New Spirit

About the founding of the organization, as
told by Yakir Segev, co-founder:
We founded New Spirit as a local organization, an organization that lives in the here and
now but looks beyond, that is, to the whole State of Israel, and looks into the distance, to the
future of the whole Jewish people. We founded New Spirit to show that it is possible to bring
change, that it is possible to save the things which at the time seemed lost - our generation,
the Zionist revolution, the secular way of life.
When I came to Jerusalem, it seemed to be a lost cause:
The IDF mandated that every soldier come here at least once in the course of his/her army
service, having found out that half of its soldiers had never been here (myself included).
University students would show up with their big bags of clothes on Wednesday evenings to
catch the bus going to Tel Aviv as soon as the last class let out.
Going into the center of the city was a crazy idea.
To so many, including those who lived there and especially to those who experienced it
through television, Jerusalem seemed totally irrelevant to their lives as adults, but rather a
passing period as a student…
We decided to fight for Jerusalem, not because we grew up here- and it’s interesting that most
of us actually came from other places- but rather, because we understood that Jerusalem is
our Archimedean point, because we understood that if we could win one impossible battle,
it would give us courage and momentum for all the other battles. Jerusalem was for us like
the godforsaken beach in France with no strategic importance unto itself, but the conquest
of which swung the pendulum, returned the drive, breathed life into the troops, turned the
tides of the war, and led us to victory.
Saving Jerusalem is a worthy challenge, but not satisfying unto itself. Saving Jerusalem is
a worthy life’s mission because it touches on the essential points of our existence here; it is
a mission which doesn’t solve existential problems, but does engage them, shows the way,
and gives a sense of possibility.
Anyone who, rather than running away, is sticking around to fight for the image of the city, is
the kind of person who doesn’t run away from what this city represents:
Such a person doesn’t run away from the conflict (political, religious, social). They grapple
with it, live it.
Such a person doesn’t run away from difficulty, from poverty, from friction, from reality.
Such a person doesn’t run away from questions: of identity, from the question, what does it
mean that I’m a Jew?
I don’t run away from the other: the Haredi person, the Arab. I live by his side.
And so, what I really wanted then, and what I want still today, is to choose very carefully the
battle that can influence the war - and to win it.
Wherever we go today in Jerusalem we’ll find hope, action, and energy. The connection
between Jerusalem and young adults has already become so natural, so talked about, and
so established that it’s almost boring…but gives me a great deal of hope.