Bridge of Words (1)

I mentioned Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language by Esther Schor (Metropolitan Books, 2016) in a recent post, but I've been negligent in blogging about it. I am also acknowledged in it, as my web site is an invaluable source for research into Esperanto and its history.

April 14 marked the centennial of Zamenhof's death, which has been commemorated in various ways. (I have begun to blog about this, more to come.) In Zamenhof's lifetime, and for decades afterward, it was necessary to downplay Zamenhof's Jewishness due to the prevalence of Zamenhof, and in fact all of Zamenhof's children were murdered by the Nazis. Esperanto researchers and scholars, writing in Esperanto -- N.Z. Maimon and Adolf Holzhaus come to mind -- began to undo this enforced silence with documentation of Zamenhof's investment and activity in the Jewish world.  This dimension of Zamenhof's Jewish interests and their relation to Esperanto remained even more obscure in the English-speaking world than Esperanto generally. A few years ago Esther Schor began to write and speak about this in the USA. We lectured together at a symposium on Zamenhof on December 15 (his birthday), 2010, at a U.N. building. George Soros made a surprise visit, and while the rest of us got a photo op with him, only he was reported in the mainstream media. I was covered by the Jewish Daily Forward, though.

This book is the latest fruit of Esther Schor's endeavors. It has a strongly Jewish angle which is also bound to be emphasized in some reviews.

Michael Wex is a Yiddishist, known for such books as Born to Kvetch. It is not surprising that he would review this book in The New York Times (November 11, 2016) : "The Jewish Roots of Esperanto." Wex has some criticisms but overall appreciates the subject matter and whets the appetite, and of course highlights the Jewish dimension.

Stuart Schoffman's review "The Great Family Circle" in the Spring 2017 Jewish Review of Books is much narrower, but with some interesting anecdotes. Under the editorship Itamar Ben-Avi, the Jerusalem daily Do’ar Ha-yom published an item about Esperanto on January 23, 1924 and on several other occasions, its obsession with a Jewish renewal notwithstanding. On this date the writer noted that Zamenhof was a Jew, after reporting: "An anti-Semitic weekly in Germany had urged fellow anti-Semites to learn Esperanto, the better to communicate with anti-Semitic organizations in other countries." The short review also mentions Zamenhof's involvement in the proto-Zionist movement.

There is a contrasting pair of comments. The first is a poem from a snotty Zionist ridiculing Esperanto's universalism, Obama, and George Soros. The second is from an Esperantist posting Zamenhof's poem "La Espero" (Hope).

Gregor Benton on the proletarian Esperanto movement

I vaguely recall the name Gregor Benton from somewhere; I assume he surfaced somewhere in my erstwhile study of the history of Trotskyism. I see that he is a specialist on China and that he has published on Chinese Trotskyism, Maoism, and Chinese communism overall.

I am familiar with Jacobin magazine. In a country where the very name of Marx is taboo, Jacobin is the most widely known Marxist magazine in the country, "widely" being a relative term but at least not totally invisible among the intellectual reading public. Many years ago, when the magazine was still in gestation, at least one person involved in it was interested in interviewing me on C.L.R. James, but this never materialized.

Nobody in the USA, on the left or otherwise, cares about Esperanto, so I was quite surprised when this article surfaced in Jacobin and by which author:

"Communism in Words" by Gregor Benton

"A brief history of Esperanto, the language intimately tied to the common destiny of the working class."

I can imagine the horror of many American Esperantists to see Esperanto associated with communism in this way, though there are some who have mentioned the proletarian Esperanto movement as an historical phenomenon. Benton's father, who fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, defended Esperanto to comrades who dismissed it, using the phrase "communism in words" (which I have never seen anywhere else). Gregor himself learned Esperanto and delivered a euology to his father in Esperanto for the Catalan Esperanto Association.

This is a very good article, with a good historical overview and an objective assessment, advocating Esperanto in a realistic way without hype and cultism, and even with his particular interest as a man of the left.

