Engage!, a benefit concert to raise awareness and funds for building and development in Judea and Samaria, will be held in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, world headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch, on Saturday night, January 23, 8 PM, at Bais Rivka, 470 Lefferts Avenue. The event is for women only.



Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel is organizing the concert in coordination with Israeli NGO Women in Green, in response to the recent building freeze imposed on communities in Judea and Samaria by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who acceded to pressure from the US.



Organizer Tamar Adelstein said, “This so-called ‘good faith gesture’ meant to bring the Arabs back to the negotiating table has instead led to an escalation of terror attacks against Jews. Nor has Israel’s largesse done much to improve its image among foreign leaders whose demands for more concessions keep growing, making the entire hierarchy of Israeli politicians and defense officials look weak and foolish.”



The organizers quote an emotional address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe at the time of the Camp David agreement, in which he bitterly lamented the return of the Sinai to Egypt, the Rebbe said. “Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) and the Golan Heights are even more vital for defensive borders,” he said. “It is proposed that we actually give them these lands outright! Our strategic buffer zone will have been eliminated. The valuable extra time for our air defense to operate is gone…and the densely populated inner core of land is made infinitely more vulnerable to attack. Can there be a greater danger to Jewish life than this?”



Mrs. Adelstein said: “We are lodging our protest through song, theater and film. Our event will alert the Jewish community at large to this new peril and we will send the money we receive to Yibaneh, an organization that supports building in Judea and Samaria." Engage! will feature the popular singer, Chanale, a theatrical troupe, and a film documentary.