French Jews commemorated on Friday victims of the horrific 2012 shooting attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, which took place during a days-long killing spree that claimed the lives of seven people.
On March 19, 2012, Islamist terrorist Mohamed Merah attacked the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, murdering Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, six-year-old Arieh and three-year-old Gabriel, as well as another child, eight-year-old Miriam Monsonégo.
A memorial ceremony was held at the city’s Charles de Gaulle square in Toulouse, where local officials laid a wreath under the magnolia tree planted on the attack’s first anniversary by former French President Francois Hollande.
“Let us pay tribute to them, let us not forget them.” said CRIF, the French Jewish communal organization, on Twitter.
“Nine years ago, an Islamist extremist murdered three students and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse and three soldiers in Montauban,” said the American Jewish Committee (AJC). “May their memories continue to inspire our efforts to combat antisemitism and extremism in France and around the world.”
“See how much we miss them,” tweeted Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bécache, AJC Paris director, of the victims. “Words are tiresome. Names and faces summon, each time, our humanity: inconsolable pain, rage and an injunction: to overcome.”
“On this day, my thoughts are with Myriam Monsonégo, Jonathan, Aryeh and Gabriel Sandler,” said Latifa Ibn Ziaten, whose husband was the first victim of Merah’s killing spree. “I think of them, their families as well as the students and staff of Ozar Hatorah School who went through these painful memories with great courage. We will never forget.”
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