Lessons from Jerusalem

By Mike Bussey

Occasionally life gives you a second opportunity to do something very special. That was the case for me when I was asked to return to Jerusalem in the fall of 2008 to again serve as the director of the Jerusalem International YMCA (JIY), a YMCA founded in Ottoman Turkish Palestine in 1878 and which in 1993 had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The YMCA leadership in the U.S. and Jerusalem had determined that after 60 years of Y-USA oversight of JIY operations, a relationship that had been ‘temporarily’ put in place as a result of the 1948 war which led to the establishment of the State of Israel, it was time to returned full operational control to a local JIY Board of Directors, including the responsibility for the JIY Board to hire their own director.

This transition reached a significant milestone last summer when, for the first time in nearly 100 years, a fully empowered JIY Board of Directors, led by an outstanding Board Chair, Simon Benninga, appointed Forsan Hussein, a Palestinian from a small village in Northern Israel, to direct the JIY. Forsan’s journey from Northern Israel to Jerusalem and the JIY took him through three elite U.S. Universities (Brandeis, Johns Hopkins and Harvard), significant work experiences in the U.S. and numerous commitments to Middle East peace and reconciliation programs in the U.S., Canada, Israel and Palestine. He is everything the JIY board hoped to find: a natural leader with a unique skill set who can lead the JIY into an even more effective mission in the Holy Land.

It will be 35 years ago this summer that I first traveled to the Middle East to serve for two years as a YMCA World Service Worker in Nazareth, Israel. Those years were followed by numerous other Middle East journeys, including an assignment with the World Alliance of YMCAs to work in Jordanian refugee camps and two tenures as Director General of the JIY. Throughout the years I’ve always been aware that the Middle East is an amazing ‘classroom’ and that there is no end to the personal and professional lessons to be learned from living and working in the Middle East. Upon reflecting back upon my most recent assignment, there are two things that consistently come to mind:

• The unbelievable power of the JIY’s mission has to positively influence the quality of live for all people in the Holy Land. This mission somehow is able to overcome 40 centuries of recorded Middle East history (and in a sense, 40 centuries of recorded conflict), creating healthy relationships and communities that reflect the fact that peace in the Middle East is possible. The related take away for this is the realization is that this is the same mission that YMCAs put into play in nearly 3,000 communities throughout the U.S. and 130 countries around the world, communities where issues and opportunities may be different, but certainly no less important than in Jerusalem.

• The incredible results that come when the roles of highly capable and committed YMCA volunteers and staff are properly defined and put into action. The transition of the JIY from a branch of Y-USA to a secure and viable local YMCA in Jerusalem could never have happened without volunteers and staff working effectively together, both in the U.S. and Jerusalem. Volunteers took the lead in setting policy, worked together with staff in defining related strategies and then empowered the staff to put plans into action. When outstanding volunteer and staff leadership in Jerusalem assumed full operational responsibility for their YMCA and worked within well defined roles, great things started happening. Although there is still much to be done, the initial phase of a new relationship between Y-USA and the JIY has been successfully accomplished and the long-term strength and viability of the JIY’s mission in the Holy Land is closer to being secured.

Although the Y-USA / JIY relationship is changing that doesn’t mean that the JIY’s relationship with Y/USA, as well as with literally thousands for friends in the U.S., is being diminished. On the contrary, there will be even more opportunities for mutually beneficial relationships between the JIY and local U.S. Associations in the years ahead, relationships that offer great learning opportunities for all involved. For those attending the 2010 NAYDO Conference in Charlotte, there will be an opportunity to meet the JIY leadership, Simon Benninga and Forsan Hussein, and to get the conversation started!

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