page_title: L. L. Zamenhof
section_title: Work on Yiddish language and Jewish issues
hierarchical_section_title: L. L. Zamenhof / Biography / Work on Yiddish language and Jewish issues
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Ludvík Lazar Zamenhof za svým stolem, Varšava, Polsko. English: Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof at his desk, Warsaw, Poland. Esperanto: Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof ĉe sia tablo, Varsovio, Polujo.
context_page_description: Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof was a Polish ophthalmologist, linguist and the inventor of the international language Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language in the world.
  Zamenhof first developed the language in 1873 while still in school. He grew up fascinated by the idea of a world without war. He believed that this could happen with the help of a new international auxiliary language. The language would be a tool to gather people together through neutral, fair, equitable communication. He successfully formed a community that continues today despite the World Wars of the 20th century. Also, it has developed like other languages, through the interaction and creativity of its users.
  In light of his achievements, and his support of intercultural dialogue, UNESCO selected Zamenhof as one of its eminent personalities of 2017, on the 100th anniversary of his death.
context_section_description: In 1879 Zamenhof wrote the first grammar of Yiddish. It was partly published years later in the Yiddish magazine Lebn un visnshaft. The complete original Russian text of this manuscript was only published in 1982, with parallel Esperanto translation by Adolf Holzhaus, in L. Zamenhof, provo de gramatiko de novjuda lingvo [An attempt at a grammar of neo-Jewish language], Helsinki, pp. 9–36. In this work, not only does he provide a review of Yiddish grammar, but also proposes its transition to the Latin script and other orthographic innovations. In the same period Zamenhof wrote some other works in Yiddish, including perhaps the first survey of Yiddish poetics (see p. 50 in the above-cited book).
  In 1882 a wave of pogroms within the Russian Empire, including Congress Poland, motivated Zamenhof to take part in the early Zionist movement, the Hibbat Zion. He left the movement in 1887, and in 1901 published a statement in Russian with the title Hillelism, in which he argued that the Zionist project could not solve the problems of the Jewish people.
  In 1914 he declined an invitation to join a new organization of Jewish Esperantists, the TEHA. In his letter to the organizers, he said, "I am profoundly convinced that every nationalism offers humanity only the greatest unhappiness ... It is true that the nationalism of oppressed peoples – as a natural self-defensive reaction – is much more excusable than the nationalism of peoples who oppress; but, if the nationalism of the strong is ignoble, the nationalism of the weak is imprudent; both give birth to and support each other ..." The Hebrew Bible is among the many works that Zamenhof translated into Esperanto.
  Zamenhof died in Warsaw on 14 April [O.S. 1 April] 1917, possibly of a heart attack, and was buried at the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery. The farewell speech was delivered by the chief rabbi and preacher of the Great Synagogue in Warsaw, Samuel Abraham Poznański, who said: "There will be a time where the Polish soil and nation will understand what fame gave this great son of God to his homeland."
caption: Zamenhof at his desk in Warsaw apartment, 1910
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