For her part, Lidia Zamenhof never rejected her Jewish heritage, unlike many Jewish converts to Christianity who often went to great lengths to conceal their background. In fact, Lidia did not feel that by becoming a Baha'f she had entirely broken with the Jewish community. To her, being Jewish had nothing to do with religion. Though Lidia did not participate in Warsaw's Jewish society, in 1929 she published an article on the Baha'i Faith in Nasz Przeglqd ('Our Review'), an important Polish-language Jewish daily newspaper in Warsaw, and she may have been criticized as a result of this. Her family, Martha Root reported, 'was very surprised' by the article.
As the only Baha'f in Poland, Lidia had to learn about her new Faith on her own. Apart from a rare visit from a traveling Baha'i, her only contacts with other Baha'is were at the yearly Esperanto congresses and by letter. She looked forward especially to Martha Root'sjourneys to Warsaw, but Martha was not the only one to visit her: Mrs Lorol Schopflocher visited Lidia in Warsaw at least twice. After her visit in 1928 Lidia wrote Shoghi Effendi that Mrs Schopflocher had arrived just when Lidia needed someone to help her understand.
Lidia quickly found that in order to read the scriptures of her new Faith she would have to leam English well. At that time there was no Baha'i literature in Polish, and, except for the Hiddeti Words of Baha'u'llah, no major works had yet been translated into Esperanto. The original literature of the Baha'f Faith was in Persian and Arabic, and the largest body of translated works was in English. Lidia had begun to study English several years earlier, but now she had a reason to work harder to master it. Eager to study the Baha'f writings, she felt her efForts were impeded by her lack of English. So she began to take English lessons three hours a week; her teacher was a Russian.
Even as Lidia was leaming English, she began to translate Baha'f literature into Esperanto. And, as she read the Baha'i scriptures, Baha'i themes began to show up in her own writing. A statement about life after death in Some Answered Questions by 'Abdu'1-Baha inspired an allegorical tale called 'Birdo en kaĝo!' ('Bird in a Cage!') which was published in Pola Esperantisto in 1929.
When Martha Root visited Lidia in February 1929 for two weeks, she found Lidia working very hard — teaching classes, lecturing about Esperanto, translating and working 'to get the govemment to introduce Esperanto courses in the schools'. This efFort was brave but not finding much success.
Lidia was not having better luck with her efforts to interest people in Warsaw in the Baha'f Faith. She had written a lecture called 'What Is the Baha'f Faith?' which she ofFered to present before a club in Warsaw. They refused. Undaunted, Lidia decided to present it at the next Esperanto congress.
believer
She had begun translating into Esperanto J. E. Esslemont's introductory book Baha'u'llah and the New Era, which, to Lidia's pleasure, also contained a section about the language invented by her father. Esslemont, who died in 1925, had been, according to Martha Root, 'the very best Esperantist in the Baha'i world'. Vuk Echtner, a Baha'i in Prague, had been helping Lidia with the translation, but she did not feel sure of her English yet, so she put the project aside and began to work on 'Abdu'1-Baha's Paris Talks. When Martha Root arrived in Warsaw, Lidia took up her work on Esslemont again, feeling more confident with Martha there to help.
Every day, moming and aftemoon, Lidia visited Martha at her hotel to work on the translation. She would read aloud parts ofthe book and ask her about points she was unsure of. Every night, Lidia worked till one o'clock preparing for the following day's session with Martha. Martha had more confidence in Lidia's abilities than did Lidia herself: 'Oh, how much I admire her capacity!' Martha told Shoghi Effendi. 'She knows a dozen words and instantly selects the one that is just the very best. This will be such a great translation I can hardly wait until I possess it! How much it will help me in my lectures!'
'She is so thoroughV Martha wrote Julia Culver. 'It will be a wonderful translation and one of the greatest things that could happen in our Cause. Shoghi Effendi is very pleased.' He had already written Lidia three times.
To Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, Martha Root revealed her innermost feelings about Lidia. 'Lidia is so confirmed, so deeply in eamest. . .' she told him. 'She has such a fine mind, so sane, so balanced, so logical . . . She has such excellent judgment about everything. She is her father's child "spiritually" as well as physically. She is so just, so modest, so sincere, and she is one of the finest translators I have ever met. . .
'She was very happy over your message to her, but she is so modest she says (I forget the words but the thought is, that she would be very sorry to have you think she is a good Baha'1' when she is only just beginning to try to be a Baha'i', but she says she certainly longs to become a Baha'1).'
'She so loves the chapter on "Prayer",' Martha told him in the same letter. '. . . Lidia and I are together every minute possible. In her room yesterday we prayed together, she so loved the Dawn Prayer "O my God Thou seest me holding to Thy Name", she prays all the prayers, she is so eager to learn to pray. Today, in my room we stopped to rest from translating and to pray some of the beautiful prayers. I try to tell her how I pray and always wait for the Guidance. I tell her how hard I am praying to Baha'u'llah that He will show me how to help her. I tell her she has one of the greatest opportunities and tasks of this century, for she can arise with the Help of Baha'u'llah to link these two great movements, Esperanto with the Baha'{ Movement. She can do a work almost as great as her father did.'
Martha indeed foresaw a great future for her 'spiritual daughter'. To the Guardian she prophesied: 'Lidia may become the apostle for Poland, I see it in my vision Shoghi Effendi.'
That summer of 1929, Martha and Lidia were together again in Vienna for the opening of the Intemational Esperanto Museum just before the Universal Congress of Esperanto in Budapest, and at the congress itself. They had planned the Baha'f sessions together during Martha's visit in Warsaw.
In Vienna, the delegates attended a reception with the president of Austria. Under the chandeliers Lidia stood out in a bright print dress and cloche hat, clutching her handbag under one arm. At the opening of the Museum, under the dome of the formal hall of the Austrian National Library, Lidia presented to the Museum an original manuscript ofher father's from the year 1881.
Some fifty years later, a Viennese Baha'i, Mrs Luise Lappinger, at the age of 92 recalled entertaining Lidia twice in her flat in the third district of Vienna. Franz Pollinger, a German Baha'i, brought Lidia to the Lappinger home, which at that time was a meeting place for the Baha'is in Vienna, many of whom were ofJewish background. In the traditional Viennese parlor, dominated by the dining table and chairs, over which a brass chandelier in a tassled shade created an intimate cozy atmosphere, Mrs Lappinger had Lidia sit in the chair reserved for special guests. 'She was agreeable, very gentle, very petite,' Mrs Lappinger recalled.
Bathed in the light of the brass chandelier, they drank tea and ate pastries. Lidia spoke quietly ofthe difficulties her father had faced. 'She seemed to have a spiritual aura that radiated from her', recalled Mrs Lappinger. 'She was a quiet, fine, noble person.'
After Lidia's visit, Mrs Lappinger recalled, she and Mr Pollinger found a reference in Baha'1 literature encouraging the learning of Esperanto, so they took a course in the language. 'But people kept falling by the wayside', she recalled, 'until no one was left.'