The Catholic Jewish dialogue in particular was in good hands with him. When a distinguished Jewish scholar thanked him for what he had done to cultivate Catholic Jewish relations, he replied That was not me, that was Providence, and then added with his inimitable smile And me.

Sartre and Aron began their 50 year acquaintance with a shared elite French education that included a formative period in Germany just before the rise of Nazism. Each in his inimitable way displayed the contrariness both loved and loathed in intellectuals Aron fancied Anglo American liberalism before it became fashionable, while Sartre remained a Communist sympathiser after the fashion had passed.