Lidia

Zamenhof longed to solve the problem of religious strife. Several years earlier, he had presented to the Jewish intellectuals of Warsaw a program he hoped would form the basis for a religious-moral movement among Jews. Zamenhof felt Judaism needed to be reformed, not to become assimilated to its Gentile surroundings, but to pare it down to its core: belief in one God and the law to love one's neighbor. All else in Judaism, he believed, was 'not laws, but customs and traditions*. 'The essence of the Hebrew people', he wrote, was the concept of'one unknowable God for all mankind'. It was for this idea that the Jewish people had been created, and for which they had suffered in the course of millennia. 'The perfecting of this idea', he believed, 'is consequently the entirely natural mission of the Jewish people and their raison d'etre.'

Zamenhof called his program Hillelism, after the first-century bc Hebrew sage Hillel, known as a tolerant man who interpreted the scriptures according to the spirit of the law. 'What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow man', Hillel had said. 'This is the Torah: all the rest is commentary.' Zamenhof hoped that the principles of Hillelism would lead to breaking down the barriers of prejudice and would help the Jews to become accepted as equal citizens wherever they lived.

Although he found little support for his program - no Jew would support it openly - Zamenhof refused to give up the idea. He soon came to believe that such a movement should not be only for the Jews but for aU mankind. He decided to offer his idea to peoples ofall races and religions, and changed the name to Homaranismo to make it more universal. Homarano in Esperanto meant 'a member of the human family'.

The essence of Homaranismo was to be absolute equality, justice and mutual respect among peoples of all races and religions. Each Homaranist would be free to follow his own religion, but in dealing with members of other groups would be expected to act on the basis of neutral human religious principles. Each individual would be free to speak whatever language he wished at home, but when meeting people whose home language was different, should speak a neutral tongue. This language, for the present at least, was to be Esperanto. Modestly Zamenhof added that if, at some future time, the Homaranists wished to choose another language, they could do so.

The religious principles that would guide all Homaranists included recognition of God as the highest Power, unknowable to man, and the fundamental rule to 'act toward others as you would wish others to act toward you, and always listen to the voice of your conscience'.

'The essence of all religions is the same,' Zamenhofwrote, 'they are distinguished from one another only by legends and customs . . .' Zamenhof believed that these man-made customs and traditions, not the God-given teachings of love and brotherhood, were the source of religious dissension among people. The Homaranist, Zamenhof believed, ought to work toward a day when the diverse religious practices of all Homaranists would eventually give way to one set of neutral customs for all mankind. Zamenhof envisioned Homaranist temples where the words of the 'great teachers of mankind' would be read, and the young would be educated to struggle for truth, goodness, justice and brotherhood between all men, to value honest work, and to shun that which was ignoble. Zamenhof specified that the religious teachings to be promoted in the Homaranist temple must not conflict with science.

Zamenhof did not expect all the Esperantists to accept Homaranismo, but he expected that they, at least, would understand the convictions that had led him to develop it and would greet the idea with respect and tolerance. Not all those who were attracted to Esperanto, however, shared the tolerance or the ideals of Zamenhof. He did not anticipate the ferociousness with which some would attack Homaranismo - and its author as well.

Zamenhof had tried to clarify to all that his program of Homaranismo was completely separate from Esperanto, that one could be an Esperantist without accepting Homaranismo, and at first he published his Homaranist ideas under a pseudonym. Yet many guessed Zamenhof was the author.