Beckmann, Viola / Feirstein, Liliana Ruth: Language as Hope. L. L. Zamenhof and the Dream of a Cosmopolitan Wor(l)d

Ludwig Lejzer Zamenhof (1859–1917) was not the only one promoting the idea of a constructed language in his time. Numerous efforts – drawing inspiration from different sources – have shown a strong desire during the late 19th and early 20th century to create a mode of communication carried by universal humanitarianism. Esperanto, however, is unique in its influence. The articles collected in this volume debate the question of the extent to which this unique potential can be attributed to Jewish, cosmopolitan and pacifist traditions of thought.  

All contributions have resulted from the lectures of the international workshop “The heritage and legacy of Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof between Judaism and Esperanto”, that took place in the Museum Polin – Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Content
Liliana Ruth Feierstein: Green Star | Esther Schor: Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof: Revisionist of Covenantal Judaism | Ewa Geller: Between Language Planning and the Standard of Yiddish: L. L. Zamenhof’s ambivalent attitude towards the “Jargon” | Viola Beckmann: World literature for a far-flung community? The journal “Literatura Mondo” and the importance of literature for the development of Esperanto | Javier Alcalde: A special relationship: The Esperanto movement and pacifism in Zamenhof’s time | José Antonio del Barrio: How the Declaration of Homaranism came to be published in Madrid | Ulrich Lins: Is Esperanto still a dangerous language? How a cosmopolitanism from below met with political and ideological resistance | Lothar Quinkenstein: Names, narrations, memories. Ludwik Zamenhof as a symbol of resistance: On the construction of a lieu de mémoire and its reverberations in the current political discussion in Poland | Bernhard Tuider: The holdings concerning Ludwik L. Zamenhof in the Department of Planned Languages and Esperanto Museum of the Austrian National Library