Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) with his wife, Sara, at a Bible study session Tuesday in Jerusalem. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO.

JNS.org – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hosted a Bible study session at his official residence in Jerusalem.

The event was named in honor of Shmuel Ben-Artzi, the late father of the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu.

The annual Bible study event is a tradition dating back to the country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin also hosted the event, which Netanyahu and his wife reintroduced four years ago.

The study session was attended by Bat-Galim Shaar, the mother of Gilad Shaar, one of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and killed by Hamas terrorists in the summer of 2014, igniting a 50-day war in Gaza.

“There is no Jewish existence without the Bible…In my opinion, there is also no Jewish future without the Bible,” Netanyahu said.