Prayer for Peace led by Pope Francis at the Vatican

In June 2014, Pope Francis led a historic event – a unique prayer for peace in the presence of senior religious leaders from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The delegations to the Vatican from the Middle East were led by Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel, and Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), together with senior religious leaders from the three religions. The event received great international exposure among hundreds of millions of believers around the world who were moved by the scale and profound meaning of the event.

Frish, who was one of the visionaries and initiators of the project with Mr. Henrique Cymerman, led the campaign with teams from the Vatican and the PA. Together, they created an international event to promote peace, solidarity, reconciliation, and fraternity between religions and peoples.

The historic prayer took place against the backdrop of high regional tensions and a severe diplomatic-security rift between Israel and the PA. In this context, the event took place under the open sky in the Gardens of the Vatican City to declare the importance of solidarity between religions and the participants’ hope for peace. The prayer for peace garnered extensive global media coverage and was broadcast live on international networks, covered by television channels, in newspapers, and on major websites.