Hollande visits graves of victims of Toulouse Jewish school attack
Published November 19, 2013
JERUSALEM (JTA) — French President Francois Hollande visited the graves of the victims of the attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompanied Hollande to the Jerusalem 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 radical Islamist Mohammed Merah entered the Ozar Hatorah school 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. He was shot dead on March 22, 2012 during a standoff with police, during which he admitted to the shootings and said it was in retribution for Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
In November 2012, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife Sara, French President Hollande and French Jewish community leaders attended a memorial ceremony for the victims at the school in Toulouse.