{"id":458471,"date":"2026-05-25T02:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/458471\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T02:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:26:17","slug":"isaac-herzog-presents-jerusalem-unity-prize-2026-award-inspired-by-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/458471\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaac Herzog presents Jerusalem Unity Prize 2026: Award inspired by tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 12, 2014, three teenage boys, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, who were students in a high school yeshiva in the West Bank, hitchhiked a ride home.<\/p>\n

They realized too late that the car that picked them up was driven by Hamas terrorists. One of the boys managed to send a message via social media, but that was the last time anyone heard from them.<\/p>\n

An intensive search operation was mounted by the IDF, Shin Bet<\/a> (Israel Security Agency), and the Israel Police.<\/p>\n

Eighteen days after their abduction, the bodies of the three boys were discovered near Hebron.<\/p>\n

In the interim, their parents had spoken at international forums and to influential world leaders, and were supported in their endeavors by the Israeli government, religious organizations in Israel, and major Jewish organizations around the world.<\/p>\n

There was a huge outpouring of concern, followed by profound national and international grief after the tragic discovery.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinarily impressive display of national unity, thousands attended the funeral in Modi\u2019in, where the three young victims of Hamas were eulogized by president Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Among the people who had been in constant contact with the parents \u2013 Iris and Uri Yifrah, Rachel and Avi Fraenkel, and Bat-Galim and Ophir Shaer \u2013 was Nir Barkat, who was then the mayor of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\"THETHE 2026 Jerusalem Unity Prize Laureates. (credit: HAIM ZACH\/GPO)Jewish Unity Prize established in memory of three murdered boys<\/p>\n

The issue of national and international Jewish unity and solidarity during the search period frequently cropped up in conversations that Barkat had with the parents, and together with them and the Gesher organization, it was mutually decided to establish an annual Jewish Unity Prize in recognition of that unity and in memory of the three boys.<\/p>\n

President Isaac Herzog, in his address<\/a> to all involved with the prize, both directly and indirectly, referred to a similar outpouring during the time that Israel was doing everything possible to bring home the hostages seized by Hamas and taken to Gaza.<\/p>\n

He wished that he could say that the same kind of solidarity exists today.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he said, Israel is currently witnessing a horrible wave of violence that is being perpetrated by lawless fringe elements sitting on the sidelines of society and inflicting acts that are contrary to every basic norm \u2013 moral, legal, or Jewish.<\/p>\n

Referring to such people as anarchists, criminals, and extremists, Herzog said that it is not permissible to abuse prisoners, nor to take the law into one\u2019s own hands. He also condemned attacks on Christians<\/a> and Muslims, saying that it was forbidden to assault people of other faiths.<\/p>\n

The prize is awarded to individuals and organizations dedicated to advancing mutual respect and tolerance who work towards creating harmony in the societies in which they live.<\/p>\n

The award ceremony is always conducted at the residence of the President of Israel.<\/p>\n

Barkat, who is now the Economy and Industry Minister and chairman of the prize committee, was present at this year\u2019s ceremony on Sunday, as he has been every year since the prize was initiated.<\/p>\n

Israeli scouts receive 2026 unity award<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s recipients of the award were the Israeli Scouts, mixed groups of religious and secular youths, whose educational and cultural activities are carried out together. From an early age, they are a model of a shared society based on a broad Jewish identity and mutual respect.<\/p>\n

A civil society initiative between residents of the Negev and those of Gush Etzion, who, despite the geographic distance between them and differences in lifestyles and religious beliefs, meet to dialogue, take tours together, and find points of consensus.<\/p>\n

This helps strengthen Israeli solidarity in the knowledge that, whatever their differences, they have a common destiny.<\/p>\n

The Natur Educational Institute is a pluralistic pre-military study center where religious and secular students are immersed in religious and secular studies and in social interaction. It prepares them for leadership roles in mixed religious and secular communities.<\/p>\n

The Municipality of Eilat, which absorbed thousands of displaced Israelis over the past two-and-a-half years and created new mixed communities throughout the city, gave the people who had been evacuated from their home communities a sense of solidarity with the residents of Eilat through resilience programs and social and cultural initiatives.<\/p>\n

The Straus-Amiel Institute, part of the Ohr Torah network, trains spiritual and educational leaders to serve as emissaries to Diaspora Jewish communities to strengthen Jewish identity and their connection to Israel through bridge-building efforts.<\/p>\n

This year, there were also two honorable mentions:<\/p>\n

The first is to Rabbi Yonatan Reiss, the founder and head of the haredi<\/a> (ultra-Orthodox) hesder yeshiva network Chedvata, which integrates willing young haredi men into meaningful service in the IDF and subsequently into the workforce while maintaining their Torah-true identities and building bridges of shared responsibility for the benefit of the nation.<\/p>\n

The second honorable mention went to Druze spiritual leader Muaffaq Tarif, who works arduously to advance shared values of peace, harmony, and acceptance of the other among the mainstream and all of Israel\u2019s minorities of different faiths and backgrounds through regular meetings of religious leaders.<\/p>\n

Both Reiss and Tarif received sustained applause and standing ovations. With the haredi draft law still unresolved, the crowd at the President\u2019s Residence was pleasantly surprised to see a video in which many young haredi men were in their IDF uniforms.<\/p>\n

Reiss wears the traditional black kapota (frock coat) of the ultra Orthodox.<\/p>\n

Tarif, who came with six members of the Druze spiritual forum, was applauded long and loud. Given the problems that the Druze have with the Nation State law, the Druze delegation was delighted \u2013 and it showed.<\/p>\n

Barkat noted that the Israeli population is confronting some very serious challenges, such as rising antisemitism in the world and elections in Israel. Both demand that Israelis work together for the common good, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 12, 2014, three teenage boys, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Gil-Ad Shaer, 16, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[49,213740,213742,51,42,19153,1031,2894,1158,213741,43,88595,171586,73,40,38,41,39,77],"class_list":["post-458471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-eyal-yifrach","tag-gil-ad-shaer","tag-hamas","tag-headlines","tag-hebron","tag-idf","tag-isaac-herzog","tag-israel-police","tag-naftali-fraenkel","tag-news","tag-nir-barkat","tag-shimon-peres","tag-shin-bet","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}