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True to the aims of George Williams and his 11 comrades, who established the first YMCA in 1844 to enhance the lives of young men seeking work in London, the founders of the Jerusalem YMCA in 1878 opened its doors to people of all faiths and nationalities. For the first 10 years, the group’s activities were held in a religious bookshop on Jaffa Road, and its handful of enthusiastic members took part in separate programs in “Anglo-Hebrew,” Arabic, German and other languages. Subsequent years saw the association moving from venue to venue until it settled, in 1909, in a building opposite the Damascus Gate. After the membership rose from 40 to 200, however, even these premises proved too small. Problems of this sort were eclipsed by the outbreak of World War I, when the Turkish authorities banned the YMCA as a suspect organization. But activities resumed as soon as the British marched into Palestine in 1917, and branches were set up along the military railroad route. In Jerusalem, YMCA members were kept busy guiding furloughed soldiers around the Holy City and maintaining overnight accommodations for the visiting servicemen in tents and huts erected near the Russian Compound.Under the inspired leadership of Dr. Archibald Clinton Harte, who became general secretary of the Jerusalem YMCA in 1920, the organization flourished. Adhering to the worldwide YMCA credo of “spirit, mind, body,” he greatly expanded activities. The results of his work so impressed James Newbegin Jarvie, of Montclair, New Jersey, that on Christmas Eve, 1924, he decided to donate one million dollars for the construction of a permanent home for the YMCA.   A plot of land in the “West Nikephoria” section of Jerusalem was purchased from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate with funds donated by the International Committee of the North American YMCA, the British National Council and a group of Jewish friends in Manchester, England. The cornerstone was laid in 1928 by Lord Plumer, the British high commissioner for Palestine. Field Marshal Edmund Lord Allenby, who had led the British conquest of the region, dedicated the new YMCA headquarters on April 18, 1933, with an address broadcast to listeners in Britain and the United States. “Here in Jerusalem,” he stated, “city revered by all, in the heart of Palestine, a land which has been – from remote ages till recent years – the scene of almost incessant wars, is erected an international monument of peace and brotherhood. Under its shadow, jarring sectarians may cease from wrangling, fierce passions be tamed, and men’s minds be drawn to loftier ideals....” The opening of the YMCA complex was a major event attended by YMCA leaders from around the world. Every detail of the building was described in the world press. The elegant arches, domes and tower instantly became a landmark, and a wellspring of cultural, athletic, social and intellectual life. Until 1991, the YMCA stadium was the only soccer stadium in Jerusalem. The city’s premier teams used the soccer field for decades, hosting national and international games. The YMCA swimming pool was, until the 1960s, the only one in the city. Jerusalemites streamed into the YMCA to attend sports events, concerts, plays, and courses in everything from bookkeeping to music appreciation. Christmas parties and Purim celebrations were held there and Muslim employees invited their colleagues home for traditional feasts. At first, the city’s Jews, Muslims, and even some Christians were wary of the YMCA, suspecting it of missionary intent, but as increasing numbers of Jerusalemites from all of these communities took part in activities, it became clear that these fears were ungrounded. To this day, many religious people make use of the YMCA’s facilities, especially the pool, which offers separate bathing for men and women.World War II brought another influx of troops to Jerusalem, and Army YMCA branches were given the use of a few rooms in the complex, where weekly concerts were organized. Open-air concerts were also held on the building grounds. At the same time, the YMCA program continued as usual. Lectures were held, the snack bar provided inexpensive refreshments, and sporting activities, such as softball, soccer and tennis, were as popular as ever. But when hostilities broke out in Jerusalem on the eve of the British departure from Palestine, the YMCA’s role as a bastion of peace was intensified. In 1946, it became the headquarters of the Anglo-American Commission of Enquiry, followed by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine in 1947. With the outbreak of the 1948 War, the city was divided into Jordanian-Arab Jerusalem in the east and Israeli-Jewish Jerusalem in the west. The YMCA continued its activities in the western part, serving mainly the Jewish population and a minority of Christians and Muslims, and a new YMCA was built in the eastern part, catering to the Muslim and Christian population on that side of the city. In spring 1948, the International Red Cross declared the YMCA, the King David Hotel and Terra Sancta College “Lieux de Genève,” havens for noncombatants from war zones. Toward the end of April, a group of nurses arrived from Switzerland, and Red Cross flags and banners were displayed on the building. Some 80 refugees were housed in the YMCA, among them Armenians, Arabs, Poles and Austrians. The YMCA staff was once again called upon to play a major role in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of further hostilities, when the YMCA was asked to house the United Nations Mediation Committee headed by Count Folke Bernadotte in June 1948. In September of that year, Bernadotte and his aide, Colonel Andre Serot, were assassinated, and their bodies were taken to the YMCA where they lay in state before being flown home for burial. The buildings were then taken over by the U.S. Consulate, which billeted its guards and naval communications staff there; the Turkish and Spanish vice-consuls in Jerusalem also resided in the YMCA at the time. The complex was returned to the YMCA in April 1949, and the buildings again housed the lively community center. While some of the city’s residents were attracted to the YMCA’s athletic facilities, others attended concerts of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, which made the “Y” its first home. During the 1967 Six Day War, the UN established temporary headquarters for its Jerusalem offices at the YMCA; its staff remained there for two months. Over the years, the membership has grown and changed. Whereas in the mid-1940s, it totaled 1,500, half of which was Christian, a quarter Muslim and a quarter Jewish, by April 2003, the YMCA had a total membership of 2,600, of which 62.5% were Jewish, 19.5% Muslim and 18% Christian. Almost a half-million people visit the YMCA annually. The hostel has become a four-star hotel, the snack bar has been transformed into a restaurant and a wide spectrum of activities has been developed, from a kindergarten and day camp for Jewish, Christian and Muslim children to Hebrew and Arabic courses, an Arab-Jewish youth leaders’ club, art workshops, a senior citizens’ club and numerous sports programs. The local Rotary chapter has been meeting at the YMCA since 1935. With a Board of Directors whose membership represents the diversity of the Holy City, the Jerusalem International YMCA actively strives to foster interfaith, interracial and intergroup understanding and encourage an appreciation of every person’s worth as an individual. The YMCA staff, comprising a balanced number of Christians, Jews and Muslims, is committed to advancing these goals in day-to-day programs and in special peace delegations to the USA and Europe in which Arab and Jewish youth get to know each other through group discussions and recreational activities. For its efforts in promoting peace, kinship and the dignity of humankind, the Jerusalem International YMCA was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and was awarded the first Jerusalem Marta Prize for Tolerance and Democratic Values in 1996.  Throughout the various conflicts that have beset the region over the decades, the words of Edmund Lord Allenby at the dedication of the YMCA building, inscribed on the plaque beside the main staircase to the YMCA, continue to ring true: “Here is a place whose atmosphere is peace, where political and religious jealousies can be forgotten, and international unity be fostered and developed.”This chapter was adapted from an article that appeared in ERETZ Magazine.
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