Jim Hollander / EPA
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men use a small sickle to cut wheat by hand in a field outside Sha'alvim in central Israel, on May 17. The wheat is then processed, all by hand-made Kosher means, to bake unleavened Matzah, to be eaten during the next high holiday of Passover, in April 2013. The wheat is harvested just before the holiday of Shavuot, which comes seven weeks after Passover, and marks when God gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
David Buimovitch / AFP - Getty Images
Holocaust survivors wearing 'Talit' (prayer shawls) and 'Tefilin' (phylacteries), sit in a synagogue during a Bar Mitzvah ceremony on May 17, 2012 in Ashkelon, Israel.
Six Holocaust survivors who were unable as children to celebrate the bar mitzvah, the Jewish rite of passage that marks a boy's 13th birthday, were finally able to mark their coming of age in a ceremony in the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Thursday.
David Buimovitch / AFP - Getty Images
David Buimovitch / AFP - Getty Images
A Holocaust survivor whose number tattoo is still visible puts on the 'Tefilin' during the ceremony.
Oded Balilty / AP
Ultra-Orthodox Jews stand next to bonfires during Lag Ba'omer celebrations to commemorate the end of a plague said to have decimated Jews in Roman times, in Bnei Brak, Israel, on May 9, 2012.
Reuters reports — Lag Ba'omer marks the end of a plague that killed thousands of Jewish scholars in ancient times, as well as the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who had rebelled against Roman rule and is believed to be the author of the Zohar, the core text of Kabbalah mysticism. Holiday traditions include lighting bonfires and cutting the hair of three-year-old boys for the first time.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
Mike Segar / Reuters
A young boy watches a bonfire burn as Orthodox Jews of the Satmar Hassidim dance and celebrate the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'omer in the village of Kiryas Joel, Orange County, New York, on May 9, 2012.
Ammar Awad / Reuters
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys sit in front of girls and women as they look at a bonfire lit on the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'omer in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood on May 9, 2012.
Ariel Schalit / AP
A man cuts a boy's hair next to the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai during Lag Ba'omer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, on May 10, 2012.
Mike Segar / Reuters
Men of the Orthodox Jewish Satmar Hassidim crowd the steps of a synagogue (backround) as women of the sect stand in a separate area (front) as they celebrate Lag Ba'omer in the village of Kiryas Joel, New York, on May 9, 2012.
Nir Elias / Reuters
An ultra-Orthodox woman prays during traditional festivities for Lag Ba'omer near the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel on May 10, 2012.
Ammar Awad / Reuters
Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz and workers remove notes from the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City, on March 28. Rabbi Rabinovitz headed a team on Wednesday that cleaned out the cracks and made room for more paper notes that Jews believe are notes to God, ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover which begins on April 6.
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
A man helps remove messages and prayers written by thousands of people addressed to God from the cracks in the Western Wall in preparation for the up coming Jewish Passover holiday on March 28 in Jerusalem's old city. All the notes once collected will be buried in a special place at the Mount of Olives according to Jewish law. Passover begins in the evening of Friday, April 6 and commemorates the story of the Exodus where the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
A man helps remove messages and prayers written by thousands of people addressed to God from the cracks in the Western Wall in preparation for the up coming Jewish Passover holiday, on March 28 in Jerusalem's old city.
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
Messages and prayers written by thousands of people addressed to God from the cracks in the Western Wall are seen on the floor after they were removed in preparation for the up coming Jewish Passover holiday on March 28 in Jerusalem's old city.
Abir Sultan / EPA
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are silhouetted against the late afternoon sky as they gather at a mountain spring outside Jerusalem on March 27 to collect water for the making of matza, or unleavened bread, prior to Passover.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
A relative of seven-year-old Miriam Monsonego (bottom center) mourns during the joint funeral service in Jerusalem on March 21, 2012 for her daughter and the other three victims of Monday's shooting in Toulouse, France.
A joint funeral service is being held in Israel for the victims of Monday's shooting at a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse.
The bodies of 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 4, and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego arrived at Ben Gurion international airport ahead of a burial service in Jerusalem.
The four were gunned down on Monday in the deadliest school shooting France has ever known and the bloodiest attack on Jewish targets in decades.
A suspect wanted in connection with the attack wounded three police officers in a shootout at a house in Toulouse early Wednesday. Click here for further updates and get the very latest at BreakingNews.com.
-- The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images
An Israeli Zaka volunteer stands next to the bodies of victims of the shooting in a morgue before their funeral in Jerusalem on March 21, 2012.
Oded Balilty / AP
Members of ZAKA open the coffins of the Toulouse shooting victims as they prepare the bodies for burial at a morgue in Jerusalem on March. 21, 2012.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
Eric Cabanis / AFP - Getty Images
Local representatives observe a minute of silence at the courtyard of the City Hall of Toulouse, southwestern France, on March 20, 2012, one day after a shooting at a Jewish school in the city.
