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Hilleism and Humanitarianism?

de eojeff, 2013-januaro-15

Mesaĝoj: 10

Lingvo: English

eojeff (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-15 02:39:47

It's well known among Esperantists, and seemingly unknown everywhere else, Zamenhof attempted to create a new religious movement (NRM) of ethical religious humanism. At first he called it Hillelismo, and then some years later he change the name to Homaranismo.

From what little I can find on the subject, it seems like he initially conceived it as a highly liberalized and culturally assimilated form of Judaism. (NB: my use of the term 'assimilated' isn't intended to be inflammatory.) It looks like later it grew into something more of a minimalist universal religious creed.

I'm curious...

Is this movement still existent with any relation to the current Esperanto movement? Was it absorbed into some other movement? Or, did it simply fizzle out of existence? I have looked online for authoritative copies of Zamenhof's two booklets on his NRM, but I can't seem to find them. I'd like to read them, mostly out of personal curiosity.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-15 03:13:08

It definitely wasn't assimilated into the Esperanto movement as a whole. But some people who believe in those ideas still exist - they are Esperanto speakers, but their groups are small. You can find some websites and online discussion groups if you do a search in Esperanto instead of English. Search for Hilelismo or Homaranismo and you can find some stuff.

I don't know about authoritative copies of his text. I think the original may have been written in Russian. This page has an Esperanto translation. If you click around that website you can find some additional texts.

SethDamien (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-22 22:15:30

It's interesting, though unsurprising, that Zamenhof would have tried to create a new religious as well as linguistic medium for international understanding. I've not yet learnt enough Esperanto to be able to read the text linked by Erinja, but I hope to be able to soon.

I have a feeling that it didn't take off as well as Esperanto did because religion is even dearer to most people than language can be. There are Esperantists of all faiths (and none, like me), and I'm very glad that 'la movado' didn't turn off the Jews and Christians who were amongst the first to adopt it and keep alive.

eojeff (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-23 00:05:38

My Esperanto is inadequate to the task of reading that text as well, unfortunately. I was able to get the gist parts by piping selections through Google Translate.

I'm not terribly surprised either. Although, I'm a little surprised he didn't incorporate more ideas from the well known (within Judaism at least) Seven Laws of Noah. I'm interested in the subject of Hilleism because I enjoy reading about (and wrapping my head around) other cultures, including religions other than my own.

Now what surprises me is that the Oomoto worship LL Zamenhof as a god. I find that interesting because I'm unaware of Zamenhof claiming divine or even messianic status.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-23 01:12:13

Some say that the "internal idea" of Esperanto is essentially a secularized version of humanitarianism. There's no doubt that there is a certain philosophical undercurrent throughout the movement, but I definitely wouldn't go so far as to call it a form of Hilelismo or Homaranismo.

I wouldn't be surprised if Zamenhof wasn't aware of the Seven Noachide laws. The laws aren't well-known among Jews even today, other than in Orthodox communities, and Zamenhof was far from Orthodox. I wouldn't be surprised if his Jewish education didn't extend as far as those laws. At any rate, it seems like he tried hard to scrub any obvious Jewish influence from his religion (with the "homaranismo" variant at least). I think he tried hard not to give people an excuse to reject Esperanto for reasons of anti-semitism, even resorting to likely lies when explaining the origin of some Esperanto words ("edzino" is clearly a back-formation from rebbetzin - Yiddish word for a rabbi's wife. Zamenhof claimed it was from "prinzessin", which is not credible).

eojeff (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-23 02:22:18

Perhaps I should have said, "well known within my teensy-weensy little corner of Judaism." ridulo.gif

Speaking of Esperanto, religion generally, and Judaism specifically, there are some wonderful Mussar (Jewish ethics) texts I'd love to see translated into Esperanto. Chesbon ha Nefesh [An Account of the Soul] comes to mind. But then, I find such things fascinating, other people get bored to tears.

I should note: I agree with you, as best I can tell Zamenhof tried to suppress public awareness of his connection to Judaism. But then, blood libel was still going strong in Europe and the Dreyfus affair was front page news. Under those conditions, who can blame him for keeping quiet.

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-23 03:25:09

It's unfortunate but there's really a lack of Jewish texts in Esperanto, although in my opinion, Jews are somewhat overrepresented in the Esperanto movement in comparison to the general population. I wonder sometimes whether it is because Judaism isn't an evangelical religion, so there's no impetus to share Jewish ideas with non-Jews, like evangelical religions may feel a wish to spread their own ideas,

Gosudar (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-23 04:07:28

Homaranismo may be viewed as Zamenhof's bid to transform Judaism into an evangelical religion by divorcing ethnic Jewishness from ethical Judaism. An interesting take on the topic of Zamenhof and Judaism is Norman Berdichevsky's essay, "Zamenhof and Esperanto".

eojeff (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-29 00:38:34

Gosudar:Homaranismo may be viewed as Zamenhof's bid to transform Judaism...
THAT was fascinating reading. Thank you for the link Gosudar.

Jeff

Gosudar (Montri la profilon) 2013-januaro-29 01:32:04

eojeff:Thank you for the link Gosudar.
Nedankinde. You might also like another essay by Berdichevsky, "Why Esperanto Is Different".

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