JERUSALEM (JTA) — French President Francois Hollande visited the Jerusalem graves of the victims of the attack on a Toulouse Jewish school.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompanied Hollande to the cemetery on Tuesday. They were joined by members of the Sandler and Monsonego families, who recited Kaddish.
Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30; his children Gabriel, 6, and Aryeh,3; and Miriam Monsonego, 8, were killed in March 2012 when a radical Islamist, Mohammed Merah, entered the Ozar Hatorah school in the city in southwest France and shot at students and teachers.
The school slayings came a few days after Merah gunned down three French soldiers in two drive-by shootings from a scooter near Toulouse.
Merah was shot dead three days after the school shooting during a standoff with police. He admitted to the shootings, saying they were in retribution for Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
In November 2012, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, joined Hollande and French Jewish community leaders at a memorial ceremony for the Toulouse school victims.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
