Great Neck hears Geller, ignores opponents

A dust up over free speech arose in Great Neck when a controversial speaker was bounced from appearing at one Orthodox synagogue under threat of protest from a Reform temple and invited to speak at another Orthodox synagogue there.

In a further development, a local newspaper is now being accused by supporters of the speaker of distorting an account of the event, with an inaccurate report and photographs.

Pamela Geller was originally invited by the Men’s Club of Great Neck Synagogue to speak on April 14th. Her appearance was initially defended by Rabbi Dale Polakoff, but then canceled under pressure from Rabbi Jerome Davidson, Rabbi Emeritus of Great Neck’s Temple Beth-El and Rabbi Michael White, Senior Rabbi of Temple Sinai of Roslyn. Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a member of great Neck Synagogue, noted in a letter that Davidson held events with members of a mosque that hosted a speaker who proclaimed 9/11 “a plot concocted by Israel and our CIA.” Geller is a blogger and commentator most known for her campaigns against extremist Moslems.

In an op-ed in the Jewish Week, on April 9, White and Davidson noted that they “cherish our relationships and friendships within the local Muslim community…. share deep and abiding connections with the Islamic Center of Long Island. Our communities have broken bread together, studied together, engaged in social action projects together, and our children have learned from each other as well. “ At the same time they condemned Geller’s position as “inflammatory rhetoric,” stating that “the right of free speech is vitally important, but Geller crosses the line from political to hate speech.”

Chabad of Great Neck then invited Geller to speak and an overflow crowd attended. She explained in her talk that she is called anti-Muslim but that she is “only anti-Jihadist,” said Dr. Paul Brody, who attended her talk and is a member of the Great Neck Synagogue and a close friend of Chabad as well as one of the organizers of the event. “They try to make her a hate monger, but she is only against those who want to kill us. She said that we have to wake up to the threat.” He pointed out that over 600 people attended the event at Chabad, “many from outside the community, many non-Jews. I gave a ride home to a guy and asked him which synagogue he belongs to and he said, ’I’m not Jewish.’ He said he wanted to hear, and make sure that she and all Americans have the right to free speech.” Brody noted that some American army veterans came, as well, holding American flags.

Brody added that the Great Neck Record published a photo illustrating that there were no crowds. “That was totally false,” he said. “There was a huge amount of people there and only one person protesting, giving out leaflets outside.” He said that the Great Neck Record printed “reprehensible lies and false statements” and that the Great Neck News is “even handed.”

Brody and other supporters of Pamela Geller, including Phil Orenstein, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Dov Davidovics, Irene Alter, Ann Schokett and Debby Geller, are organizing a protest in front of the Great Neck Record on April 28th at 9:45 AM at 25 Cuttermill Road and will be holding a press conference there.

At press time Davidson and the editor of the Great Neck Record were unavailable for comment.