Annette Herzkowicz, grandmother of two slain children in Toulouse, was at the French Consulate in New York as a memorial service was held.

She arrived at the consulate in order to obtain a visa to travel to Israel and did not know that a memorial service was being held, AMCHA- Coalition for Jewish Concerns wrote Arutz Sheva late Tuesday night from New York.

Herzkowicz is an aunt of Eva Sandler, the widow of Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, who was murdered along with his two sons, Aryeh and Gavriel, aged 3 and 6, and an 8-year-old girl at the Otzar HaTorah Jewish day school in Toulouse. The little girl, Miriam Monsonego, was Herzkowicz’s cousin. The murderer has been identified as Mohammed Merah, 24, a Frenchman of Algerian origin.

“With a face that appeared to have sustained copious weeping, Annette stood holding a photo of the Sandler family with Rabbis Avi Weiss, national president of AMCHA-Coalition for Jewish Concerns, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice-president of the New York Board of Rabbis, a flock of other rabbinic and Jewish leaders, and dozens of mourning New Yorkers,” AMCHA media representative Glenn Richter wrote Arutz Sheva.

He said that mourners held up signs with the names of the murdered Jews and the three French soldiers killed the week before, apparently by the same gunman who has been identified as an Al Qaeda terrorist. Two of the soldiers were Muslims of North African origin. The third victim was also Muslim, reportedly of Carribean origin.

"As I came here today I saw children coming out of a school,” Rabbi Potasnik said. “They were holding hands with each other. I thought to myself, we teach our kids to love each other, hold each other, respect each other. Tragically in this world there are those who teach their children to hate and ultimately destroy one another.

“Those who seek to separate us will only bring us closer. With us are Muslim and Christian representatives. Hatred may start with one group, but it doesn´t stop there. Today it´s a Jew, tomorrow a Muslim or Christian. Some may want us to be silent, but we´ll be louder."

Rabbi Weiss declared, "In the words of the prophet, ´About these I cry´. The victims were murdered only for whom they were. Yesterday, Jews were murdered. Before that, soldiers who were Muslims and dark- skinned. We remember the words of [the late Israeli] Chief Rabbi Kook, ‘What unites us is so much greater than what divides us.’

“We are much appreciative of what the French government is doing to apprehend the perpetrator -- but we are watching, the world is watching. Twenty years ago, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was attacked. Those murderers were never found.

“When you don´t apprehend terrorists that sends a message to others that you can murder with impunity. After the first murder in the world, G-d Himself said, ´The voice of your brother´s bloods cry out to me from the earth.´ Cain then asked the first question recorded in the Bible, ´Am I my brother´s keeper?´

“There is no answer to that question in the Bible. That´s because the answer is the whole Bible, is the way we live our lives, and conduct ourselves. Let us all respond, ´Yes we are our brothers´ and sisters´ keepers."

Among the other speakers were Ibrahim Kurtulus of the Turkish- American Federation, speaking as a Muslim.

Cantor Paul Zim of Congregation Gesher Shalom, recited the "El Molei Rachamin" ("G-d Full of Mercy") prayer for the dead, and led the crowd in reciting the Kaddish.

The French Consulate encouraged everyone to sign a memorial registry for the murder victims.

Consul General Philippe Lalliot told the crowd, "It is both a day of mourning and solidarity,” and quoted French President Nicolas Sarkozy as stating, “’These were our children who were murdered in Toulouse.´ Barbarism and cruelty cannot prevail." (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 03/21/12)