The EJ-YMCA was established in the year 1948, in a tent at Aqbat Jabr Refugee Camp in Jericho with generous support provided by the YMCA International. It was started by a team of five passionate young men that consisted of the team of YMCA Palestine at that time; the first YMCA mission in Palestine was established in 1879, who were forced out of their historical YMCA building due to the Nakba 1948 (now known as Jerusalem International YMCA). The team that was led by the late Mr. Labib Nasir who had been the accountant and business secretary of YMCA Palestine, and also included a waiter, a janitor, a gardener, and a swimming instructor. 

This unusual team, decided to attend to the very pressing needs of the uprooted thousands of Palestinians as a result of the Nakba, 1948 war. They developed a tentative plan to meet the most pressing needs of the refugee community gathering from different locations after being forced out of their homes, with the hope to be able to return to their homes and to the existing YMCA headquarters in Jerusalem at any time, a dream that hasn’t yet been fulfilled.   

Equipped with determination and steadfastness, the EJ-YMCA in Jericho embarked on providing a holistic youth development program that was based on Christian ethics and values characterized by an endeavor to improve the soul, body and mind of the young generation. In no time, these services targeting the youth developed into a Vocational Training Center providing skills to a workforce that the local market was in shortage of, as well as providing the means of survival for those youth being trained, an early reflection on how responsive the EJ-YMCA is towards community needs.

The EJ-YMCA moved its headquarters to East Jerusalem in 1952 and rapidly established itself as a main societal arm for youth and sports, developing its programs and activities to reach where it is now. Today it operates centers in four main areas: East Jerusalem, Beit Sahour, Jericho, and Ramallah, and has program offices in most West Bank governorates.