French authorities said Monday that two men arrested for the brutal killing in Paris of an 85-year-old Jewish woman, Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll, would be charged with an anti-Semitic murder. 
 
 The Paris prosecutor’s office said the two suspects have been put in custody. It said it was asking investigating judges to charge the pair with premeditated murder of a vulnerable person for anti-Semitic motives. 
 
 They will face possible charges of “murder related to the victim’s religion, real or imagined” as well as aggravated robbery and destruction of property, judicial sources said. 
 
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 The prosecutor’s office asked that the two be placed in preventive custody. 
 
 One of the men was a regular visitor of Knoll whom she treated “like a son” and who had visited her that day, her son Daniel said. 
 
 “We are really in shock. I don’t understand how someone could kill a woman who has no money and who lives in a social housing complex,” her son added. 
 
 Israel’s Hadashot news reported that this suspect was a former neighbor of Knoll’s who was jailed for sexually assaulting the daughter of a woman who helped look after her. After his release from jail, Knoll complained that he had been threatening her, the TV report said. 
 
 The French foreign minister, who is visiting Israel, said it was likely that the motive for her killing was anti-Semitic, and that his country must continue to fight against anti-Semitism. 
 
 Jean-Yves Le Drian, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, said he had a “moving and difficult moment” when he heard about “the outrageous murder” of Holocaust survivor Knoll in Paris, just after ending his visit to Yad Vashem. 
 
 “We cannot yet say if the motive for the murder was anti-Semitism, but it is reasonable to assume,” Le Drian said. “Therefore, this only strengthens the fact that this struggle has not ended, and that we will need to continue fighting against anti-Semitism.” 
 
 The chief rabbi of Paris, Haim Korsia, wrote on Twitter that he was “horrified” by the killing. 
 
 Two men have been arrested over the killing of Knoll, whose stabbed body was found after her Paris apartment was set ablaze, police sources said. 
 
 One suspect was identified as a 29-year-old man. No details were given on the second suspect. 
 
 An autopsy conducted on Knoll, who lived alone, showed her charred body also had at least 11 stab wounds. 
 
 A forensic examination of the apartment showed that an arsonist started a fire in at least five distinct areas of that space, the report also said. 
 
 The Paris prosecutor’s office said that it had not yet determined a motive, but “is not excluding any hypothesis.” 
 
 “A preliminary examination of the elements of the crime does not reveal an anti-Semitic characteristic, but this possibility has not been discounted as police investigate further,” said a spokesperson for the Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ), which works closely with the French police. 
 
 The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, wrote in a statement Sunday that the suspected murder “is reminiscent of the crime committed against Sarah Halimi,” a 66-year-old Jewish teacher and physician, whom prosecutors say was murdered by her Muslim neighbor in April, partly in connection with her Jewish identity 
 
 A granddaughter of Knoll, Noa Goldfarb, wrote on Facebook that her grandmother was murdered by a neighbor who is a Muslim. 
 
 “Twenty years ago, I left Paris knowing that neither my future nor that of the Jewish People is to be found there,” wrote Goldfarb, who lives in Herzliya, Israel. “But who would’ve thought that I was leaving my relatives where terrorism and cruelty would lead to such a tragedy. Grandmother was stabbed to death 11 times by a Muslim neighbor she knew well, who made sure to set fire to her home and left us not even one object, a letter, a photograph, to remember her by. All we have are our tears and each other.” 
 
 A Paris lawmaker who spoke with one of the woman’s sons said she had managed as a child to evade the notorious 1942 roundup of over 13,000 Jews in Paris during World War II. 
 
 Fewer than 100 of those who were detained at the so-called Vel d’Hiv cycling track and then sent to the Nazi death camps survived. 
 
 The CRIF umbrella grouping of French Jewish organizations urged “the fullest transparency” by the authorities investigating the killing, “so that the motive of this barbarous crime is known as quickly as possible.” 
 
 France’s half-a-million-plus Jewish community has voiced increasing concern over a rise in violent anti-Semitic acts. 
 
