Fadi Suidan is a lawyer, volunteer, and proud father who hails from Haifa, which he describes as “the city of [Arab-Jewish ] coexistence.” His family has lived and done business there for generations. Today, Suidan is the CEO of a historic institution, the Jerusalem International YMCA.
After the Suidans moved to Jerusalem so that Fadi’s wife could take up a position in pediatric ophthalmology at Hadassah Medical Center, they enrolled their son at the first integrated Arab-Jewish preschool in Jerusalem.
“What is this place?” Suidan asked when he saw it.
In those days, he said, in Jerusalem “The first time that they [Arabs and Jews] met was at university.” In terms of schools, “We were still stuck in the Brown vs. Board of Education.”
“How do you raise two children who are growing up [on opposite sides] in a conflict zone to not hate each other? You put them in the same classroom.”
As someone used to Arab-Jewish life in Haifa, he continued to be disturbed by the social divisions in Jerusalem, finding hope and inspiration at the YMCA. Suidan said it “sparked ideas,” and he began volunteering there in 2014.
Once he became the CEO of the YMCA, he began to run the nonprofit like a business.
Renovating the YMCA
The YMCA’s sports center had sat idle for 10 years, at first due to construction issues and then due to a complete lack of funds.
In 2017, with the YMCA still suffering financially after the loss of its US funding, it took courage for its board of directors, led by attorney Elias Khoury and the YMCA’s former CEO Amos Gil to decide to open a new sports center, he said. Israeli-Canadian billionaire businessman and champion cyclist Sylvan Adams offered a large sum of money to get the center back open to the public, and since then it’s been thriving.
The previous sports facility’s capacity was 800 members. Today, the Jerusalem YMCA’s Sylvan Adams Sports Center has thousands of members.
Until 10 years earlier, Jerusalem had been the only US-affiliated overseas YMCA branch. When funding ceased, the branch came to a virtual standstill.
Now, with an upgrade in management, Suidan says he has been able to stem financial leaks and put the YMCA’s economy into a healthy situation.
“When donors see that we are not chronically losing money, and they see it’s not mismanaged – as can happen with nonprofits – we renew their faith in us and enable us to carry out the projects we want to do here,” Suidan said.
The YMCA in Jerusalem features 64 hotel rooms, a conference room, the sports center, and stunning grounds with trees, lush grass, and plants. It also has an interesting history.
The first YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) was opened in London during the Industrial Revolution in 1844. The first Jerusalem branch followed in 1878, starting life as a small library. It was the project of YMCA secretary Archibald Clinton Hart, whose vision was to create a YMCA in the heart of the Holy Land. Eventually, due to overwhelming demand, the location was moved close to the Jaffa Gate, where there was enough space to add a tennis court.
The historic building and sports center of the Jerusalem International YMCA still in use today was inaugurated in 1933, predating the State of Israel. It opened with the first indoor wooden-floor basketball court, a swimming pool, and a fitness center.
In 1946, during the British Mandate and with tensions high in Jerusalem as the United Nations was planning the partition of peoples, the YMCA became the operation headquarters of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, with the task of examining the economic, social, and political conditions in Mandatory Palestine.
You may be familiar with the name Folke Bernadotte or you might have heard his story. He was the UN Security Council mediator for the Arab-Israeli conflict in the years leading up to Israel’s Declaration of Independence. As Jewish underground militant groups came closer to taking control of the city, Bernadotte was killed by the Lehi fighter group and then laid out on display in the boardroom of the YMCA, where he had been working. His body was flown back to Sweden from whence he came.
Today there is a sign commemorating his life and work in Jerusalem during that time of terrible turmoil. Suidan sees the sign regularly.
A large and active part of the Jerusalem International YMCA is the enormous Sylvan Adams Sports Center. It has two large basketball courts, an almost Olympic-size swimming pool, a full training room with exercise machines, a weight room, yoga studios, multiple spaces for dance and Pilates, as well as male and female locker rooms.
Long-time YMCA members gave glowing reviews of the Sports Center’s homey feel, its various classes such as Afro, Chinese, and belly dancing; Strong Nation workouts and tai chi sessions; and its sprawling facilities. However, there were a number of issues that members said had never been resolved since the reopening, despite promises from management.
Every person interviewed for this article noted the YMCA sports center’s abundant diversity of membership and its neutrality.
STEFANI HOFFMAN is originally from New York City and has lived in Jerusalem for decades with her husband. Hoffman has been going to “the Y” for years, and her husband started even before her, becoming a member in the mid-1970s.
She tells In Jerusalem that during a 2017 tour of the new and exciting sports center for its existing members, they were bothered by the locker rooms.
“When we saw the place, we were dismayed at the strange shape of the lockers themselves. We were told this would be changed soon. They never have [done so],” Hoffman says. “In the area near the showers, something was not built right. There’s always water gathering in the corridor from the dressing room to the pool. I imagine it could be dangerous [if someone slipped],” Hoffman says.
She comments that not only are the lockers uncomfortable to use, but many are broken and cannot be opened with a key.
“Some of the tiles in the showers came out and they did fix it; but the whole setup of the lockers was not built conveniently. I think the facilities are good, but I would like to see the locker room improved, with a little more supervision in terms of cleanliness and attention,” Hoffman adds.
Rita Mendes Flor is 76, and she came to Jerusalem with her husband in the ‘70s. She was born and raised on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao. Mendes Flor left the island at the age of 18 and met her husband while studying at Brandeis University in Boston, Massachusetts. She has been a YMCA member since the new sports center opened and is more tolerant about the issues she finds in the locker room.
