During the Baha'f sessions, held in the Cercle Royale Artistique, Lidia listened as a Persian Baha'i reported about the progress of the religion in his homeland. In the past, he said, the Muslim clergy had obstructed education in Persia. Schools were only for boys, and only the Persian and Arabic languages were taught. Now, he said, thanks to the teachings of Baha'u'llah, new thought was spreading, which the clergy could not hinder. Baha'i schools, open to all religions, were teaching both boys and girls. The learning of Esperanto was spreading, chiefly by Baha'fs, he told them; most of the Universal Esperanto Association delegates were Baha'fs, and they were sending teachers to various parts of the land.
Once again Shoghi Effendi had sent greetings to the congress. 'I can assure you', he wrote, 'that the members of the world-wide Baha'f community follow with increasing interest and genuine hope the progress of your labors, and feel that by your high endeavors you are promoting one of the outstanding principles proclaimed by Baha'u'llah.
'They share with me the fervent hope that in the days to come closer bonds of co-operation and fellowship may bind the Esperantists of the world with our beloved Faith, and that the establishment and maintenance of intimate relationships between Baha'fs and Esperantists may prove conducive to the betterment of mankind.'
Shoghi Effendi's words moved Lidia, as did the news ofthe teaching of her beloved language in the homeland of Baha'u'llah. Two goals began to crystallize in her mind - she determined to forge those 'closer bonds of cooperation and fellowship' between Esperantists and
Baha'fs and to travel to Iran to bring Esperanto to the cradle of the Baha'f Faith.
As during the lifetime of Ludwik Zamenhof, there was still controversy among the Esperantists over the 'inner idea'. Some still felt that spreading the neutral language should be the only goal of the Esperanto movement. Others felt that the ideas of brotherhood and justice ought to be part of it. Lidia believed those ideas could not be separated from Esperanto, and often said so courageously in articles and allegorical tales in the Esperanto press. In one of her stories in Pola Esperatitisto she wrote of the old Jewish legend of the 'golem'; in which a medieval rabbi had tried to create a man ofearth and clay. The creator of Esperanto, Lidia said, had given 'his own warm heart' to his creation, and it was this fire ofidealism that gave the language life. 'But there are people who say, "Yes, it is lovely, graceful, but the fire- that fire within it - is unnecessary." And they put their hands, cold as cadavers, upon the warm heart, blow on it in mockery, try to smother it. . . Oh, samideanoj,' she pleaded, 'don't put out the fire.'
While some resented linking Esperanto with any idea, there were others who, though they might share the ideals of brotherhood and justice, just as strongly opposed linking Esperanto or the name of Zamenhof with any religious belief or organization. Just as Ludwik Zamenhof hiiiiself had suffered the displeasure of some of his followers when he presented his program of Homaranismo, now when word spread that his daughter was publicly promoting the Baha'i Faith, some prominent Esperantists disapproved. Years later Lidia revealed that after she became a Baha'f, people harangued her, accusing her of 'endangering the position of Esperanto, especially in Poland, if I identified myself, bearing the name of the creator of Esperanto, with a new, unfamiliar and still unrecognized religion.' During this time, Lidia felt, she 'made many enemies' but 'didn't care about that'. She explained: 'I value more highly my sincere relationship to God, whom I recognized revealing Himself in Baha'u'llah, than I do pleasing "public opinion".'
It has been written that some of Lidia's relatives accused her of betraying the Jewish religion and even persecuted her for her beliefs. Although Lidia admitted in a letter to Shoghi EfFendi that her family were opposed to her Baha'f activity, there is no evidence that their objections were strong enough to be called persecution. Nor were the family's objections of a religious nature. As the Zamenhofs were not religious, they did not react in the strong way that orthodox Jews might have to a conversion. An extremely pious family might even say the funeral prayers for the convert, whom they afterward regarded as dead.
24 • The formal unveiling of the monument on the tomb of Ludusik Zamenhof in April 1926. Professor Odo Buju>idofKrakow stands to the left, his arm resting on the
stone
25. The secretary of the Universal Esperanto Association reads his speech at the planting ofthe 'Jubilee Oak' near Zoppot during the Danzig congress, 1927. Martha Root, in white. Ernst Kliemke, a Baha'tand thepresident of the German Esperanto Association, is seated beside her. At extreme right: Zofia Zamenhof
26. From left: Feliks Zamenhof Adam's wife Wanda, Zofia, Edmond Privat, Feliks's wife, Julia Isbrŭcker, Lidia, unknown, Leon Zamenhof Adam andJoh.
R.G. Isbriicker
27. The Baha't meeting at the Antwerp congress in 1928. Lidia, seated infront row; Martha Root, in the middle ofthe second row, holds aphotograph ofAbdu 'l-Bahd
For a Jew in Poland, converting to Christianity was indeed seen as a betrayal. Becoming a Baha'f was something rather different; few knew what to make of it and often mistakenly regarded it as a philosophy rather than a religion, a misconception fostered by the fact that, at the time, it was usually referred to as a 'movement' rather than a religion. There was no Baha'i community in Poland; in fact, the only other Baha'is that the Zamenhofs ever met or knew of were fellow Esperantists - Martha Root, Dr Adelbert Mŭhlschlegel, Dr Hermann Grossmann, Dr Emst Kliemke (president of the German Esperanto Association), Professor Paul Christaller and a few others.
It appears that the Zamenhofs' objections arose rather from a concern not to link Esperanto publicly with the Baha'f Faith, lest the public think the one movement was part of the other. Martha Root's letters, written after visiting Lidia in Warsaw, bear this out. About Adam and Zofia she commented: 'Her people are lovely, but they are not Baha'fs and I think they would much rather that Lidia did not translate Baha'i Books or link herself so much and give so much time to Baha'i work. They would rather her name, the name of Zamenhof, would not be so much associated with Baha'f. Still they were so kind to me, they were hospitable, they were sincere. I wish to speak them fair . . . They love Lidia devotedly.' But, Martha thought, they did not understand their sister.
Lidia had been saving 'every penny' for her pilgrimage to Haifa. When she told her family that she thought she would not go to the Universal Congress of Esperanto in 1929 but would save the money for her pilgrimage, 'they laughed', Martha told Shoghi Effendi, 'and make a great joke of Lidia's going to Haifa'. Adam and Zofia, Martha added, were 'kind, lovely, but not so spiritual'. . . Zofia, she said, did not believe in life after death. 'And they do not understand Lidia. She does not say much to them about her praying and study - but last night I talked with them for two hours and I believe that they too might become interested ... I told Lidia that in time she will bring them all into these Teachings.'
Martha thought some other relatives of Lidia's were sympathetic to the Baha'i Faith; years later she wrote that she had once met Klara Zamenhofs sister, 'who said she liked the Baha'i Teachings very much. Their brother, Mr Silbernik [who had lived in New York and died in 1925] . . . wrote for the New York papers a most sympathetic article about the Baha'1 Faith.'
Roan Orloff Stone, who became a close friend and confidante of Lidia in America, recalled in 1980 that Lidia was very close to her family and that she had never mentioned anything to the contrary. At that time, Mrs Stone recalled that some people outside the family accused Lidia of betraying Judaism when she became a Baha'i.