Over 600 Turn Out for Pamela Geller Speech
Over 600 turned out Sunday at Chabad of Great Neck to hear activist Pamela Geller voice her opinion.
Geller, who helped organize the rally against a prosed “Ground Zero” mosque in 2011, was welcomed Chabad of Great offiials after a planned talk at Great Neck Synagogue was cancelled earlier in the week.
Chabad of Great Neck Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky said he couldn’t stay silent while “evil was acting” and invited Geller to present her talk: The Imposition of Sharia in America.
“We believe in free speech,” said Geisinsky. “We cannot just stay silent, that’s the reason we thought it was important.”
Geller hailed the event a success.
“I’m thrilled that there’ such a large turnout,” said Geller after arriving in Great Neck. “That there are freedom lovers that are unafraid to stand up in spite of the campaign to defame smear and liable anyone that speaks to this message.”
A Great Neck Synagogue member spoke at the event in support of Geller’s message.
“We don’t attack a faith,” said Jeff Wiesenfeld of the Great Neck Synagogue, who spoke at the event. “We attack a terribly dangerous minority within a faith that unfortunately that faith has not seen fit to sufficiently address.”
A slight police police presence was on hand, but little anti-Geller opposition could be found outside of the event.
One man, standing on East Shore Road nearby, handed out fliers accusing Geller of lying and spreading fear. The man, who identified himself as Muslim, said he wasn’t against free speech but was against Geller speaking at a house of worship.
“She has a place on the street,” he said.
Also speaking in Great Neck was Greg Buckley, Sr., whose 21-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley was killed in August while serving in Afghanistan. Buckley Sr. is calling for justice in the murder of his son and is seeking prosecution on American soil.
After the Great Neck talk, Geller spoke at a demonstration in front of the Nassau Human Rights Commission in Mineola against, what she says, was a coordinated effort to have her silenced in Great Neck.
Milhouse
Pamela Geller fulfils a valuable function in drawing people’s attention to a clear danger, which the mainstream media deliberately conspire to minimize. However, she is a secular person, and some of the Moslem practices and beliefs that she condemns, ridicules, or would seek to ban, are ones that we share, and any ban on them would hurt us as well. It’s important for us to bear this in mind. Honor her for the good she does, but be careful as well, and don’t uncritically spread everything she writes.
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YASHAR KOACH. may it be an inspiration as a springboard for doing more mitzvos.