The Leo Club hosted a bake sale at lunch on Thursday to fund donations to aid in Israel and Gaza, but has faced backlash for unclear messaging.
M-A’s Intercultural Leadership class advertised the Leo Club’s “Israeli Support Bake-Sale” on their Instagram on Oct. 27. That evening, the post received backlash in the comment section.
Comments included “Crazy how a legitimate leadership group is supporting an ethnic cleansing” and “why are you raising money for israel when the US already gives them billions of dollars?” The following day, the post was taken down.
Intercultural Leadership’s post did not include that the event was run by the Leo Club, so some students believed the class itself was hosting the event rather than just promoting it.
Nevertheless, during lunch on Thursday, the Leo Club—M-A’s branch of an international youth public service organization—hosted the bake sale on the Green, with all proceeds going to UNICEF humanitarian aid in Israel and Palestine. The club sold store-bought black-and-white cookies, a traditionally Jewish food.
While the original Instagram post said all proceeds go to the Israeli Red Cross, one poster at the bake sale table said proceeds would go to UNICEF while another said proceeds would go to the Israeli Red Cross. Sophomore Niklas Klemmer*, the bake sale’s organizer and Leo Club president, confirmed that all proceeds will be going to UNICEF.
“It was originally an Israel support bake sale, which we take accountability for, but we changed it to also support innocent people in Gaza,” sophomore Josie Weiss, who helped plan the bake sale, said. “There are many organizations that need money right now, but I see how if we’re doing something at school then we should include innocent Palestinians.”
The M-A Chronicle reached out to the Intercultural Leadership class, but both the teacher and students declined to comment.
Senior Aarya Ayyar, who commented, “Who thought this was a good idea,” on the promotional post, said, “I was frustrated when I first saw the post. I thought it was incredibly insensitive for Leadership to take sides in a war and create a bake sale in support of Israel.”
Mar Hudson, a junior at Capuchino High School whose friend sent him the post, commented, “maybe don’t fundraise for a genocide?”
“I could not believe that the school admin would approve such an event knowing how controversial and triggering it could be, especially for Jewish and Arab students who may be personally affected,” Hudson said.
“I value the opinions and experiences of both Israelis and Jews as well as those of Palestinians and Arabs,” Klemmer said. “If people wanted to have a civil conversation regarding the conflict and their disagreements, I would have been happy to have engaged in one. However, it was completely unacceptable to turn an Instagram comment section into a cesspool of hate and antisemitism.”
“I think M-A and, as an extension, Leadership, should remain neutral in this situation,” said Ayyar. “Supporting a side would lead to further division and alienation within M-A’s community. I think it would be fine for the organizers to host a similar event outside of school, though. I’m glad they took down the post. I hope it gives them time to reflect and move forward.”
“I was pissed off that they took the post down because it lets the people who I believe are spewing hate speech and spreading wrong information win,” junior and Jewish Student Union vice president Lainey Egnal said. “It should have been addressed, not ignored. The problem is that letting other people tell you what your cause should be about and why your cause is incorrect defeats the entire purpose of showing support for a cause.”
“Intercultural Leadership told us, ‘We don’t want this class to be associated with something controversial, it’s not our job to spread awareness for clubs,’ which was suspicious because they have posted for other clubs,” Weiss said.
“I want to believe the decision to remove the post was to protect our students and to discourage online hate and harassment, but the way it was handled had an underlying tone of censorship,” Klemmer said.
In response to the backlash, the bake sale organizers tried to clarify that the sale was meant to benefit all victims of the war, rather than solely support Israel. The organizers renamed the sale, “Peace in the East.”
Intercultural Leadership’s Instagram hasn’t commented on the situation or posted an update about the sale moving to lunch since taking down the post.
M-A’s main Leadership class posted a photo of the bake sale on their Instagram story during lunch to advertise the event. In the story, both “Palestinian” and “Israeli” were misspelled.
*Niklas Klemmer is a journalist for the M-A Chronicle.
