An ambulance that will soon serve communities across Israel was dedicated Thursday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), bringing students and community members together around a shared mission of supporting Israel and saving lives.Organizers said the event offered a constructive and meaningful space for connection and engagement on campus, particularly in the months following Oct. 7, 2023, when many Jewish students faced increased challenges.

Funded by Yossi Sheffi and his wife Anat, the ambulance will join the fleet of Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical and blood service, which handles the vast majority of the country’s emergency calls and plays a central role in disaster response and wartime care.

Sheffi, who was born in Jerusalem and educated at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology before building his academic career at MIT, is a leading global expert in supply chain resilience and risk management and a former Israeli Air Force service member.

The dedication comes in the wake of recent Iranian missile attacks on Israel, during which Magen David Adom teams operated at the highest level of alert, tracking incoming threats, dispatching ambulances in real time, and rushing to impact sites to treat the wounded and evacuate civilians under fire. Over the course of the attacks, MDA teams provided care to thousands, reinforcing their role as a first line of response when missiles strike civilian areas.

The event was attended by Israeli Consul General to New England Benjamin Sharoni. Also highlighted was the connection between local students and Magen David Adom’s global volunteer network: Omer Senior, a 12th-grade student at Maimonides School in Brookline and a resident of Newton, attended after volunteering with MDA in Israel last summer and plans to return again this year.