death of
Dogmoj de Hilelismo (Dogmas of Hil elism)
Dua Libro
The Essence and Future of an International Language
financial struggles of
Geneva Congress and
health of
Hil elism
Ido and
Jewish identity of
Kraków Congress and
marriage of
mastery in languages as a student
medical career of
as a medical student
monument to
photographs of
pseudonyms of
purpose of (inventing) Esperanto
translation of Hebrew Bible
universalism and
Unua Libro
Washington, D.C., Congress and
Zionist activism of
Zamenhof, Ludwik. See Zaleski-Zamenhof, Louis-Christophe (né Ludwik Zamenhof)
Zamenhof, Markus (Motl, Mordka)
Zamenhof, Wanda
Zamenhof, Zofia
Zamenhof Street (Dobrzyński)
Zamenhofology
Zederbaum, Alexander
Zelazny, Walter
Zilbernick, Klara. See Zamenhof, Klara (née Zilbernick)
Zionism
Acknowledgments
For gifting the world with Esperanto, my abiding gratitude to
Ludovik Lazarus Zamenhof.
I want to thank the dedicated Rob Moerbeek at the Biblioteko
Hektor Hodler in Rotterdam and the hospitable staff at the UEA
Central Office: Osmo Buller, Roy McCoy, Ionel Onet, Stanka
Starcevik, Clay Magalhães, Francisco Veuthey, and Tobiasz
Kaźmierski. Mark Fettes and Veronika Poór, in their respective roles
as president and general director of the UEA, have done everything
possible to encourage me. The staff of the Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, especially Herbert Mayer, kindly
assisted my research, as did the staffs of the New York Public Library
and the Firestone Library at Princeton University, with particular
thanks to John Logan, David Jenkins, and Karin Trainer. A welcome
grant from the Esperantic Studies Foundation inaugurated the
Macaulay Esperanto Fellowship; thanks also to Dean Ann Kirschner
for her enthusiasm and to Bill Maxey for his innovative five-borough
teaching.
My footnotes don’t adequately acknowledge the scholarship of
several important Esperantologists, including Ulrich Becker, Detlev
Blanke, Roman Dobrzyński, Ralph Dumain, William R. Harmon,
David Jordan, Christer Kiselman, Aleksander Korĵenkov, the late N.
Z. Maimon, Geoffrey Sutton, John Wells, Bertilo Wennergren, and
especially Ulrich Lins. For their contributions to my research, I’m
grateful to Desaix Anderson, Carolyn Biltoft, Julia Falk, Roberto
Garvía, Michael Gordin, Tatiana Hart, Susannah Heschel, Sarah
Horowitz, Stan Katz, Mark Mazower, Arika Okrent, Rachel Price,
Jeffrey Veidlinger, and Michael Walzer.
It’s a privilege to be part of an open-minded community of
humanists at Princeton University. Dean David Dobkin generously
supported my travel; Carol Rigolot and the Council for the
Humanities provided an Old Dominion Fellowship. Michael Wood,
Claudia Johnson, and Bill Gleason, past and present chairs of the
Department of English, have provided both moral and financial
support; many thanks to the department’s dedicated staff. Portions
of this book have been presented at Princeton to the Society of
Fellows, the Old Dominion Fellowship, and the Program in
Translation and Intercultural Communication, deftly chaired by
David Bellos. I am also grateful to Brian Horovitz, Nancy Sinkoff,
Jonathan Wilson, Nora Gerard, and the conference committee of the
Association for Jewish Studies for inviting me to present my work at
Tulane, Rutgers, Tufts, the National Yiddish Book Center, and the
2014 and 2015 AJS Conferences, respectively. My colleagues at
NASSR warmly received a wayward romanticist’s presentations on
the concept of universal language.
In 2007 Alana Newhouse, ever on the cutting edge, was the first
to publish an excerpt from this book in the Forward. My writing here
has also benefited from several other distinguished editors: Leon
Wieseltier (formerly) at the New Republic; Jonathan Freedman at
Michigan Quarterly Review; Jackson Lears at Raritan; and Nancy
Sherman at Pakn Treger.
My Virgil in Esperantujo has been the wise and generous
Humphrey Tonkin. Humphrey has shared his time, wit, deep
knowledge of all things Esperantic, skills as a translator, and love of
literature. When there is a judgment call, I call on him. His inspiring
friendship and counsel have made all the difference.
For their hospitality and camaraderie, I’m grateful to Renato
Corsetti and Anna Löwenstein, Alejandro Cossavella, Birke
Dockhorn, Jane Edwards, Ursula and Giuseppe Grattapaglia,
Anatoly and Irina Ionesov, Lee Miller, and José Antonio Vergara.
Amri Wandel, guide extraordinaire, helped me avoid falling to my
death in Nahal Darga, in four languages. To samideano Hans
Adriaanse, for explaining everything, koran dankon. Filmmaker Sam
Green, with his documentary The Universal Language (2011), has
enabled us all to see Esperanto with fresh eyes.
I cannot personally thank the thousands of Esperantists with
whom I’ve shared congresses and gatherings—even mojitos and
salsa lessons—over the past decade. But this book is the richer for
my conversations with the following: Steven Brewer, Neil Blonstein,
Mikael Bronŝtejn, Alberto Calienes, Betty Chatterjee, Michael Cuddy,
Stephen Cybulski, Probal Dasgupta, Ellen Eddy, István Ertl, Giti
Ferdosnia, Ada and Igor Ferreira de Sousa and Riccardo Biaggi,
Allan Fineberg, Hoss Firooznia, Normand Fleury and Zdravka Metz,
Donald Gasper, Marielle Giraud, Ronald Glossop, Kenneth Goldberg,
Geoffrey Greatrex, Przemek Grzybowski, Alperen Güman, Ueli
Haenni, Jerzy Handzlik, Lucy Harmon, Juliano Hernández Angulo,
Bill Harris, Eliza Kehlet, Simmon Keith, Kalle Kniivilä, Anna Lászay,
Juan Lazaro Besada, E. James Lieberman, Lai Ty Hai Ly, Perla
Martinelli, Maria Lourdes Martinez, Rafael Mateos, Jed Meltzer,
Doron Modan, Shai Mor, Dina Newman, Nam Ngo, Murat Ozdizdar,
Fernando Paredes, Nguyen Thu Quynh, Tsvi Sadan, Keyhan
Sayadpour, Giorgio Silfer, Konuralp Sunal, Brandon Sowers,
Spomenka Stimec, Indu Thalapia, Hiroki Usui, Arnold Victor, Julie
Winberg, Brittany Young, Tom Yuval, Can Zamur, the NASKanoj of
2008, the children of Bona Espero, and the talented CUNY students
in the Macaulay Esperanto Fellowship. In losing Don Harlow, Yosi
Shemer, Esti Sebban, and Dori Vallon-Wheeler, Esperantujo has lost
several great souls. They are much missed.
Steve Wasserman believed in this book from the start, and I will
be forever grateful for his wise counsel and deep reading.
Metropolitan Books, led by Sara Bershtel and Riva Hocherman, has
been an excellent home for this project about a wandering, universal
language. Riva Hocherman taught me how to sculpt this elephant,
helping me to chip away everything that isn’t elephant. Every page
of this book has benefited from her good sense, sage advice, and
empathic reading. I can’t imagine having an editor with a more
profound or nuanced understanding of language, nationhood,
Judaism, Zionism, universalism—in short, everything that matters
most in this book, and for this (and her patience) I am eternally