Schools across France observed a minute of silence at 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) Tuesday in memory of three children and a rabbi who were shot dead at a Jewish school in the city of Toulouse on Monday.
Read more about the hunt for the gunman, who may have filmed the attack according to information released by the country's interior minister.
Charles Platiau / Reuters
A teacher comforts a child as they observe a minute of silence at a Jewish school in Paris on March 20, 2012 to pay tribute to the four victims killed by a gunman at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday.
Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP - Getty Images
People march through the streets of Paris on March 19 after the today's shooting of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish School in the southwestern city of Toulouse. Three children and a teacher were killed and a teenage boy was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire this morning.
Thomas Coex / AFP - Getty Images
People march through the streets of Paris on March 19 after the Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school shooting, where four people lost their lives.
Eric Cabanis / AFP - Getty Images
Earlier today: Policemen work the scene near the Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school where four people were killed by a gunman.
Thousands of Parisians held a silent march through the streets of Paris to honor the three children and a rabbi who were shot dead by a gunman at Ozar Hatorah Hebrew school in Toulouse, France today.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said the bullets from one of the two guns used match those in earlier attacks that killed three French soldiers.
Some 120 investigators were working on a manhunt for the killer and had already identified the license plate of the motorbike used in today's attack, police sources said.
French media said that security was being tightened at all Jewish schools in the country.
--Msnbc.com sources contributed to this blog post.
Related link:
Manu Blondeau / AP
A student, second from left, is flanked by an unidentified woman and police officers as they leave a Jewish school after a gunman opened fire in Toulouse, southwestern France, on March 19, 2012.
Bruno Martin / AP
Police officers gather at the site of a shooting in Toulouse on March 19, 2012. A father and his two sons were among four people who died when a gunman opened fire in front of a Jewish school, the Toulouse prosecutor said Monday.
Msnbc.com staff, NBC News and news services report — A man opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, southwestern France, Monday, killing at least four people, including three children, officials said.
A rabbi at the school, identified as Rahamim Sabag, told Israel's channel two television that the dead were a 30-year old rabbi who taught at the school, the rabbi's five-year-old son and two eight-year old children, one of them the daughter of the school's principal, Reuters reported.
Click here for the latest updates.
Manu Blondeau / AP
School children and their parents leave a Jewish school after a gunman opened fire in Toulouse on March 19, 2012.
Oded Balilty / AP
An Ultra Orthodox Jewish girl dressed as a bride for the Purim festival in the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, Israel, on March. 8, 2012. The Jewish holiday of Purim celebrates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Scroll of Esther.
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
A boy looks out of a window as Ultra Orthodox Jews celebrate Purim on March 8, 2012 in Bnei Brak.
Bernat Armangue / AP
A child dressed in a clown costume at a synagogue in Jerusalem on March 8, 2012.
Abir Sultan / EPA
Men dance and sing at the Matmidim Hasidic dynasty synagogue in Jerusalem on March 8, 2012.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
A man hands out a bottle of wine during celebrations at the Belz Hasidic dynasty synagogue in Jerusalem on March 8, 2012.
Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images
Ultra-Orthodox Jews belonging to the Tholdot Avraham Yitzhak Hasidic group rest late on March 8, 2012 in Beit Shemesh, a religious town near Jerusalem.
The fun that goes along with the celebration of Purim can't be overstated, The Associated Press reports.
The tale behind the festival — which was celebrated between sunset on Wednesday and nightfall on Thursday — involves a Persian king, his prime minister, Haman (the bad guy) who had it out for the Jews, and a community leader named Mordecai. Basically, Mordecai and his stepdaughter Esther, who became the queen (of the good guys), save their people.
Ariel Schalit / AP
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys dressed for Purim pose for a photograph during celebration of Purim festival in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 7, 2012. The Jewish holiday of Purim celebrates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Scroll of Esther.
Photographer Oded Balilty attended the wedding of Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, the great-grandson of the Rabbi of the Wiznitz Hasidic followers, and his bride Nechama Paarel Horowitz. The ceremony took place in the Israeli town of Petah Tikva on Tuesday night, continuing early Wednesday.
Oded Balilty / AP
Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather for the traditional Jewish wedding in Petah Tikva on Feb. 14, 2012.
Oded Balilty / AP
The bride Nechama Paarel Horowitz fulfils the Mitzvah tantz, in which family members and honored rabbis are invited to dance in front of the bride, who holds one end of a gartel. At the end the bride and groom dance together.
Oded Balilty / AP
A gauze curtain is used to separate men and women during the wedding.
Oded Balilty / AP
Oded Balilty / AP
Oded Balilty / AP
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