Robots, Reggae And Revelry In Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival: Home to music of intention made by humans and androids alike. Photo by Zack O’Malley Greenburg.

A few hours after midnight last night, I found myself in a basement room in Jerusalem’s Tower of David, watching and listening with two dozen revelers as a band of robots made from recycled household items played spiritual music for 30 minutes.

The performance, dubbed “Puja” (Sanskrit for “reverence” or “worship”) and orchestrated by musician Yaniv Schnetzer, wa...