“Certainly in the showers, they put the no-slip mats which make a big difference. The floor is covered with water in the hall. That doesn’t bother me, but I imagine some people don’t like that,” she says.
For her, the real issue lies in pool access. The YMCA dedicates the pool to group swimming lessons during certain daytime hours.
“We are allowed to swim there [during those hours], but if there’s a training group, we [the members] have to get out,” Mendes Flor says.
“That’s my only complaint. I’ve heard they are going to be moving those classes, and I hope that will happen.”
People come from east Jerusalem, she says. “There are a lot of swimmers in the Palestinian community. It’s wonderful they have that [the YMCA].”
Mendes Flor says she had been considering letting her membership expire and returning to the newly renovated Jerusalem Pool [on Emek Refaim], which is set to reopen after the holidays and is closer to her home. However, after diving into her experience at the YMCA during her interview for this article, she reports having a realization.
“I thought I would move back [to the refurbished Jerusalem Pool], but I realized that an institution like this [the YMCA] makes things normal, and I should support it. I extended my membership for another year,” Mendes Flor says.
“I think it’s just the fact that we are there, we smile at each other. We say hello. We don’t need a long conversation, but you start to recognize people. That is part of the feeling, that it’s normal. And in Jerusalem, that is very rare.”
Hoffman mirrors this sentiment and adds another aspect of the diversity she sees among YMCA members.
“I am pretty old, and you see [even] older and young people in great shape, and everyone does what they came for,” Hoffman comments.
“People are polite and maintain a polite relationship with everyone else, and I think that is a very commendable thing. If you go to a place where everyone behaves, people follow it. They have a diverse staff. I think it works.”
Hoffman adds jokingly that her husband used to say he could predict election results simply by spending a few minutes in the locker room.
A CHRISTIAN Arab woman told the Magazine that she frequents the Y six days a week for seven hours a day. She reports that she likes being there because people can interact without that extra sensitivity around where they come from.
However, having been a member for 30 years, she is starting to think that the rates are too high and has become frustrated over not having had a cafeteria for a few months. As a religious woman, she feels uncomfortable leaving the premises in workout clothes to grab a coffee or lunch.
The Magazine approached Suidan about the issues that were brought up by the members.
“We are in negotiations [over the cafeteria]. The place is going to be kosher. The board decided to make the cafeteria kosher. I have high hopes for when they open up,” Suidan said.
“The previous [person to run it] had to leave; he was there for many years without a contract. And we couldn’t continue. We are trying to raise the standard; hopefully, by the end of the week we will have a new contract with a known cafeteria here in Jerusalem.”
Suidan went on to address the issues concerning the state of the locker rooms and the pool hours.
“They are valid complaints. We take them seriously. With the means we have, we are trying to do what we can,” Suidan explained.
He detailed the large sums of money invested in refurbishing the gym’s facilities, the enormous cost of filtering a semi-Olympic-sized swimming pool, and the competitive membership fee, as compared to similar Jerusalem gyms.
“They are modest lockers. We are a nonprofit organization, and we are striving to become better and make this place better – and Mr. Adams is in the position to support us to help us renovate,” he said.
SUIDAN CONTINUED to discuss the solutions he’s brought in – such as a women’s cooperative that cleans and maintains the locker rooms.
“We know that by bringing in a cooperative, we are not exploiting the workers. This is one of the callings of the YMCA – to help women from east Jerusalem, and [for them] not having a male employer over them,” Suidan explained.
The Magazine also brought up some members’ hopes to revive the old, smaller swimming pool and make it available for swimmers in hours that groups are learning to swim in the main pool. Suidan said that the Y is the only place where kids can come from both sides of Jerusalem to learn how to swim. (There is an east Jerusalem YMCA pool, but it is smaller and can accommodate up to 20 children.) The YMCA is saving lives by giving Yerushalyim Rabati – a diverse program that teaches children how to swim – a space to carry out their important work, he said.
“We are very proud to be affiliated with [Yerushalyim Rabati], and we will not stop that. We will try to improve it and [organize] the number of children coming in, but we will not stop them. This is against our agenda.”
PHILANTHROPIST VIVIAN DUFFIELD of the Clore Foundation has generously offered to reopen the old YMCA swimming pool – with a caveat. She wants it to be a hydrotherapy center. It would offer a wide range of activities, from baby swimming lessons,to exercises to help people overcome the fear of water. Suidan said management plans to reopen the facility within two to three years.
“It’s a huge project, and we have a lot of problems that we are overcoming with the preservation of the site. It’s a historic landmark in Jerusalem,” Suidan said.
He said he believed the refurbishment of the YMCA to be the largest renewal project Jerusalem’s civil society has seen in the past 500 years, except for the execution of the Israel Museum.
SINCE 1998, the YMCA has been hosting the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, when it was established by pianist Elena Bashkirova, the wife of composer and pianist Daniel Barenboim, together with Yehezkel Beinisch. It is a point of pride for Suidan, especially with so many distinguished guests.
“Every year in September, the greatest classical artists in the world are in our auditorium. Full to the last seat, every day in a row. It’s organized by attorney Yehezkel Beinisch.”
Beinisch is the husband of former Supreme Court president Dorit Beinisch and is heavily involved with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and in the production of the annual six-day chamber music festival.
The capital city, and indeed the entire country, continue to work and play even amid political and social chaos as the government moves ahead with a sweeping judicial reform. Suidan said that he has a message for the State of Israel: “The YMCA will not sit quietly. We will [also] not protest in Kaplan. I know my position is sensitive, but we will continue full throttle ahead, with activities that bring people together.” ❖