Benton provides a capsule summary of Zamenhof and of the Esperanto movement's history and present status, then launches into the history of the proletarian Esperanto movement and the hostility engendered in reaction to the various causes that embraced Esperanto. Benton mentions the leading international organization, Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (World Anationalist Association, "SAT" for short), its erstwhile collaboration with the USSR, the eventual Stalinist break with SAT, and the breakaway pro-Moscow Internacio de Proletaj Esperantistoj (International of Proletarian Esperantists).

Benton then covers the persecution of Esperantists by the Nazis and the Stalin regime and its eventual satellite regimes. (Esperanto had a significant presence before the Great Purges. I do not recall the Communist International ever endorsing Esperanto''s rival Ido, though I do remember Ido was part of the mix.) With de-Stalinization, the Esperanto movement was revived in the Soviet bloc, and its association there with the "peace movement" was a vehicle for Esperanto to thrive.

Benton also outlines the history of Esperanto in China, its early association with anarchism and communism. He mentions also the Japanese woman Hasegawa Teru (known by the Esperanto pseudonym "Verda Majo" = Green May) who was to join with the Chinese against Japanese aggression. In Maoist China, Esperanto was initially suppressed, then tolerated, then later, even while under suspicion during the Cultural Revolution, was widely used by the regime for Maoist propaganda. The Esperanto movement thrived in the post-Mao era, but its strength has vacillated.

Finally, Benton tackles the future prospects of Esperanto, with respect to the global changes that have transpired since its early days and what this means for the role and fate of the language -- in recent decades the effects of the fall of the Soviet bloc, the decreased reliance on traditional Esperantist membership organizations, and the rise of online communication. Esperanto thrives in the digital age, and the values it represents are as relevant as ever.

A Seamstress Wants to Learn Esperanto

A Seamstress Wants to Learn Esperanto | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project

May 1, 2017

The publication of Esther Schor's Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language occasioned this excavation from the YIVO archives.

This application for registration in an Esperanto course offered in the 1930s in Vilna (Wilno) by VILBIG (Vilna Jewish Education Society) was filled out by Tsile Lyubitsh, a young lingerie seamstress. Born in 1911, she was a member of the first generation to have attended one of the new secular Yiddish schools that were established in the wake of World War II.

What motivated Tsile to want to learn Esperanto? One possible clue comes from the memoir of a young Jewish man in Kielce, born in the same year at Tsile. A. Greyno, as he signed his submission to an autobiography contest sponsored by YIVO in the 1930s, was from a poor family. Like Tsile, he was a garment worker, and in his case, a trade unionist. He also dreamed of a world without borders, but more specifically, of a unified world proletariat, and had found a socialist Esperanto organization with which to affiliate [....]

Thank you, YIVO! See also the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe:

Bialystok
Belmont, Leo
Braun, Mieczysław
Gorshman, Shira
Korczak, Janusz
Tuwim, Julian
Zamenhof, Ludwik
Zaretski, Ayzik

Zamenhof-Simpozio 2010 ĉe UNo ĉemize

Kio estas ĉi tio? Jen T-ĉemizo, farita de esperantisto-entuziasmulo Neil Blonstein. La bildo estas fotografo farita ĉe Zamenhof-Simpozio kiu okazis en Novjorko la 15an de decembro 2010. En la grupfoto aperas Sam Green, Ralph Dumain, Humphrey Tonkin, George Soros, oficialulino de UNo, Neil Blonstein, kaj filo de Soros.

Kiaokaze Neil surportas ĉi tiun T-ĉemizon, mi ne povas imagi.

Zamenhof's 150th birthday in the Jewish Daily Forward

Here is an interesting old article just brought to my attention:

Zamenhof Days: December 15 and the Polish Jewish inventor of Esperanto
By Benjamin Ivry, Bintel Blog,
The Jewish Daily Forward, December 14, 2009

The occasion is the commemoration of L.L. Zamenhof's 150th birthday, particularly the Zamenhof Symposium at the U.N. featuring Esther Schor, Anna Okrent, and others.

Zamenhof's doctrine homaranismo is mentioned, as is daughter Lidia's involvement in the Bahá’í Faith, and the murder of all of three of Zamenhof's children by the Nazis.

