On June 7th, 2021, I left my apartment very early in the morning and started walking

towards the Jerusalem International YMCA.

We are our entire team, nine radio producers, was going to spend the day recording.

It's pretty quiet outside.

And why were we going to the YMCA?

Well, for starters, it's a place that means a lot to me.

It's where I learned how to swim and come to think of it, also where my father learned

how to swim back in the fifties.

It's where I went to summer camp and where my older brother orn took me to my very first

bitalil which I am soccer game.

Hmm, an early rising chicken, but it's also much more than that.

See, in many ways, Jerusalem's a segregated city, full of invisible lines separating

groups and peoples.

The Y, however, is one of the few places in town where those lines blur, where Muslims,

Jews and Christians, West Jerusalemites, East Jerusalemites, religious secular toddlers,

teens, adults, the elderly all come together.

The traffic lights are all still flashing orange.

So as you might imagine, in normal times, the wise, vibrant place.

Its hotel rooms are full of tourists.

The sports center is buzzing with activity.

Parents drop off and pick up their kids at the kindergarten.

Folks eat and drink on the veranda.

...