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L.L. Zamenhof and the Shadow People<br>
The amazing story of how Esperanto came to be. <br>
<a href="http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/ll-zamenhof-and-the-shadow-people#">
Esther Schor</a> <br>
<i>The New Republic<br>
</i>December 30, 2009 <br>
<a href="http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/ll-zamenhof-and-the-shadow-people" eudora="autourl">
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/ll-zamenhof-and-the-shadow-people</a>
<br><br>
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 DC kongreso in May, then I won't have to, since she has already
accomplished with Zamenhof what I only recently set out to do. <br><br>
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 makes 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?<br><br>
It turns out that Esther Schor and I already crossed paths, though she
wouldn't know it. I attended her talk on her book on Emma Lazarus at the
DC Jewish Community Center a few years ago, which was pretty inspiring.
Then I had no idea she was interested in Zamenhof or Esperanto. </body>
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