William Shatner and the 1965 film Incubus, the creation of The Outer Limits TV series creator Leslie Stevens, are mentioned, with embedded video:



Also, there is another video I've never seen before, Jon Stewart's The Daily Show's parody of Incubus, "reported" by Mo Rocca:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Recenzoj de Joseph Skibell

Beletra Almanako, N-ro 13, Februaro 2012 (6-a jaro)

Aldone al intervjuo kun Joseph Skibell, enestas en ĉi tiu numero du recenzoj de A Curable Romantic [Kuracebla Romantikulo], fare de:

Anna Löwenstein (137-141);

Esther Schor, el la angla tradukis Brian Moon (141-146).

Mi jam blogis pri la originala anglalingva recenzo de Schor, kiu aperis en:

The Crooked Heart by Esther Schor; review of A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell; The New Republic online review, September 10, 2010.

Löwenstein taksas la ĉefrolulon Jakob Sammelsohn "epopea senspinulo"kaj la romanon "tre juda libro." Skibell montras D-ron Zamenhof el ne-ŝablona perspektivo. Skibell tro detaligas pri la aferoj de la Esperanto-movado, kiel eble ne taŭgas por neesperantista legontaro. Sekvas kelkaj aliaj kritikoj.

Schor diras:

Temas pri energi-riĉa, senbrida enscenigo, same vaste kiel la apetitoj de ĝia protagonisto - la postmoderna juda romano kiel kunkirlaĵo de ĝenroj: jida folklora rakonto, edukado de la sentoj, freŭda kazostudo, erotika konfesaĵo, utopia parabolo, ĉio envolvita en "alternativa historio" pri emancipiĝo de la judoj, kiun hantas la figuro de Dreyfus kaj ebriigas la sorĉaj plezuroj de la lingvo Esperanto.

Sekvas detala resumo kaj pritrakto. Apud la fino ŝi diras:

Lukács fame aljuĝis al Walter Scott la meriton inventi la modernan historian romanon. La geniaĵo de Scott estis, ke li lokis ajnulon meze en la historio kaj uzis lin (aŭ ŝin) por refrakti la potencojn de reĝoj kaj reĝinoj, tiranoj kaj popolamasoj. Sed en la eksterordinara romano de Joseph Skibell, eĉ la ŝajna ajnulo ne estas apudstaranto en la historio.

Do jen kelkaj tentaĵoj al legado de ĉi tiuj recenzoj.

Zamenhof's 150th birthday on PRI's 'The World' radio

Paging Dr. Esperanto, and what not to say in Ireland’s parliament
By Patrick Cox, PRI's The World, December 17, 2009

An old program commemorating Zamenhof's 150th birthday, with links, as well as a sound file on Esperanto.  This broadcast also deals with words proscribed by the Irish Parliament.

Arika Okrent and Esther Schor are interviewed, with some attention to the Jewish roots of Zamenhof's creation. Okrent sees the late 19th century as the era of social engineering experiments. Schor discusses Zamenhof's background and motivations, as well as the egalitarian ethic of the Esperanto movement. And of course Incubus is mentioned. Okrent's moral: hand over your language and alow others to ruin its perfection, if you want it to succeed. At the end there's a recording of "The Girl from Ipanema" in Esperanto.

As an appendix, Cox gives us more of Schor's interview beyond the limits of the original broadcast format. She expands on Zamenhof's background, including his early preoccupation with the Jewish question, his desire to reform the Jewish religion, his project to reform Yiddish, his participation in the Zionist movement, projects all eventually abandoned for Esperanto. Schor describes Zamenhof's intervention and strategy for Esperanto in some detail, as well as the growth of the language over the ensuing 122 years. She mentions neologisms in connection with the ability to form compound words. Cox finds it difficult to pin down the motivations of Esperantists. Schor learned Esperanto to undertake her scholarly project; there are diverse motivations for others. She acquits herself very well in her presentation of the Esperanto world. Schor's forthcoming book on Esperanto is announced.

The Esperanto segment of this radio program comprises the first 20 minutes, 30 seconds. The rest concerns the Irish Parliament. This is an exceptionally fair treatment of Esperanto.

