Speaking in a Northwest Baltimore synagogue, Shifra Hoffman knew she had a tough sell: persuading young Jewish men to move to Israel to guard settlements in the West Bank. The volunteers, she says, would replace those killed by Palestinians in the violent struggle that has engulfed the region.

"We want you to respond the way Jews have always responded -- with faith and not with fear," Hoffman told a group of about 40 people Sunday night at Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Synagogue on Park Heights Avenue.

"A Jew must have faith, because if you don't have faith that God has given this land to you, then we might as well dig a hole," she said. "You have to do this. You must not rest. Come home."

Hoffman, a journalist and activist who emigrated from Queens, N.Y., to Israel in 1986, was in Baltimore last weekend as part of a national tour to recruit volunteers to protect the settlements, which Jewish nationalists regard as their biblical birthright but Palestinians see as an illegal occupation of their homeland. Even many Israelis view the settlements as provocative.

In the past few months, Hoffman said, 15 men from the United States, Australia and Israel have volunteered and moved into West Bank settlements. After receiving weapons training and learning how to work with bomb-sniffing dogs, the volunteers patrol the settlements. A handful have joined the Israeli army, and Hoffman hopes that more will follow. To date, none has been injured or killed, she said.

Volunteering, she said, is a matter of "Jewish pride."

Addressing the potential danger in the settlements -- where more than 30 Israelis were killed last week alone -- Hoffman said the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York on Sept. 11 proved that danger isn't confined to Israel.

"The danger is everywhere," she said. "Have you been to Crown Heights lately?" she asked a man who inquired whether she is afraid to live in Jerusalem. "Have you been to Miami Beach after dark?

The activist, who gives her age as "over 50," is founder of Victims of Arab Terror International, a group that provides about $20,000 in aid annually to the families of terrorist victims in Israel. Since founding the group in 1986, she has toured the world speaking about her work, including more than a half-dozen engagements in Baltimore.

Hoffman is recruiting volunteers for the settlements in conjunction with the Jewish Legion, an international group that, according to its Web site, seeks "to offer additional security to the Jewish community around the world." The effort began about three months ago.

The volunteers must pay their own way to travel to Israel. Once there, they are not paid, but receive food and lodging at no cost and can take college classes for free, she said.

Hoffman said her group and the Jewish Legion have received 300 applications from potential volunteers, who must be between the ages of 18 and 30.

During Hoffman's 90-minute talk, a number of people in the crowd nodded and murmured approval when she spoke of her wariness about making peace with the Palestinians. At the close of the program, several dozen people rushed to the front of the synagogue to collect some of the printed information Hoffman had brought. A half-dozen people handed her checks for her victims group.

However, no one expressed interest in volunteering to live in and guard a settlement. Few of the men present were young enough to do so.

"It's not going to happen so easily, for sure," David S. Schwartz, 39, said of Hoffman's effort to recruit volunteers. "It's not a task most people are capable of, yet the desire should be there. The desire is an important aspect of being a religious Jewish person."

For many Jews, aliyah -- the prospect of immigrating to Israel --is a lifelong dream, something they've prayed for nearly every day of their lives.

"The thought of Jews living outside Israel wanting to return to their homeland is not a new concept," said Brian Saacks, president of the Baltimore Zionist District. "America is a wonderful country, but for Jews, Israel is their biblical homeland."

According to Dan Biron of the Jewish Agency for Israel, an international group that assists people who want to volunteer, study and move to Israel, 1,155 people immigrated to Israel from the United States and Canada through his agency last year. This year, the number is expected to grow to 1,500.

"In spite of the violence in Jerusalem, more people are interested in being in Israel these days," Biron said yesterday in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. "I'm very pleased with the fact that more volunteers are going for a much longer stay."

Art Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, called Hoffman's views "right of center," but acknowledged that a number of Jews agree with her assessment that the Israeli government's response to Palestinian terrorists is not strong enough.

"People are so outraged they believe very strongly they have an obligation to help," he said.

Nevertheless, Abramson questioned how many people would volunteer to live in settlements.

"I don't think she'll have many recruits," he said.

Hoffman said she usually receives more inquiries from potential recruits through newspaper articles or interviews on radio than from synagogue talks.

"It should be standing room only for people to go," she said.

But Hoffman is undeterred. She said she believes the volunteers will come.

"Youth need something idealistic," she said.