As Jerusalem Votes, Watch the Arab Turnout

As the sun set on a warm Jerusalem day this past August, an open area just outside the walls of the Old City began to fill with people who seated themselves on the grass and on blankets facing a temporary stage. They were Israeli Jews, many of them, Ashkenazi and Mizrachi. But there were also Arabs in significant numbers, some ultra-Orthodox Jews in their traditional black garb, and a few Christian clergy, as well. It was a condensed version of the human mosaic that is Jerusalem, gathered for the annual Kulna concert, which is part of the Jerusalem Season of Culture.

With dusk, as a thick scent of marijuana wafted through the crowd, the lights dimmed and an evening of music began. A crowd of thousands stood, clapped and ultimately danced as performers — Jewish and Muslim, to music liturgical and secular, in Hebrew and Arabic — sang the night away. Some Jews sang Arabic. Some Arabs sang Hebrew. It was difficult, sitting in that crowd, not to feel that there is hope for Jerusalem, not to be filled with some optimism that thousands of fellow residents still harbor hope for a city less divided, more interactive.