Profession of faith
My heart urges me to be optimistic, but my mind is more inclined towards pessimism. Does this mean that we should give up encouraging the good? Angelism is insufficient, even if my Father's commitment was unconditional. His desire to see people improve, to open their eyes to the only possible way out for their survival: acceptance of the other, tolerance, love of neighbour and even of those far away... and a beautiful pious wish. In the world in which we live, the class struggle, that of ideologies, interests and the will to dominate, is developing more than ever. What can we do to hope, to encourage those who would like to devote themselves to working for a world of understanding? Is not hatred, which my Father used to say was the first heresy to be fought, part of the revolt of the disinherited, the desperate, for whom the future is dark! How can we reverse the trend? Fine words will not suffice. The dream of a better world, to become reality, can only be nourished by actions.
Let us remain modest; our effort can only be limited. It is up to us to target the objectives and the means at our disposal. It is up to us to direct our research to make it useful.
The first act of the "Comité des Sages" will be to address this basic problem. What to do? How can we do it?
Aware of the difficulty, but wishing to lay a white stone on this path, hoping to see others added to it, I do not shrink from what may be considered a challenge and declare the creation of the "Chief Rabbi Joseph Cohen Prize" Foundation, making my own the words he was so fond of repeating and which were pronounced by President David Ben Gourion at the origin of the State of Israel: "He who does not believe in miracles is not a realist".
Michel Cohen-Colin