Zamenhof-Simpozio at UNo, George Soros, & mi (10)

Jen artikolo en la franca / Here is an article in French:

George Soros, participant d’un symposium de UEA
(ĉe retejo de SAT-Amikaro)
Traduit de l’espéranto par Serge Sire, d’après l’article de Libera Folio
= traduko de Serge Sire, bazita de article en Libera Folio
= translation by Serge Sire based on an article in Libera Folio

La tradukinto aldonis postnoton kiu ne flatas Soros. / The translator added a note which is less than flattering concerning Soros.

Zamenhof-Simpozio at UNo, George Soros, & mi (9)

Jen pluaj raportoj pri la Zamenhof-simpozio en Novjorko la 15an de decembro.

De Zamenhof al Soros en Novjorko, Gazetaraj Komunikoj N-ro 405 (2010-12-17), Universala Esperanto-Asocio.

La saman raporton republikigis pluraj instancoj, ekz.

De Zamenhof al Soros en Novjorko - Novaĵoj 新闻 - 中国世界语网 www.Esperanto.cn 中国世界语门户网站 (2020-12-20)

Mondaj Skoltoj, kun angla traduko: George Soros visits  Esperanto symposium in New York (12/18/10)

Esperanto Movado: George Soros vizitas Esperanto-simpozion en Novjorko (2010-12-19, blogo, kun propraj fotoj)

Esperantic Studies Foundation: George Soros vizitas Esperanto-simpozion en Novjorko (2010-12-17)

La raporto el Libera Folio ripetiĝas ĉe El Popola Ĉinio (2010-12-20)

Estas malmulte ĉe sociretejo Ipernity: nur mallongaj anoncoj de Ralph Dumain kaj Neil Nachum.

Estas raporto en la portugala el Brazilo: DIA DE ZAMENHOF – COMEMORAÇÕES EM 2010 (20 Decembro 2010)

Mi raportis pri anglalingvaj novaĵoj en mia antaŭa blogero.

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, George Soros, & me (8)

Here is another news article in English:

Can you say 'Billionaire' in Esperanto?
China Daily, 2010-12-26




In the World Scouts newsgroup is an English translation accompanying a news article on the symposium:

George Soros visits  Esperanto symposium in New York (12/18/10)

This latter report, unlike the former, also reports on the four main speakers of the symposium including Esther Schor, who has been neglected in some of these reports.

Zamenhof & the new Jewish intellectual historiography (2)

The relevant documents by L. L. Zamenhof on Yiddish, Zionism, and the Jewish question are written in Yiddish, Russian, or Esperanto, and while there are Esperanto translations of most or all of the other writings, with the exception of a few letters, excerpts, or quotations everything in English is to be found in the scanty secondary literature in English. To get a picture of what Zamenhof was trying to accomplish, start here:

L.L. Zamenhof and the Shadow People: The Amazing Story of How Esperanto Came to Be by Esther Schor (2009)

Zamenhof and the Shadow People: video of presentation by Esther Schor, Zamenhof Symposium (15 December 2009)

There are revelant documents in Esperanto, Esperanto translation, and Yiddish on my web site:

Zamenhof & Zamenhofologio: Retgvidilo / Web Guide

For Zamenhof's conception of nationality in general, see:

“International Language” (Universal Races Congress, 1911) by L. L. Zamenhof

 Now let's pick up where we left off in the previous post, and proceed to this article:

On the Idea of a Jewish Nation: Before and After Statism by David N. Myers, Perush, Volume 1, 2009

Myers find today's discourse about Jewish nationhood impoverished compared to the vigorous debates of a century ago:

I am intrigued by the once-vibrant ideological and theoretical debate of the early twentieth century that revolved around the idea of a Jewish nation. [. . . .] But our main task in the body of the paper will be to begin excavating a history of Jewish nationalism that has been somewhat forgotten, neglected, and at times, marginalized. I argue that there is in fact a common thread linking the theoretical poverty today and the partial narrative of Jewish nationalism that has been received: namely, the rise to dominance of one variant of Jewish nationalist ideology, what I call Statist Zionism.

