Consulting a map of Tarragona in order to find my way about the city, I noticed to my great surprise a street called Zamenhof. I could not believe my eyes. I looked again. There it was: Zamenhof.
This name could refer only to Dr. Ludwik Zamenhof, the Jewish eye doctor, who created Esperanto. Was there any other Zamenhof of world renown?
Naturally, I wanted to see the street. It was in the modern part of the city, a five minute walk from the hotel where I stayed. If I still had any doubt as to whether the street was indeed named after Dr. Ludwik Zamenof, it was dispelled by the actual sight of the street sign. It said: “Calle del Dr. L. L. Zamenhof.” There were also the years of the birth and death of the man, 1859 and 1917, respectively, and the symbol of the Esperanto movement.
Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof was born in Bialystok. He studied medicine in Warsaw and Moscow and established himself in Warsaw, practicing as ophthalmologist among the poor Jewish masses.
Zamenhof, whose father and grandfather were both language teachers, sought from his youth to devise an international language as a means of promoting tolerance and goodwill among men. In 1887 he published the first textbook of the language he created. He signed the book with pseudonym “Doktoro Esperanto” (Doctor Hopeful).
Esperanto, as the language came to be called, is an ingenious creation. It is very easy to learn. Its structure is uniform and its syntax flexible. The root words are common to Indo-European languages.
Zamenhof found many followers. Esperanto clubs were formed in various countries. Later they combined into a world organization. The first leader of the movement was Dr. Zamenhof himself.
There are now millions of people who speak Esperanto. More than one hundred periodicals in Esperanto are published all over the world. Many thousands of books have appeared in that language. A number of countries, including Red China and Brazil, have regular broadcasts in Esperanto.
This past summer I spent a month in Poland on a mission on behalf of “Mutzal Me’Esh,” the research institute, founded and headed by Rabbi Harry Bronstein.
During a visit to Bialystok, Dr. Zamenhof’s native town, I saw a statue of him in a small public park.
In Warsaw, where Zamenhof resided most of his life, a street was named in his memory. It was situated in that section of the city which, during the Nazi occupation was turned into the Ghetto. After the war, when the destroyed Ghetto area was rebuilt, the new street was given the same name.
Zamenhof was buried in the Jewish cemetery. His tomb is not far from the entrance.
I visited that cemetery twice. Once on Tisha B’Av, a day on which traditionally such visits are made. The President’s Holocaust Commission, led by Elie Wiesel, was then in Warsaw. Rabbi Yaakov Pollack of Boro Park’s Congregation Shomrei Emunah was also in Warsaw at that time. He and I joined the members of the commission on their visit to the graves. I returned there a fortnight later with my wife and our oldest son Yochanan, who had arrived in Poland in the meantime.
A workman was making some repairs at Zamenhof’s tomb. I was told that these were done by order of the Polish government. Two daughters of Zamenhof, who died in the Warsaw Ghetto, are buried nearby.
There is a strong Esperanto movement in Poland. Radio Warsaw broadcasts 80 minutes in Esperanto daily. You can see a billboard of the Esperant Associaiton ofn Marszalowska, Warsaw’s main avenue.
The street in Tarragona, which carries the name of Zamenhof, is not very big, but the fact that a street was named for the creator of Esperanto in one of the cities of Spain, indicates to a certain degree the popularity of that international language in the country.
More than seventy years ago the Fourth International Esperanto Congress was held in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonis, the same province in which Tarragona is situated.
“Before the Spanish Civil War there was a strong Esperanto movement is Spain,” Mr. Mark Starr of the Esperanto Information Center in New York told me.
“The movement could not develop under the Franco regime, but it has greatly progressed in recent years. There are Esperanto groups in twenty-one localities. Two radio stations broadcast once a week in Esperanto. Twenty delegates from Spain participated in the recent International Esperanto Congress which was held in the summer in Lucerne in Switzerland.”
By Tovia Preschel
Jewish Press
October 12, 1979