Eva Sandler is mourning for her murdered husband and her two sons but still thanks G-d, Who along with Jewish unity, she said, “give me my strength.”

The young French-Israeli, still in the seven-day “shiva” period, spoke to Channel 2 television and said: “G-d gives me my strength.” Otherwise, she said, she could not deal with the loss of her husband, Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, and her sons who were four and five years old.

“The truth is that I see the unity of the people of Israel, and this has strengthened me more than anything else. People I don’t even know have come here [to express their condolences].”  

The widow related that after she and Jonathan were engaged, he told her that he wanted to return to his native France and teach in Toulouse, where he learned as a youth.

“I thought he would forget about the idea and that we would remain in Israel after we married and had children; but he did not forget and I saw it was important for him, so we flew there.”

She added that during the nine years she lived in Israel, she worried abut her parents’ safety in France while they worried about her life in Israel. “My parents told me not to travel on the bus and not to walk to the market. I worried about them in France, and I see I was right.”

“When my husband walked on the streets [in Toulouse], people would shout anti-Semitic slurs at him.”