When Justin Yehuda asked the readers of his daily newsletter for $5,000 to resupply an Israeli army unit, he figured it would take about a week. It took one day.

Yehuda, 25, is the founder of Iron Dome Coffee, which he started after Oct. 7, 2023. He sent the appeal on Monday morning to a list that reaches more than 21,000 people. His company put in the first $500, and readers covered the rest before the day was out. The next morning he followed up with a message titled “GOAL MET IN ONE DAY!!”

As of Thursday the campaign had raised $9,434 from roughly 70 donors, and it remains open. Anything raised beyond the goal goes to the same unit.

The money is for food, gear and basic supplies for the unit of a soldier Yehuda asks be identified only by his first name, Dael, out of concern for his safety. Dael is a reservist in the Paratroopers Brigade who came home from Syria about three months ago and was called up again soon after for a 100-day deployment to Lebanon, where Yehuda said his unit was severely under-equipped. He is in the field with barely any signal and did not yet know the goal had been met.

The campaign is run by Belev Echad, a registered 501(c)(3) based in New York City that works with wounded IDF veterans, offering what it describes as emotional, physical and financial support through retreats, rehabilitation programs and community events. Since word spread that the goal was met, Yehuda said, readers have been writing back with messages for Dael, and he plans to see that the soldier gets them.

Yehuda traces the company to the months after Oct. 7. On its website he writes about the antisemitism he saw at Cornell University and in New York City politics, and about his cousin, Benyamin Asulin, who was killed defending Israel. “This pain became deeply personal,” he writes.

Iron Dome Coffee sells Brazilian beans hand-roasted in small batches, as whole bean, ground, single-serve pods and cold brew, under blend names that read like a map of Israel: Jerusalem Sunrise, Sabra Spirit, Tel Aviv French Vanilla, Chutzpah Caramel and Haifa Hazelnut. There is also an Israeli-grown green mint tea from the Galilee. The coffee is Star-K kosher certified, and the packaging is sourced from Israel. The company sells by the bag and by subscription, and its tagline is “Supporting Israel one cup at a time.”

Eighteen percent of the profits goes to organizations that support Israel, among them Belev Echad, Friends of the IDF, Magen David Adom and Christians United for Israel. The company says it has given $28,304 so far, against a goal of $100,000 for 2026.

“I started Iron Dome Coffee after October 7th because my family was defending the State of Israel and I couldn’t sit at a desk doing nothing,” Yehuda said. “But this week was the first time I watched 30,000 coffee drinkers become something bigger. A soldier is going to turn on his phone in Lebanon and find out that thousands of strangers have his back. That’s Am Yisrael.”

Readers who want to help can give through the Belev Echad campaign at belevechad.nyc/fundraiser-for-daels-idf-unit.