 “The barbarity of this murder sends us back to that of Sarah Halimi, just one year ago,” Francis Kalifat, president of the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish communities, said in a statement Monday. 
 
 Halimi was a 66-year-old Jewish teacher and physician, whom prosecutors say was murdered by her Muslim neighbor in April partly in connection with her Jewish identity. Anti-Semtisim was included in the indictment against Halimi’s suspcted killer, Kobili Traore, 28, after CRIF and BNVCA vocally protested its absence from the draft document. 
 
 “CRIF expects total transparency in the current investigation, so that the motives for this barbaric crime are known by all as fast as possible,” Kalifat added in the statement about Knoll. ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption The attack took place in Mireille Knoll's home in a block of flats in the 11th arrondisement of Paris 
 
 French prosecutors are treating the murder of an 85-year-old Jewish woman, whose body was found in her burned-out Paris flat, as an anti-Semitic attack. 
 
 Mireille Knoll was stabbed several times before Friday's blaze. 
 
 In 1942, she escaped the notorious Vel d'Hiv round up of some 13,000 Jews in Paris, who were then deported to Nazi death camps. 
 
 Two men, aged 22 and 29, have been arrested and placed under formal investigation over the murder. 
 
 A police source told French media that one of them had previously been convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl who had been staying at Mireille Knoll's flat. 
 
 She had also complained to police that a neighbour had threatened to set fire to her home, according to reports. 
 
 "We are really in shock. I don't understand how someone could kill a woman who has no money and who lives in a social housing complex," her son, who was not named, told AFP news agency. 
 
 On Sunday, investigators said they were "not excluding any hypothesis" as to the motive for the attack. 
 
 But a day later the Paris prosecutor said it was believed to be anti-Semitic. 
 
 French lawmaker Meyer Habib wrote on Facebook that the pensioner had escaped Vel d'Hiv in 1942 thanks to her mother's Brazilian passport. 
 
 In a statement (in French), France's Jewish umbrella organisation Crif expressed "anger and concern" at the attack. 
 
 It urged "the fullest transparency" by the authorities "so that the motive of this barbaric crime is known as quickly as possible". 
 
 France's Jewish community has voiced increasing concern over a rise in violent anti-Semitic acts in the country. 
 
 Last month, a judge confirmed that the murder last year of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman who was beaten and thrown out of her window, was driven by anti-Semitism. ||||| Mireille Knoll, who managed to flee a mass roundup of Jews in Paris during World War II, was found dead Friday in her apartment in the east of the French capital, where she lived alone. 
 
 An autopsy showed she had been stabbed several times before the apartment was set on fire. 
 
 Two men were arrested over her killing on Monday and were to be brought before a magistrate to face possible charges of "murder related to the victim's religion, real or imagined" as well as aggravated robbery and destruction of property, judicial sources told AFP. 
 
 One of the men was a regular visitor of Knoll's whom she treated "like a son" and who had visited her that day, her son told AFP, asking not to be named. 
 
 The apartment block in the 11th arrondissement of Paris where the alleged murder took place. Photo: AFP 
 
 "We are really in shock. I don't understand how someone could kill a woman who has no money and who lives in a social housing complex," her son added. 
 
 Speaking during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was "plausible" that Knoll was killed because of her religion and her death showed the need for a "fundamental and permanent" fight against anti-Semitism. 
 
 The chief rabbi of Paris, Haim Korsia, wrote on Twitter that he was "horrified" by the killing. 
 
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 Photo: AFP 
 
 After meeting one of Knoll's sons French MP Meyer Habib wrote a Facebook post that began with the words: "The nightmare continues for French Jews". 
 
 "The authorities are being cautious and seem reluctant to recognize at this stage the anti-Semitic character [of the murder]. But for the family it's almost a certainty," said Habib. 
 
 Investigators had initially said on Sunday they were "not excluding any hypothesis" with regard to the motives for her murder. 
 
 But Jewish organisations in France have been keen to make sure French police looked into the possible anti-Semitic nature of the murder. 
 
