 0021-969X. JSTOR 23921674.
  22. Durbin, Sean (2019). Righteous gentiles: religion, identity, and myth in John Hagee's Christians United for Israel. Leiden. ISBN 9789004385009.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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