Solidarity dinner for Gush Katif

Large crowds are expected at the Gush Katif Museum Dinner this Saturday night, March 9, to show solidarity with those expelled from Gush Katif and to protest any further expulsion plans.

There have been reports in Israeli media ahead of United States President Barak Obama’s planned visit to Israel, of his attempt to push for withdrawal timetables for evacuating Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. “The upcoming dinner to benefit the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem will be an opportunity to protest any surrender of Jewish land and to demonstrate solidarity on behalf of a whole Israel – Yisrael HaShlaima,” said Sara Lehmann, of the Dinner committee.

The dinner committee issued a statement that “the expulsion from Gush Katif is the clearest evidence that land surrendered by Israel will be used for the purpose of creating an additional space from which to spread terror to innocent civilians and ultimately to weaken and dominate Europe and the U.S. A visit to this museum serves as a powerful educational tool to any visitor and conveys the message that the policy of surrendering land to people who continue to engage and abet terror is folly. The proffered desire to create a state cannot conceal the persistent hatred of Jews present in the Palestinian Authority as well as Hamas. Obama’s insistence for a timetable for withdrawal is a threat to the civilized world and refuted by the Gush Katif experience.”

“The purpose of the Museum is to preserve the story of the horrors of the expulsion from Gush Katif for the specific purpose of declaring NEVER AGAIN! Yet, demolitions have happened since and threaten to continue. We must protest against any such actions. A strong showing will send a strong message to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Diaspora Jews and Christians will fight demolition decrees and continue to stand up for our rightful claim to our Biblical Homeland.”

A year ago the first Gush Katif Museum dinner was held at the Razag Ballroom in Brooklyn, NY. At the time, Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo, Founder and President of the Museum, had contacted Dr. Joseph Frager, Dr. Paul Brody and Odeleya Jacobs, founders of the World (now, International) Committee for the Land of Israel, and Helen Freedman, Executive Director of American Friends For a Safe Israel (AFSI) about running the benefit dinner for the Gush Katif museum. Ambassador John Bolton and radio and TV personality Glenn Beck were among the speakers.

This year the dinner for the Gush Katif Museum In Jerusalem is scheduled for Saturday night, March 9, 8 PM, at the Razag Ballroom, 739 East New York Avenue.

The featured speaker is Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee has been to Israel many times and visited the Gush Katif Museum in 2009 at the urging of Odeleya Jacobs and Drs. Frager and Brody. They, Helen Freedman, Assemblyman Dov and Shani Hikind, Sara Lehmann, Ruben Margules, Joe Stamm, Mel Wadler, Zev Brenner and others, were there with him when Mrs. Rivka Goldschmidt, a refugee from the Gush Katif expulsion, spoke to him passionately about the plight of the Gush Katif refugees. Rivka Goldschmidt will be at the dinner, to recount her experiences and those of her neighbors.

Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson will also be speaking on behalf of the Rabbis of the Crown Heights Synagogues. Multi-media displays will be shown about the lives of the Gush Katif residents. Guests of Honor for the evening include Rabbi Sholom Ber Drizin, Rabbi David Algaze, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, and Helen Freedman. The Dinner Committee is chaired by Dr. Paul Brody and includes many distinguished members of the Jewish community. Musicians YONI and Choni Milecki will be performing during the evening.

An interview with Rachel Saperstein, one of the spokeswomen for the Gush Katif community, has just been circulated. In the interview, Rachel describes her frustration and disappointment in the government’s failure to act more quickly in enabling the still displaced persons to move into their permanent homes. The semi-annual AFSI Chizuk mission to Israel meets with the Sapersteins, Anita Tucker, and others each time they are in Israel. They saw the 21 flourishing communities before they were destroyed, and visited the temporary caravans in which most of the people have been living since 2005. They have also seen some of the new homes and new communities, all of which are developing very slowly. Since it was not just their homes that people saw destroyed by the demolition crews when the 10,000 residents were forcibly removed from Gush Katif, but entire communities and farms, with all that is involved, rebuilding is a laborious and costly exercise.

To RSVP, or call in a contribution, please contact the Museum dinner committee by phone at 718-208-1770 or, mail your contribution payable to “Friends of Gush Katif Museum”, 383 Kingston Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11213, Suite 155. You can also email your request to Dinner@GushKatifMuseum.org, or pay online with your credit card at www.gushkatifmuseum.org.

Valet Parking is available.

All contributions are tax-deductible.