Dozens of Christians and Jews gathered on Wednesday on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for a special prayer event honoring American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on Sept. 10.
The event, held at Judaism’s holiest site, was organized by Beyadenu–Returning to the Temple Mount, together with partner groups including Root Source, the Jerusalem Peace Fund, Israel Lighthouse and Shofar in Zion.
“Charlie understood that Israel is on the right side. He believed there is good and evil. And in Israel’s war against Hamas, Israel is good, and Hamas is evil,” former Knesset member Rabbi Yehudah Glick, who led the prayer session, told JNS on Thursday.
In 2014, Glick was shot four times by a Palestinian terrorist outside a conference focusing on the Temple Mount in the Israeli capital. He was hospitalized for weeks and endured nine surgeries to recover from the attack.
“I’m an assassination attempt survivor, and for me it was very powerful to realize how lucky I was. Charlie took one bullet to the neck from 200 yards and did not survive. On an existential level, I am very grateful to Hashem,” said Glick, who is chairman of the Shalom Jerusalem Foundation and president of Amitsim—The Israel Organization for Young Widows and Orphans.
On Wednesday, participants also prayed for peace, tolerance and unity, as well as for the return of the hostages and the safety of Israeli soldiers.
Glick noted that there were many values Kirk represented that he personally identified with, highlighting “that he believed in God—one God who unites humanity, the God who created the world and all people in His image, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Jerusalem, the God of Zion.”
Glick told JNS that the Temple Mount was a natural place to honor Kirk, saying it was “only right to hold an event uniting Jews and non-Jews at a venue that represents unity in the world—a house of prayer for all nations.”
