Ontario, Canada – A Toronto Rabbi has cancelled a scheduled May 13th appearance at his Thornhill, Ont. synagogue by controversial anti-Islamist blogger Pamela Geller after local police threatened to remove him as one their force chaplains.
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SUNNEWS (http://bit.ly/YgOpww) is reporting that the Jewish Defense League (JDL) was sponsoring the event, and had rented space at Rabbi Mendel Kaplan’s Chabad Flamingo Synagogue.
Insp. Ricky Veerappan of the York Regional Police confirmed that he and other officers from the department’s hate crime unit met with Rabbi Kaplan on Tuesday, and told him his role as a force chaplain would be in jeopardy if he went forward with the Geller talk.
A representative from the JDL said an alternative location will be chosen for Geller’s appearance.
Last month, another Geller speech scheduled at the Great Neck Synagogue in Long Island, NY was cancelled amid pressure from activist groups.
How would local law enforcement know who’s scheduled to lecture in a shul?
Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and the JDL are hate-crazed lunatics and should be shunned by Yidden everywhere. Pamela accomplishes NOTHING by her hateful diatribes against all Muslims, which BTW consist primarily of recycled anti-Semitic hate myths.
I guess R Kaplan , can be bought off.. Seek honour rather than the truth
I’m in the Thornhill area, now I have a greater interest in going. the reply to #2 made it happen.
I need more info on where/when?
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer tell the truth. I’m going to guess that few if any of you VIN readers lived in Saudi Arabia for two and a half years. I did – working for a Saudi military academy. I also worked in South Lebanon for six months. Geller and Spencer are telling us what our politically correct minds don’t want to hear. It isn’t hate. It’s the raw facts. So – before you go screaming liberal tears, wake up and smell the prayer rugs coming to a neighborhood near you. I’m ashamed of the narrowmindedness of our own people.
Don’t put down the JDL. If they were in Europe maybe the sacred number would be 5 million, or 2 million or none. Unfortuately they have been rendered usless by FBI infiltration and wimpy Yidden .
Rabbi Kaplan’s wonderful video shiurim (lectures) are amongst the best on chabad.org. He has a wonderful sense of humor as well.
Rav Kaplan is a great man and widely respected in the community. It’s disgraceful that the police would actually threaten and intimidate him with the potential loss of his job if he allowed a group to rent his shul for an event. I’m not a huge Pamela Geller fan but she is free to speak her mind. She’s not breaking any laws. How can Rav Kaplan be held liable for acting within the law?
Pamela Geller should call up the York Police to thank them. If she would have had 300 people at her Flamingo lecture, now she’ll have at least 1,000. That’s what happened in Great Neck (NY). She was scheduled to speak in Great Neck Synagogue and due to pressure on GNS, the venue was changed to Chabad of Great neck, and instead of having 50 people show up (she was supposed to speak at the GNS mens club, so she would have had tops 75 if not for all the liberal/muslim pressure which brought her immense exposure), 600 people showed up at Chabad to hear her speak. This is a great day for Geller fans.
In Canada as elsewhere, political correctness over free speech. And not even the rabbis speech.
I respect Rabbi Kaplan and his organization (Chabad). It amazes me how he manages to be embroiled in political scandal even when – as in this case – it has nothing to do with him!