Dear Edmond Israel, Dear Mrs. Israel
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,
As a Luxembourger, I am proud of my fellow countryman Edmond Israel, and as Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, I pay tribute to this extraordinary Luxembourger. Edmond Israel today shares the essence of his long life’s experience with us in a wonderful book, that I invite you all to read. I read it – out of curiosity and not because I had to in view of this speech – and I have been impressed by the humble way in which Edmond Israel recounts the highs and lows of his remarkable life and, with the wink of an eye, shares his philosophy of humanity and wisdom with all of us.
Edmond Israel’s life is the perfect illustration of the American dream come true between Luxembourg and America. As so many of his generation, Edmond Israel escaped from war-torn Europe and found a new life in America. America was at war, but embraced refugees persecuted by the Nazis with open arms, leaving them free to build their lives : an extraordinary gift to a Luxembourg refugee! It was not easy to leave Europe at this time, and not easy to be accepted in the States: the chapter "Scottish shower" describes these difficulties in a very touching way.
Edmond Israel’s feeling towards the United States of America, during those war years, are "Gratitude" and "Hope": gratitude towards a nation and a country that welcomed him and his family, allowing them to live freely and offering them the hope to return to their home country as soon as possible.
Edmond Israel developed his life philosophy, his "love with life" following the example of his parents’, and stuck to it all his life, the philosophy of a humble man who at all stages of his life resolutely seized the opportunities that life offered him.
America contributed to his success: his first employer at the International Bank of Luxembourg hires the young man without university degree because he speaks fluent English, the English he learnt in the States. Climbing the steps of the career ladder one after the other in one of the major Luxembourg banks, Edmond Israel became, from the sixties on, one of the pioneers of Luxembourg’s flourishing financial sector.
Edmond Israel very rightly describes himself as an Ambassador of the Luxembourg Banking center. He travelled around the world to explain and promote Luxembourg’s financial center, and Luxembourg therefore owes him a great deal of its reputation abroad.
"In Love With Life" will reveal that Edmond Israel is an incredibly complete and complex man: a visionary banker and businessman with two feet placed solidly on the ground of international banking; a loving husband with a tremendous sense for family life; a philosopher with a young and open mind; a believer of a catching conviction and deep devotion. I very much hope that his passionate call for a dialogue of all religions and cultures to rethink the world in a peaceful and humane way will be heard.
I am grateful, as so many others, to know Edmond Israel, and to benefit from his wisdom and experience every time we meet. It was a necessity that he wrote down what makes his life and the way he lives and loves it, so extraordinary.
On this particular day where he introduces his fascinating book in the United States, I raise my glass to the health and the happiness of our friend Edmond Israel and his wife Renée: may we have many more occasions, dear Edmond, to enjoy your wisdom, your experience and your wit!