One must of course determine at the outset what one means by nation. Myers begins with Renan, who centers the idea of nationhood around a spiritual principle. This notion was taken up by Simon Dubnow. Comparable contemporary constructivist notions of nationalism have been articulated by Ernest Gellner, Eric Hobsbawm, and Benedict Anderson. Here is how Myers summarizes the development of Jewish self-conceptions:

European Jews in the mid-nineteenth century, embedded in societies affirming their own sense of national integrity, labored to find the best way to name themselves. They described themselves as a confession of faith, a religious community, a community of fate (Schicksalsgemeinschaft), a tribe (Stamm). Later, toward the end of the century, they began to designate themselves more assertively as a nation. Throughout the early twentieth century, this language of Jewish nationhood was widespread among Jewish intellectuals, writers, and scholars, especially in Europe, though one of the characteristic features of this discursive moment was the considerable divergence over the ways in which the term was understood. Over the course of the latter half of the twentieth century, this mode of Jewish political discourse—marked by the ubiquitous use of the language of “nation,” alongside an obsessive need to name the collective—began to dissipate. Since that time, and up to the present, there has been relatively little meditation about the nature of Jewish collectivity, especially when compared to the golden age of ideological contestation that extended from 1897 to 1939.

Myers goes on to supply an explanation for the dissipation of this ideological contestation, and how it narrowed into the prevailing statism, which he now wishes to contest. But returning to the historical period that interests me:

So rather than begin in 1897 with the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland and then look forward to the inevitable creation (predicted by Theodor Herzl) of a Jewish state and again backward to the established “precursors of Zionism” (Alkalay, Kalischer, Hess, etc.) as they are known in Zionist historiography, I propose a somewhat less linear recounting that consists of the following chapters: first, a mid- to late-nineteenth-century phase in which Jews began to debate what to call themselves as a collective; second, a period that I’ll call the “golden age of Jewish nationalism,” commencing indeed in 1897, but highlighting less the historical inevitability of Statism and more the common commitment of Jewish nationalist movements to culture; and third, a phase in which rights of Jews as a national minority became a focus of international attention.

Myers begins with the French revolution and the subsequent re-definition of Jewish identity with respect to Jewish emancipation and loyal citizenship in the countries in which Jews lived. In 1869, Adolf Jellinek introduced a notion we might call ethnicity but which he called Stamm, or tribe, more suited to the conditions of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Then there was the Jewish rebellion against the thrust of a new configuration of anti-Semitism in the 1870s-80s, when the term "anti-Semitism" itself was launched. Into the Berlin Antisemitismusstreit of 1879-1881 comes the 1879 lecture by the German-Jewish philosopher and psychologist Moritz Lazarus, “Was heißt National?” In 1897, Ahad Ha-am, whose focus was cultural renewal, represented a dissenting view from the vision of Theodor Herzl that won the day. The Austro-Marxist (not identified by Myers as such) Social Democrats Otto Bauer and Karl Renner endeavored to disaggregate the notions of nation and state. Note Renner's notion of national cultural autonomy. And note the connection to Bundism:

On this view, it was not the state or territory or even race (in its biological sense) that made a nation, but, in the first instance, culture. Of course, we cannot forget the powerful class dimension in the Bund’s agenda, which added a deterministic quality to its view of Jewish nationalism. But it is the nexus between nation and culture that linked the Bund, in its 1905 platform, to the Folkspartay founded by Simon Dubnow in St. Petersburg a year later. Although the two parties disagreed over the question of socialism, they both agitated for the right of Jews to preside over their own cultural affairs, in their own language, Yiddish. In fact, it was that latter point that prompted the convening of an assembly of intellectuals and writers in Czernowitz a few years later in 1908—one hundred years ago (and now being marked with several centennial conferences). Amidst a typically discordant group of Jews, the conference demanded equal rights for Yiddish, but could not agree on declaring Yiddish “the national language of the Jewish people.” Instead, it opted for the formulation “a national language,” in recognition of the potent claims that Hebrew too deserved recognition as such.

One should compare this to Zamenhof's notion that a people is defined by language and religion.

