A fundraiser for Magen David Adom, Israel’s national disaster relief, ambulance, and blood bank service, organized by Noah Cape ’25 and Matt Seltzer ’24, has raised over $7,500 since Nov. 20.
The two students set out with an original fundraising goal of $1,000. By Nov. 24, they had raised over $5,500 — in part due to an anonymous donor who matched $2,500 in donations.
“It’s clear to Noah and I that there’s a lot of people in our community at Williams who care deeply about the situation in Israel, and especially who want to support Israelis, who want to support their fellow Jews,” Seltzer said. “So I think we were expecting something [of] this magnitude.”
Cape and Seltzer said that they chose Magen David Adom because of its prominence in Israel. “They’re doing really good work,” Cape said. “They’re some of the first responders that have been all around Israel since October 7 specifically, but just all around forever. It’s not just disaster relief. They do everything in Israel.”
Besides raising money for Magen David Adom, the fundraiser’s description said that it also hopes to show students “that there is a strong group of Zionists within the Williams community, and that they can proudly display their Zionism on campus knowing that their peers and alumni stand behind them.” It concludes by thanking donors for supporting Israel and their “commitment to standing against campus antisemitism.”
“Pro-Israel Jews on campus or just Jews on campus — they feel afraid,” Seltzer said. “I think there’s a lot of antisemitism on college campuses right now. There’s also some at Williams, especially if you look on people’s social media … so we just want to show people that they can be proud of their Jewish identity no matter how they choose to express it.”
Reports of both antisemitism and Islamophobia at institutions of higher education have spiked since Oct. 7, with the federal government opening discrimination investigations into half a dozen institutions including Wellesley, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania on Nov. 16.
“Jewish students are well aware of violence and threats that have happened on other campuses and [are] concerned that something similar could happen here,” Seltzer wrote in an email to the Record.
Along with social media posts, Seltzer also referred to posters that have been hung around campus, including ones that bear the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The slogan has sparked controversy, with Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League stating that it is antisemitic, while pro-Palestine activists state that it is an expression in support of Palestinian freedom and is not “inherently threatening.”
“By donating to [the] fundraiser, people show that there is a strong pro-Israel community at Williams, and students can take comfort in the fact that this community supports them,” Seltzer said.
In addition to the fundraiser, Cape and Seltzer have helped coordinate community dialogues for pro-Israel students on campus, and they plan to host speakers for more educational events in the future.
“There’s a lot of students on campus that feel similar to us that have not been getting the support that they need,” he continued. “Having students speak out and show that there are other students that feel a similar way is a really important way to show support.”
