Hundreds of Jewish protesters poured into the intersection of 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue yesterday, and young chasidim danced in the streets shouting “Death to Sharon,” as the Israeli prime minister kicked off his American tour with a speech at Baruch College defending the decision to withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza as part of the “road map” to peace with the Palestinians.

Inside the auditorium where Prime Minister Sharon delivered his prepared remarks, emotions likewise ran high. Despite tight security at the event – sponsored by leaders of New York’s major Jewish organizations – hecklers and protesters interrupted the prime minister’s address, prompting scuffles and shouting matches and, at one point, forcing Mr. Sharon to halt his speech.

The prime minister’s plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from the Palestinian-controlled territories of Gaza and the West Bank enjoys the support of a majority of Israelis, polls have indicated. It was also warmly endorsed yesterday by luminaries of New York’s Jewish community, ranging from leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, James Tisch and Malcolm Hoenlein, to a trustee of the City University of New York, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, and the publisher of the New York Daily News, Mortimer Zuckerman. Other Israeli officials, including the Jewish state’s ambassador to America, Daniel Ayalon, also attended.

The withdrawal plan has, however, proved unpopular with the settlers and with a segment of the Orthodox Jewish community in America, who argue that the pullout, scheduled to begin in mid-August, will jeopardize Israeli security. Mr. Sharon has said that if necessary he will remove the settlers unilaterally, without any concessions from the Palestinian Authority – another position that has drawn the ire of some Jews who see the pullout as rewarding unrepentant terrorists. Because the territories in question encompass the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, objections to the disengagement are also inflamed by religious passions, as some maintain it is divine will that Gaza and the West Bank remain in Jewish possession.

Mr. Sharon defended his plan yesterday against those criticisms to supportive members of the Conference of Presidents, United Jewish Communities, and the UJA Federation of New York. He framed the disengagement plan as an essential instrument in preserving “Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state.”

“This plan will improve our security and offer a chance to start a political process with the Palestinians,” Mr. Sharon said. “It will guarantee a Jewish majority in the state of Israel. It is thanks to this plan that we can make certain that important parts of the cradle of the Jewish heritage will remain part of Israel forever.”

Under no circumstances, however, would the plan be allowed to imperil Israelis, the prime minister said.

“When it comes to the security of Israeli citizens, there are not going to be any compromises,” Mr. Sharon said. “Not now, not in the future – never.”

Such assurances did not placate opponents of the proposal who managed to infiltrate the many layers of security enveloping the prime minister.

When Mr. Sharon first addressed the withdrawal, one member of the audience stood up and shouted, “Mr. Prime Minister, Jews don’t expel Jews!” The middle-aged man then peeled off his outer garments to flash an orange T-shirt, revealing the words emblazoned across his chest, “Let my people stay,” superimposed over an image of Israel.

The protester was summarily escorted from the hall.

Two other major disturbances punctured the prime minister’s remarks. As hecklers hurled their disagreements at Mr. Sharon, surrounding members of the audience tried to force them back in their seats or drown out their dissent, resulting in physical altercations and shouting matches. During one, a member of the audience supportive of Mr. Sharon yelled to a heckler, “Sit down, a–!” Mr. Sharon, who by that point had paused in his remarks, quipped: “Thank you so much for your help. Usually I handle these things myself.”

The protest was coordinated by the Coalition of Americans to Save Gush Katif/Gaza, a coalition organizer and two of the protesters said after the event. Ten members of the coalition, composed of a dozen Jewish organizations in the Northeast, gained legitimate entree to the event by virtue of their membership in groups under the Council of Presidents’ umbrella, the protesters said. All 10 took part in the disruptions and were escorted from the auditorium, one of the protesters, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

While the police took the protesters’ names as a matter of procedure, the demonstrator said, none was arrested.

Asked why he interrupted the prime minister, one of the protesters said that even though Mr. Sharon had surrounded himself “with 1,100 sycophants to applaud him,” it was important that Mr. Sharon be informed during his speech of the opposition to his plan, and that the Jewish leaders who effusively extended their support to the withdrawal not be allowed to speak for all American Jewry.

“These Jews are selling their own people down the river,” another heckler said after the event.

The T-shirts displayed by the protesters were made by the coalition, which chose orange out of solidarity with the Gaza settlers, who have adopted the color as a symbolic hue.

The streets outside Baruch College glowed tangerine yesterday, as coalition members rallied on the northeast corner of Lexington and 23rd and spilled into the intersection before being barricaded onto sidewalks by police. The “Let my people stay” T-shirts were near-ubiquitous and middle-aged chasidim tied orange cloths around the brims of their traditional black hats. Several local rabbis and a member of the state Assembly, Dov Hikind, a Democrat of Brooklyn, addressed the protesters, some of whom held signs comparing the Gaza withdrawal to the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.

On one poster, the marker ink that spelled out “Sharon – Hitler is proud of you” ran down the cardboard, smeared by the rain.

The anti-withdrawal protesters outside Baruch were joined by a much smaller contingent of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who joined in the denunciations of Mr. Sharon but urged a complete Jewish withdrawal from all Palestinian territories and the dismantling of Israel’s security barrier.

Israel’s relations with its Palestinian neighbors were not the focus of the prime minister’s speech. Rather, he concentrated on strengthening Judaism by discouraging intermarriage and assimilation, and by encouraging Jewish Americans to make aliyah – to immigrate to Israel.

Mr. Sharon called the struggle against assimilation “the greatest challenge we are facing today,” and he said aliyah, which could guarantee Israel a Jewish majority, is “the primary goal of my government.”

Yesterday marked Mr. Sharon’s first visit to New York in four years.