Myers continues discussing Bundism (a phenomenon that merits sustained study), and summarizes:

. . .  there was a consequential debate among a growing and influential group of European Jews regarding the essence, preferred form, and desired venue of the Jewish nation in the first two decades of the twentieth century. It was not only Zionists, Autonomists, and Bundists, but also Territorialists of Israel Zangwill’s ilk and even the Agude, the Orthodox Agudat Yisrael, which arose formally in 1912 as a pan-national traditionalist alternative to secular nationalism. 

This is the debate that was cast down the memory hole by victorious statism. But continuing on, World War I and the subsequent reterritorialization spurred a new round of debate. Not mentioned by Myers: Zamenhof circulated his proposal to the world's diplomats on the post-war political order in 1915 and died in 1917, so he wasn't a party to the debates of 1919 and the 1919 peace conference where national minority rights were on the table. 

There is some debate on the ideological terrain in the interwar period, including the question of the definitive triumph of statism.  But if not earlier, the Extraordinary Zionist Conference at the Biltmore Hotel in 1942 sealed the deal. (Note that Hitler's Final Solution, formulated in 1941, was in macabre full throttle by 1942.)

Thus Myers seeks to resuscitate this complex ideological history drowned in the historical narrative instituted by victorious statism. And it is this history, apart from Myers and co.'s presentist political concerns, that is vital to understand, in general and in relationship to Zamenhof's lifelong struggle with the Jewish question. While Zamenhof is discussed in the context of Jewish intellectual historiography, I have not yet ascertained whether this recent turn in the historiography of Jewish nationalism has visibly incorporated Zamenhof into its narrative, and, lacking the recent scholarly books written on Zamenhof in Esperanto, German, and possibly other languages that slip my mind (but not English), I do not know how thoroughly this vein of scholarship has penetrated Zamenhofology. The interpenetration of these two foci of scholarship has got to be made to happen, above all in the English-speaking world.

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, George Soros, & me (7)

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, 15 December 2010 from Ralph D on Vimeo.

Video by Verlette Simon

00:00-00:32: Ralph Dumain salutas Gary Shapiro-n
                          = Ralph Dumain greets Gary Shapiro
00:33-00:47: Humphrey Tonkin laŭtlegas el memuaro
                             de Tivadar Soros
                          = Humphrey Tonkin reads aloud from memoir by
                             Tivadar Soros
00:47-02:52: George Soros rakontas pri sia infaneco kun
                             patro Tivadar
                          = George Soros reminisces about his childhood &
                             his father Tivadar
02:53-03:29: fotado de la prelegintoj & organizintoj
                          = photo op with Soros, the speakers, & organizers

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, George Soros, & me (5)

More photos of the Dec. 15 Zamenhof symposium @ Neil Blonstein's Public Gallery

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, George Soros, & me (4)

Some photos of the Dec. 15 Zamenhof symposium @ Blonstein Neil's Public Gallery

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, George Soros, & me (3)

Here is a video from the Dec. 15 Zamenhof symposium at the UN:

George Soros on his father Teodoro/Tivadar & the Esperanto publishing house "Literatura Mondo" /

George Soros pri patro Teodoro-Literatura Mondo

---

Photos of the Dec. 15 Zamenhof symposium @ Blonstein Neil 's Public Gallery

See photos in Albums / Jen fotoj en albumoj:

Zamenhof to Soros Symposium 2010: 116 photos / fotoj
Soros Z-Simpozio: 13 photos / fotoj

Here is one photo / Jen ekzemplo:

---

Today on the web! / Ĵus aperis:

Esperanto, the 'Worldwide Yiddish'
By Gary Shapiro
The Jewish Daily Forward
December 21, 2010
http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/134095/

I am featured prominently in this article.

Zamenhof-Simpozio at UNo, George Soros, & mi (2)

Jen pluaj raportoj, en Esperanto.

George Soros ĉeestis simpozion de UEA, Libera Folio, 2010-12-18.

Oni trovas ĉi tie detalojn pri Soros kaj klarigojn de Humphrey Tonkin, sed ankaŭ menciojn pri Ralph Dumain kaj Sam Green.

