Lidia

Inspired by the Haskalah, and by what had appeared to be a shift toward liberalism on the part of the Russian government, some Jews like Markus Zamenhof had become convinced that ifjews abandoned their cultural isolation and became assimilated into the culture of the country in which they lived, retaining their own religion in a modernized form, they would be accepted as equal citizens. Markus Zamenhof was an admirer of Russian culture, however, not Polish. But Jews like the Zamenhofs, who favored modernizing Jewish religion and culture, were a minority in Eastern Europe. Most Jews clung to orthodox traditions and scorned the assimilationists.

In Ludwik's time, however, as anti-Semitism became more vicious and widespread, many assimilationists became disenchanted and doubted they would ever be accepted as equal citizens who happened to follow a different faith. When, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, pogroms broke out in two hundred towns and villages, the illusions ofmany were shattered. They turned their efforts in a new direction, convinced now that the Jews were not really just a religious group but a nation, and that their only salvation lay in the establishment of a Jewish state.

Ludwik Zamenhof was among those who rejected assimilation and embraced the idea of emigration. By his own account, in 1881 he organized some of his fellow students at Moscow University into the firstJewish political organization in Russia. At first, Ludwik had agreed with the faction that wanted to go to America, settle a territory, as the Mormons had done, and eventually form a state. But in order to avoid disunity in the movement, he soon gave his support to the majority, who held that Palestine was the only possible homeland for the Jews.

That same year, financial difficulties forced Ludwik to return to Warsaw, where on Christmas Day a pogrom broke out and the terrified family had to hide in the cellar. In Warsaw Ludwik continued his studies as well as his Zionist work, founding among the Jewish youth in Warsaw a society ofKhibat Zion (LoveofZion), which aimed to form agricultural colonies in Palestine. Among religiousJews at that time, Zionism was still new and suspect. Most had not accepted the idea of a Jewish state, which was supposed to be established only after the coming of the Messiah. Zamenhof later recalled that when he spoke with passionate conviction of his belief in the reconstruction of the Jewish homeland, 'my fellow Jews mocked me severely'.

Ludwik longed to work on his language, which he felt would help the scattered communities of Jews all over the world communicate with one another and come out oftheir cultural isolation. Until now he had obeyed his father and had devoted himselfto his studies. But when he asked to see his precious bundle of notebooks and papers, he learned Markus had burned them. Ludwik would have to begin constructing his language all over again, from memory. The break with his father would take many years to heal.

Ludwik continued to work on the language as he finished his medical studies and began to practice in a small village in Lithuania. 'The tranquil life of the place', he later explained, '. . . was conducive to thought and brought about a complete change in my ideas.' In the peaceful forests of Lithuania, Ludwik Zamenhof came to the conviction that nationalism of any kind, even Jewish nationalism, would 'never solve the eternal Jewish question' and bring his people equality and respect. 'You may imagine that it was with no little grief that I decided to abandon my nationalist labors,' he later recalled, 'but thenceforth I was to devote myself to realizing that non-national, neutral idea which had occupied the thoughts of my earliest youth - to the idea of an intemational language.'

The language was at last ready, but one problem troubled Ludwik. 'I knew', he wrote, 'that everyone would say to me: "Your language will be useful to me on!y when the whole world accepts it; thus I cannot accept it until everyone does." But because "everyone" is not possible without some individual "ones" first, the neutral language could have no future until its usefulness for each individual was independent of whether the language was already accepted by the world or not.' Zamenhof decided to devise a one-page 'key' which would include the grammar and vocabulary, translated into a national language. Anyone who received a letter written in the new language could readily translate it and compose a reply with the aid of a 'key' in his native tongue. Thus the auxiliary language could be used immediately for its crucial purpose - communication between people.

Ludwik Zamenhof returned to Warsaw, having decided that he was unsuited to general practice. The agony of seeing incurable patients die was more than he could bear. He took up ophthalmology, studying the specialty at the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw and in Vienna, then opening his practice in Muranowska Street in Warsaw.