Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

A few days before Shavuot (Pentecost), from June 4-6, 2019, the third Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast (JPB) was hosted in Jerusalem, Israel.

The JPB is a prayer movement that exists to gather government leaders and key individuals to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the prosperity of Israel in alignment with Psalm 122. Initiated and chaired by the former Knesset member and chairman of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, Robert Ilatov, the JPB is co-chaired by former U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and administered by the JPB director Albert Veksler.

MK Robert Ilatov and Albert Veksler greet the participants of the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast 2019.

The inaugural breakfast was first held in Jerusalem in June 2017 to celebrate and commemorate 50 years of a re-united Jerusalem.  Since then the JPB each year has brought together Christian leaders, Rabbis, Israeli officials and MPs from around the world. This year the JPB hosted around 650 delegates from over 60 countries.

A letter from President Trump was read at the gathering, in which he reaffirmed the United States’ longstanding commitment to a future peace and security for the region., as well as the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.

Netanyahu expressed his thanks for the dedication and lasting friendship to all participants in a letter of welcome. “At a time when efforts are being made to deny the Jewish people’s 3,000-year-old connection to Jerusalem, we appreciate your efforts to recognize history and to pray for the peace in Jerusalem.”

Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, senior advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, urged the participants “to pray harder”. “Your prayers are going straight to heaven. SO much more needs to be done for Jerusalem.”

Rabbi Tuly Weisz, head of Israel 365 and a keynote speaker at the event, emphasized the political importance of what was essentially an interfaith gathering. “The people who attend do so in the knowledge that prayer is the way to push plans forward,” he said.

The rabbi cited Ruth as the archetypal non-Jew praying for the Jewish people. To conclude the event, Rabbi Weisz led the participants in a recitation of Ruth 1,16: But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (The Israel Bible).