Jerusalem World Gathering Draws Many From U.S., Few Muslims
By Michael T. Luongo
Despite widespread controversy over their gathering and a brutal war unfolding just 50 miles away, they had spent all day discussing medical issues in the darkened auditorium of a small convention center spilling over a rocky hill. There were perhaps a 100 of them—activists, doctors, and visitors from Europe, Canada, the United States, and throughout Israel. By the time it had all ended in the late afternoon Sunday, they stumbled en-masse out the stairs of the Konrad Adenauer Conference Center into the ethereal golden, late afternoon desert light. The hundreds of bells of the churches of Mt. Zion in Jerusalem’s Old City, a mere few hundred feet away, rang out through the surrounding hills, a background to their last conversations, planning for the rest of the week, and goodbyes.
And so it was on the first official day of Israel’s World Pride, the contested event in arguably the world’s most contested city. In her speech closing Sunday’s Health Conference, Daphna Stromsa, the health coordinator for Jerusalem’s Open House, the organization behind World Pride, a celebration of LGBT life worldwide, had called the day “in Israel, a small miracle,” a quiet reference to the sacred events with significance for three of the world’s major religions that have transpired over the thousands of years of the city’s history. A night of dinners with new friends, a lively opening party for the World Pride Film Festival, or simple reflection about where they were awaited the participants.
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