The noise made by the workers, while destroying the familiar ATM wall of the Bank Leumi branch at Allenby 43 in Tel Aviv, made this interview impossible.
We were looking for a place of refuge.
Two floors above them we found a quieter, newly renovated room, empty of furniture, dusty.
Three are sitting in front of me: Yakir Segev, 43, married and a father of three, lives in Tel Aviv, is an educator and social activist, a former member of the Jerusalem Council;
Keren Lavie, 33, lives in Jaffa;
Veliko Friedler, 39, married and a father of three from Kochav Yair.
Friedler and Segev are partners in an association called "The Social Space," and Lavie is managing the current project.
The purpose of the association is to make it easier for social organizations to operate.
The way: to borrow buildings from real estate companies, and recently also from private individuals and municipalities, and in the intervening period between the purchase of the property and its realization - to make it available to associations and artists, to encourage social change.
For example, the current building was purchased by Elad Israel Residential, and it plans to build a residential and commercial building there. Until the demolition and renovation plans were approved, a period that could take between three and ten years, they decided to donate the place to the "social space." "The company intends to change the purpose of the building and must pass the required bureaucratic hurdles," Segev explains. "She was faced with the standard option of renting the building for the next few years until the plans are approved. We offered them another model and they were happy to receive it. We are replicating this model in other places, here in Tel Aviv and other places in Israel. For example in Ramat Gan, Petah Tikva and Jerusalem."
What is their interest? They gain nothing from it.
"There is a double victory here: the city benefits from the fact that there is no abandoned and neglected building here, they benefit because they contribute to the community, and the social world craves spaces for creation, activity, associations. We take on the operation and renovation of the building for the associations." Great public and also a place in heaven, "laughs Segev and Keren adds:" It is very easy to fall into this cynicism. I wish all real estate companies would stand in line to get public relations for good things. "
Yakir:" The model works because it really does good for everyone.
So he duplicates himself in more and more cities.
We intend to be the one who connects the associations and change agents who need the place, and the business sector.
We are working to ensure that in 6-5 years from today we will have a hundred such buildings throughout the country. "
Has become a symbol of gender equality.
Former "Posikt" club, Photo: Yehoshua Yosef
Zoom out for the experience
It all started exactly six years ago, when Segev headed the "New Spirit" organization, which is an organization that works to strengthen Jerusalem's status as an attractive and relevant city for young people. "It started by mistake. Kobi Kahlon, who was then deputy mayor, connected the association with Amir Biram, CEO of JTLV. As a result of this connection, Biram donated the Alliance House he owns to the organization, and it operated studio rooms for artists on the site. "We started the current model two years ago, when we happened to meet Biram again, and he told us that he bought the Colosseum in Atarim Square and unilaterally stopped renting the strip club 'Pussict' that operated in it. We offered to lend us the building for social activities. He was convinced, We have established the 'social space', it has donated the structure and the rest to us history. And even private individuals. "
Many have heard of the incredible revolution the strip club has undergone: the place, which was a symbol of the exploitation of women, has become an educational center that emphasizes social involvement and gender equality.
Thousands of people come to the center every month, from high school age and up, and are confronted with complex questions.
The Resilience Authority of the Tel Aviv Municipality subsidizes visits by schools and municipal employees.
Those at its gates go through various workshops and lectures, and the main axis is an audio tour that each visitor goes through alone with headphones, to allow him to honestly deal with the questions that arise in the place.
Lavie: "When we got to the place it looked like a strip club. We wanted to renovate and destroy every trace of what was there, but when we saw how much curiosity it creates we decided to use it. The easiest is to say it's a shocking place and delete it, "This and that spread light. This is how we decide what light, in what colors, what its meanings are. The tour goes through all the spaces of the club and floods with complex issues of free choice, of law versus morality."
Friedler: "There is very little discourse on prostitution and striptease in public. It is not pleasant, especially among young men, to discuss it. But alone with the headphones one can give it a place, think about it alone. It is a very shaky tour. It certainly affects."
And high school age is not too early to deal with the question of prostitution?
Lavie: "We meet them in a situation where they already know the concept completely. Studies show that if you do something 'forbidden' once and the sky does not fall - it normalizes the act. So we have to stop it at the entrance, and that's what we're trying to do."
Segev: "It is also relevant for girls. There are women from all walks of life who work in it, and you will be surprised to hear, there are also those who consume prostitution. A processing conversation, and very often the reactions of women, even those who live in the area, is to say 'I did not imagine this was what happened here.' No. But what happened in Atarim Square? Everyone, even though they knew the club existed - ignored the problem and continued to bypass the place on the way to hang out at Gordon Beach, until one person, a real estate man, decided he did get involved. It changed the route of this place completely.