Ĉi tio sekvas la raporton de Esperantic Studies Foundation:

George Soros vizitas Esperanto-simpozion en Novjorko (2010-12-17)

Jen ankaŭ:

Kiel diri "miliardulo" en Esperanto?, traduko de artikolo de ALISON LEIGH COWAN, New York Times, ĉe Libera Folio, 2010-12-18.

Estas ankaŭ raporteto ĉe Ipernity:

Zamenhof Simpozio en Novjorko de neil_nachum (17 Dec 2010)

Zamenhof Symposium at UN, George Soros, & me (1)

15 December 2010

(From the left / de maldekstre): Sam Green, Ralph Dumain, Humphrey Tonkin, George Soros, Françoise Cestac (former Assistant General Secretary of the UN / eksa Asista Ĝenerala Sekretario de UN), Esther Schor, Neil Blonstein, Jonathan Soros.

I was the second speaker at From Zamenhof to Soros: A Symposium held at the United Nations on 15 December, Zamenhof's birthdate.

Esther Schor spoke about Zamenhof's perspectives on the future short-term and long-term.

My topic was "Esperanto, Washington, and the World in 1910", a thematic presentation of the various interests represented at the first Esperanto Congress outside of Europe and Zamenhof's only visit to the United States, with the novel addition of the missing perspective, that of African Americans in Jim Crow America. I introduced the public to major civil rights leader, classics scholar, and the first known African-American Esperantist, William Pickens.

Sam Green presented the rough cut of a new half-hour documentary on Esperanto, continuing the utopian theme presented in his previous documentary Utopia in Four Movements, with more interview material of contemporary Esperantists and film footage of Esperanto conferences in the 20th century.

Humphrey Tonkin spoke about Tivadar Soros, who changed his name from Theodore Schwartz (in Esperanto Teodoro Ŝvarc), key Esperanto publisher of the interwar period and survivor of both a World War I POW camp and Nazi-occupied Hungary, each the subject of a memoir published in Esperanto. ("Soros" in Esperanto means "to soar".) The latter memoir, Maskerado Ĉirkaŭ la Morto, which I read in the original Esperanto 40 years ago, was translated into English as Masquerade some years ago. Soros' 1923 memoir Modernaj Robinzonoj is newly published in English translation as Crusoes in Siberia along with another piece "The Fairest Judgment". Dr. Tonkin spoke at length about Soros' trek from Siberia to Moscow, his character, achievements as a writer and publisher and the circumstances of publication of these memoirs. (For political reasons, he could not have published the Siberian memoir in Hungarian).

Following the formal program, the son of Tivadar, the famous billionaire George Soros, arrived to accept the presentation of his father's memoir in English translation. He spoke warmly about his father and shared some childhood memories. George's son Jonathan was also present. Immediately thereafter the photos you see were taken.

Also introduced at this symposium was another book just off the press from Mondial Books, Zamenhof: The Life, Works and Ideas of the Author of Esperanto by Aleksander Korzhenkov, an abridgment of the original biography published in Esperanto.

So far in the American press we have this news item from the New York Times: How Do You Say 'Billionaire' (Soros) in Esperanto? by Alison Leigh Cowan (Dec 16, 2010).

Other reports have surfaced in English and Esperanto, mostly on Facebook. This report is bilingual: George Soros vizitas Esperanto-simpozion en Novjorko (December 18, 2010).

Also in Esperanto we have this report published by Esperanta Civito: Soros ĉe Zamenhof-Tago en Nov-Jorko (18 Dec 2010).

Freud & Zamenhof rolas en romano: Esther Schor recenzas

The Crooked Heart by Esther Schor
review of A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell
The New Republic online review, September 10, 2010

Two mittel-European Jewish doctors born in the 1850s, three years apart: one was Viennese, the other was from Warsaw. One trafficked in disenchantment, calling religion an “illusion” tantamount to “neurosis”; the other was a visionary, insisting that religion be the essence of modernity, not its nemesis. One invented the talking cure, or psychoanalysis; the other invented… another kind of talking cure, a lingvo internacia or, as it came to be called, Esperanto. And both Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof stand in as the charismatic and daunting Jewish fathers for the Zelig-like hero of Joseph Skibell’s brilliant new novel.   

