Who We Are
Prayers for Peace Alliance is an intentionally joint Jewish and Palestinian project. We came together in Philadelphia in November 2023, with the Jewish community mourning the victims of October 7th, and the Palestinian community reeling from the genocidal violence unfolding in Gaza. What began as an experiment in visiting churches and asking for their prayer, soon became a transformative movement of mutual solidarity.
We stand together as two diasporic peoples, living in the United States and connected whether by family or cultural tradition to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Our futures depend on caring for one another. And so we call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all Palestinian and Israeli hostages, and peace, justice, and equal rights for our peoples.
Our Mission
Prayers for Peace Alliance interrupts the common perception of Jews and Palestinians as enemies of one another. When we show up together, we ask people to choose not one side or the other, but the side of peace. We believe in the spiritual value of nonviolence to build a shared sense of humanity and dignity in ourselves and in one another, and to overcome systems of ethnic-based discrimination and separation.
Prayers for Peace Alliance conducts faith-based organizing. We hand out flyers at churches, we give talks at synagogues and mosques, and we hold joint observances of religious holidays for our communities. We believe in the power of prayer to bring together Christians, Jews, Muslims, and people of other and no faiths to heal grievances and imagine a shared future. And we believe it is the moral responsibility of faith communities and faith leaders to reject atrocities, whether committed against Israelis or Palestinians, and to speak out against our country’s enabling of the genocide in Gaza.
Prayers for Peace Alliance advocates for the country in which we live to uphold our values nonviolence, equality, and justice. We petition our elected officials and mobilize our supporters against harmful legislation. We believe it is the responsibility of the United States to cease its financial and diplomatic support for the violence being committed against Palestinian civilians, and to seek an end to the violence of Israel’s military occupation and unequal treatment of Palestinians.