"Anyone who goes through the experience there, even if he is 'just' a soldier, a municipal employee or a student in a preparatory school, understands that when he encounters a social problem he can do something. The place has a specific story, but the context is much broader, the context is people who change reality." .
Erecting and renovating such a structure costs a lot of money.
Lavie: "In our model, each of the buildings finances itself. In each building we set up profit centers. For example, in Atarim Square, we turned the area in front of the Colosseum into a social hostel. This is the arm that puts money into the Colosseum's educational activities. This is what happens in each building. "It comes from donations and impact loans (interest-free or social-interest loans; CA) and the day-to-day operations come from sources of profit within the building."
Get out of the conflict.
The structure of the old gates of justice // Photo: Avraham Greitzer,
"There was a lack of 'togetherness'"
The structure in which we sit promotes social involvement, diversity and inclusion. As such, it contains various initiatives that give space to different sectors of society, which receive less space outside it: seniors, young people on the autistic continuum, and an entire floor dedicated to Iggy - the proud youth organization - who founded a college called Marsha, which aims to teach freelance professions , With an emphasis on transgender people. Some of the more established associations pay higher rents, to make it easier for the weaker associations.
Lavie: "There are all kinds of models: there are those who receive very discounted rents, there are those with whom we share profits, and there are those who even receive support. This way we can access a wide range of associations and organizations and allow them to operate here."
The two Jerusalem buildings, the Alliance House and the old Gates of Justice - which is a breathtaking building near the Mahane Yehuda market - are dedicated to young artists from various fields. "We give them a place to operate. In return, they pay a minimum rent. We can do it because we have partners: the Jerusalem Municipality, the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Center for Young People," Frilder details.
It was important for the association to allow such an artistic place in Jerusalem, for ideological reasons: "Tourists in Jerusalem are usually taken to conflict centers between Jews and Arabs or secular versus religious," Friedler explains. Of diversity, of young people,Of art, of sharing. "
On the first floor of the old Shaare Zedek building there are studio rooms by various artists, individuals or collectives, and a beer bar operated by the "Ruach Hadasha" association. It is offered in the "social space" a residence (artist stay) for young artists in the place.
So you actually bring the Tel Aviv fun to Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem values to Tel Aviv.
"We did not think of it that way, but yes," laughs Friedler. For property, we ask what is missing here, for the community, for the area, for the building. "In Jerusalem, there was a lack of 'togetherness', in contrast to the atmosphere of conflict in which everything is emphasized."
Segev recounts a surprising encounter at the entrance to the club in Atarim Square: "A woman approached me who saw what we were doing there and was excited. She told me she had a property in Ramat Gan. 'I want to give it to you,' she told me. She does not want publicity and she certainly does not. "It's for public relations, she wants to remain anonymous. We took the property and we are setting up a training center there for all kinds of at-risk and underprivileged populations. This project is happening in collaboration with vocational schools that are pouring the content."
Act in the world
For Lavie, the existence of associations in the community "creates ripples around him and raises awareness for the public itself. Because when such a space operates near you, it makes social issues accessible to you, and suddenly you are more aware and easier to be aware of and be part of. "Because we turn to business companies and offer them to hold events on the spot."
"I totally agree," says Friedler, "the ability to initiate and create social change becomes much simpler. We're a kind of incubator, like there are high-tech incubators, like 8200 a lot of entrepreneurs come out because they have the support and the networking to do. At the level of the third sector, there are a lot of people with amazing initiatives that are difficult for them to implement. So what we have set up here is a kind of social incubator, and they are encouraged to act on the commandment 'do not ignore'. I mean, if you see something that needs to be done, then let's do it. "
The three seek to encourage such a reality in the world of social associations as well.
"How do you do it? Need space. This space gives real estate and Shell."
Only towards the end of the interview was that in admirable: the three respondents, only a fund employed by the company. "After doing a tour of the Colosseum met Yakir and I told him I was leaving the hi Tech and wants to work with him.
There are not many places in life where you can say that what you do all day is to choose between good and good.
I won".
Segev and Friedler volunteer for the organization and make a living from other things.
"We do it for heaven's sake, but most of our time is spent on it," Segev explains with a shy smile.
"I have a project management company, and Liko is a project manager in the UAE. He believes we will fix the world, but I, it's good for me to just do good.