Samtempuloj Freud kaj Zamenhof rolas kiel du malsamaj kvazaŭ-patroj en ĉi tiu nova romano. Zamenhof provizas pozitivan, idealisman alternativon anstataŭ malespero. Samtempuloj Freud kaj Zamenhof rolas kiel du malsamaj kvazaŭ-patroj en ĉi tiu nova romano. Zamenhof provizas pozitivan, idealisman alternativon anstataŭ malespero. Esperanto aperas en la romano kaj utiliĝas erotike.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (1): Poezia Rondo

Poezia Rondo: 58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

Esther Schor specializes in Poetry at Princeton University and published a landmark article in English on Zamenhof’s Jewish projects in the National Yiddish Book Center’s magazine Pakn Treger. On May 30 she convened a Poezia Rondo (Poetry Circle) in which translators, authors and readers recited their own material or that of others. Ralph Dumain led off with his three translations from the poetry of William Blake. Humphrey Tonkin contributed several translations of the American poet Wallace Stevens. Steven Brewer contributed both original Haiku and a translation from Emily Dickinson. Several poems by Dickinson were translated by Lee Miller. E. James Lieberman recited his own translation of Esperanto poet Baldur Ragnarsson’s “Nerimarkitaj Herboj” (Unsung Leaves). He also translated Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless, Patient Spider” into Esperanto and Marjorie Boulton’s “Buĉotoj” (To the Butcher) into English. Esther Schor offered her Esperanto translations of Elizabeth Bishop’s “Electrical Storm” and the poem “Don’t Kill Yourself” by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Ulrich Becker provided two original poems “Humoroj en Stato de Kaptiteco” (about New York from an immigrant’s perspective) and “Sed Ne Flori” (a love poem). Others recited Julius Balbin’s Esperanto translation of Yevgeny Yevushenko’s “Babij Jar” and William Auld’s original Esperanto poem of drunkenness, “Ebrio.” Esther Schor distributed a booklet comprised of all the poems contributed to this program, including also Istvan Ertl’s Esperanto translation of Tony Kushner’s “An Undoing World.”

I was impressed by the seriousness and the level of the contributors’ engagement with poetry and with the language. This Poezia Rondo was a showcase of Esperanto’s role as a meaningful cultural vehicle.

L.L. Zamenhof and the Shadow People

L.L. Zamenhof and the Shadow People
The amazing story of how Esperanto came to be.
Esther Schor
The New Republic
December 30, 2009
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/ll-zamenhof-and-the-shadow-people

By now many of you have probably seen this. I wouldn't call Zamenhof my household god, but otherwise I am very pleased to see this article, in which Esperanto takes second place to Zamenhof, meaning that the picture of Zamenhof--his underlying motivations, what he tried to accomplish in the various phases of his life--has finally migrated from the small world of Zamenhof Esperanto scholars that have emerged since the 1970s to the non-Esperantist public at large. Esther Schor has been engaging the general public on a number of fronts, and if she speaks on this theme at the national Kongreso in Washington DC in May 2010, then I won't have to, since she has already accomplished with Zamenhof what I only recently set out to do.

The "shadow people" were the Jews of Eastern Europe, and "Hilelismo" was a key phase in Zamenhof's overall trajectory, wherein the Jewish question and the quest for a universal language again merge. Schor focuses on this phase, but also covers the various twists and turns of Zamenhof's personal trajectory as well as of the Esperanto movement, showing the English-speaking public how complex was the terrain that Zamenhof sought to navigate and making sense out of his strategic maneuvers. She also illustrates the important point about how the twists and turns of history elude our various attempts to get a grip on it. This was as true for the various political and cultural positions taken by East European Jewry as it was for the Esperantists seeking the universal adoption of their language. A century ago who could have imagined the twisted course the 20th century would take?

It turns out that Esther Schor and I already crossed paths, though she wouldn't know it. I attended a talk on her book on Emma Lazarus a few years ago, which was pretty inspiring. Then I had no idea she was interested in Zamenhof or Esperanto.