A new plaque was unveiled in the Jewish Students’ House of Belgium on January 22, 2012, to pay tribute to the center’s founders.  On the occasion, Professor Julien Klener made the following short speech:

I should like first of all to welcome all those present for having accepted to share this moment of sincere friendship.  So, thank you for being here this Sunday afternoon, during which we shall have the great pleasure of unveiling a commemorative plaque in honor of those who succeeded, with tenacity and devotion and the bequest from Herbert Cohn, in creating and saving this oasis of physical and mental encounters for the Jewish students of Belgium and elsewhere.

So, thanks go to Chief Rabbi Albert Guigui, to the president of the Jewish Community of Belgium, Philippe Markiewicz, and above all to the project’s instigator, Georges Schnek.

Actually, this building deserves to be called the “Georges Schnek House,” for you are the one who was the enlightened forger of the irreversible link between the Consistory and this house.  You, dear Georges, are the one responsible for the need that we feel to pay you this tribute.  Don’t worry; I shall not try your patience.  However let me remind everyone that the key word in all your work is “courage,” the courage to get your way without yelling, without forcing; your ever so ingenious courage that enables you in the case of a dispute in the community to anger none of the parties concerned, thanks to your implacable gentleness; courage with all that that entails when it comes to determination, abnegation, and life force; qualities that are less rare than one might believe, but qualities that you have raised to the highest level.

I believe that our thoughts and feelings can be summed up in this single sentence, “Thank you, Georges, for being what you are!”

And now, I ask that the plaque be unveiled