 "The investigation does not reveal any anti-Semitic elements, however, this path has not been ruled out to date and needs to be further explored," said the Protection Service for the Jewish Community (Service de protection de la communauté juive, SPCJ) a body which keeps close watch an anti-Semitic acts in France. 
 
 France's leading Jewish umbrella group CRIF (Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions), said in a statement that it "expects the authorities to operate with the utmost transparency in the ongoing investigation so that the motives for this barbaric crime are known to everyone as soon as possible." 
 
 Although the investigation is at an early stage, the killing has echoes of the murder of Sarah Halimi , an Orthodox Jewish woman who was brutally murdered in her own home, also in the 11th arrondissement, by her neighbour in April 2017. 
 
 Amid shouts of "Allah Akbar" (God is great), Koranic verses and insults, her attacker beat Halimi before throwing her out of the window. In February, a French judge finally ruled that the brutal murder was an anti-Semitic act 
 
 The president of Jewish community group the Consistoire Israelite, Joel Mergui, told AFP that he wanted to "understand what happened and not let the same silence that followed the murder of Sarah Halimi a year ago in the same arrondissement happen again." 
 
 Paris woman’s brutal murder declared anti-Semitic act: After initially balking at ascribing killing of Sarah Halimi to anti-Jewish sentiment, magistrate now accepts hate crime element in indictment against Kobili Traore https://t.co/AOfI3FwVHk TimesofIsrael pic.twitter.com/Gfs4yKO0Y4 — Jewish Community (@JComm_BlogFeeds) February 28, 2018 
 
 Anti-Semitic violence 
 
 The most recent figures available show that anti-Semitic violence increased by 26 percent last year in France and that criminal damage to Jewish places of worship and burials increased by 22 percent. 
 
 A record 7,900 French Jews emigrated to Israel in 2015 following the deadly jihadist shooting at a Parisian kosher supermarket two days after the attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. 
 
 That exodus has since slowed, but a spate of anti-Semitic attacks since have continued to frighten one of Europe's biggest Jewish communities, numbering an estimated half a million. 
 
 A global study in 2014 found that one in three French people held anti-Semitic views, although experts suggested the figure exaggerated the problem of anti-Semitism in France. 
 
 "Stating 18 million French people show signs of anti-Semitic attitudes seems excessive to me," Marc Knobel, head of studies at CRIF told The Local at the time . "I have never seen a figure like that before." 
 
 "I don't doubt that anti-Semitism exists in certain categories of the French population, and there is anti-Semitic violence in France, but France is not an anti-Semitic country," he said.
– An 85-year-old Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust was murdered and her body burned in what Paris police are now investigating as a hate crime. Mireille Knoll was stabbed at least 11 times before her Paris apartment was set ablaze Friday, report the Local and the BBC. Two male suspects, aged 22 and 29, were arrested Monday and face possible charges of anti-Semitic murder, aggravated robbery, and destruction of property, reports the Times of Israel. On Facebook, Knoll's granddaughter describes one of the men as "a Muslim neighbor [Knoll] knew well." Knoll's son says she treated the man "like a son." Local media, however, report the man had threatened to set fire to Knoll's home following his release from prison for molesting the 12-year-old daughter of a woman who looked after Knoll. "We are really in shock," says Knoll's son, noting his mother had "no money" to tempt her alleged killers. Authorities initially said they were "not excluding any hypothesis" regarding the motive of the killing. But on Monday, the Paris prosecutor's office said anti-Semitism was likely to blame. "For the family, it's almost a certainty," French MP Meyer Habib said in a Facebook post after speaking with Knoll's relatives, per the Local. She noted Knoll escaped a roundup of 13,000 Jews in Paris in 1942—almost all of whom would later die in Nazi death camps—thanks to her mother's Brazilian passport, per the BBC. Many are now pointing out similarities in the case of 66-year-old Jewish woman Sarah Halimi, murdered in Paris last April. In February, the murder was ruled an anti-Semitic crime.