Three teenagers were arrested Sunday the day after an acid attack on a Jewish school in Paris, spurring a visit Monday to the school by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who declared "zero tolerance" for anti-Semitic acts.

Three hydrochloric acid bottles were flung at the Sinai School and the adjoining yard in the city’s 18th Arrondissement, as a group of eight-to-twelve year-old children played in the yard. None were hurt. Worshippers at Sabbath services in the building, which is also used as a synagogue, heard three explosions.

Police later arrested three teens aged 15, 17 and 18 on the following days, after students identified one of the suspects to police.

“It’s a miracle the children didn’t get hurt.” said Sinai Director Rabbi Joseph Pevzner. “At first, we thought the explosions were firecrackers in the street, but then the children came running into the synagogue saying we were being attacked by Arabs.”

"Zero Tolerance" for Attacks

During his visit, Sarkozy professed to "knowing only one strategy against anti-Semitism: zero tolerance, not accepting any hate crime and punishing immediately."

"There is no such thing as an anti-Semitic or racist act of minor importance. Whether it is a word or a gesture, whether or not there are victims, it is always serious," he said.

Sarkozy, viewed by political observers as a front-runner in the 2007 presidential election, added that "threatening a Jewish school, which is unacceptable, is not the Jewish community’s problem. It is a problem of the Republic because when there is a threat on a Jew, there is a threat on the Republic as a whole." French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was due to visit the school later on Monday.

The incident is considered doubly serious in light of the surge in anti-Semitic assaults in France and other European countries in recent years. The French government has vowed repeatedly to fight these attacks.

Paris Police Chief Surveys Site

Paris police chief Pierre Mutz visited Sinai on Sunday, along with a delegation of police officials, members of the public prosecution office, and a city hall representative. The group reassured the congregation and Jewish leaders, including officers of the Conseil Representatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF), who thanked the officials for their work.

“We are very proud of our children.” Rabbi Pevzner told EJP. “They went to the police and recognized one of the attackers. Had they not recognized him he would have been free right now.”

The Rabbi nevertheless remains hopeful. “This is the first attack we have seen in fifteen years and I hope it’s the last”, he stated. “A fifteen-year-old adolescent won’t dictate us our way of living. We won’t barricade ourselves and we’ll keep on teaching our children in a healthy and encouraging environment”.